FEATU Developing SEN support Developing SEN support


To address these issues, the next stage in implementing the Children and Families Act has to be to promote and develop SEN Support as the best way of helping the vast majority of children’s needs and those of schools.


Stockton-On-Tees Borough Council provides a good example of promoting the SEN support available, accessible to families without an EHC plan, and is among many councils and schools trying to do things differently.


https:////search3.openobjbjects.com/mediamanager/ tockton/directory/docs/stockton-


y/


on_tees_borough_council_s_sen_support_- _guidance_for_mainstream_schools.pdf This could start to turn the tide on the


exponential growth of EHC plans. The system has invested a huge amount of time in EHC plans for good reasons: that children should be seen in the round, have their aspirations understood, and for those children that needed it there should be a truly multi-agency a outcomes.


But the Governm


ent’s early insistence that pproach to delivering


councils and schools should concentrate on converting statements to EHC plans, and making these the standard of whether the reforms were being implemented successfully or not, had the impact of making the Act focus entirely on EHC plans and led parents to believe this was the only show in town. EH C plans were only meant for the 2-3%of children with the highest needs, not for of children identified as


needing wider sup p the further 13-15%


ort . Parents and Tribunals Parents and Tribunals


In the scramble to access support we often hear about “challenging” or “difficult” parents. A better way of seeing them is as powerful advocates of their child’s rights, coming up against a system that is not always transparent and that doesn’t always recognise the value that children with SEND bring into school life and the full potential the child can reach.


This can be seen in the significant rise in appeals to the tribunal system.


However, less than 0.5%of EHC plan decisions end up in tribunal and yet local councils continue to express concerns about the implications of tribunal decisions.


Councils need to be clear about their


interactions with the tribunal, which starts with how they work with their SEN and social care


Focusi Focusing on SEND ng on SEN


These concerns will figure in the deliberations of the SEND System Leadership Board and the SEND review.


The Government recently announced that Tony McArdle, Lead Commissioner in


Northamptonshire County Council, will be the new chair of the SEND System Leadership Board, which brings together sector leaders across education, health and social care to drive


improvements. He will also act as an independent advisor to the SEND review, alongside Education Endowment Fund Chair Sir Kevan Coll Anne Heavey, National Director ofWh SEN.


ole School ins and


There is a specific focus in the review on EHC plans and the role of health, as well as


Theway forward rw The way forward


Since the Children and Families Act became law in 2014, the sector that supports children with SEND has spent five years delving into planning, trying to understand the shared role that schools, health and social care should and do play, and focusing on outcom We now need to


pull that together and create es for this group.


a national vision for the best way of organising cooperative working at a local and national level. First steps may include a national template for EHC plans alongside definitive guidance on how inter-agency working can deliver the outcomes children need.


We also would need to test whether some of our overarching systems are responsive to pupils with special educational needs. For example, having a clearer focus on children’s entitlement and the duties in the Equality Act to anticipate the needs of children with SEND, and think and plan ahead instead of just ‘responding to’.


There will be difficult questions to answer, including whether the current system of academies and free schools deliver an equal playing field for children with SEN.


We also need to look at the challenges of a narrowed curriculum which leads to too many pupils not reaching the ‘expected’ level at the end of the previous key stage.We need to think through how we recognise a wider range of achievements in the outcomes we assess i n school.


Bringing this all together, the SEND review should highlight how the system of SEND support can meet its potential. It must ensure that the raised expectations of children and families are fulfilled.


October 2 910 2019 wwweducation-toda y.co.uk.co.uk 72 www. r/s


FEAT RE FOCUS: SEND TURE FOCUS: SEND


teams, and importantly how they work with schools to create a map of local provision. We need the Government to be clearer about the role of local authorities in providing specialist support to supplement and complement what schools can do on their own .


understanding local and regional variations in delivery.


The review also looks at the key issues of


funding and sustainability.We clearly do not have enough money in the system to support this group of children but what we currently have is not always being spent in the right way .


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