SEND


Challenging and changing the narrative around Alternative Provision In her latest column on SEND this month,


regular columnist JAYNE FOSTER, CEO of Ethos Academy Trust, calls for a better understanding of alternative provision settings.


Leading on from our May column, our second objective within our five- year strategy (now, already two years in) is to do all we can to not only ‘CHALLENGE’, but ‘CHANGE’ the narrative for our sector. The detrimental impact of the existing narrative, which carries and extrapolates outdated prejudices and practices, is immense. It causes widespread harm and has the potential to sabotage life chances for young people, placing untold stress upon their families, staff and communities.


It is a privilege to see the magic that occurs in our schools every day. Here, at the ‘coalface’, we are dealing with arguably some of the most vulnerable children and families you could imagine. And, if you only ever heard about the ‘type’ of young people that ‘end up’ in AP provision from the media or one of the evening soaps, you would certainly have written them off. However, come to any of our schools and you will see things very differently. They are places where hope is restored, and little miracles happen every day.


Firstly, we need to dispel the myth that there is ‘a type of child’ that requires alternative provision. There is NO type. All of our young people are unique and they arrive at one of our schools with completely different experiences, circumstances and needs. Some stay for a relatively short term and some stay for longer, particularly those that arrive during years 10 and 11. Secondly, we need to kill the misconception that APs are just waiting rooms for prison. Our highly skilled staff teams – teaching and support staff – combined with our warm and nurturing environments - are restorative ‘hot houses’ for hope, ambition, positive recognition and academic success.


So how do we challenge these misconceptions? We know what we do is working – we celebrate our successes with our pupils and their families every day in school. But we are not so good at sharing these successes externally. Like most people within our profession, we are a modest bunch and we just get on with our day job. There is also a certain amount of trepidation around sticking our heads above the parapet because we know there is a risk of it being blown off.


However, in order to change and challenge the narrative, we knew we had to be brave and step outside of our typical comfort circle so we enlisted the support of a specialist education communications company to guide us through.


We wanted to create a communications strategy that would support our objectives and underpin our vision and values. We identified key messages and relevant stakeholders and have started to explore different platforms. Our executive team and headteachers have all received media training (proactive and reactive) and we have started to build confidence to speak out when we feel it is necessary and, importantly, we’re also learning when NOT to speak out. We have robust anonymity and safeguarding procedures in place to protect our pupils and we have started to build meaningful relationships with key media titles nationally and locally, including the BBC and education press, including our monthly column with ET!


We are still a little surprised at (and very proud of) the attention our seemingly ‘business as usual’ events are receiving. Our school dogs are unsurprisingly popular and have become rather fond of the camera! From Ofsted and academic awards and success to holistic celebrations and charity days, we now shape our narrative around our vital key messages that truly highlight the positive and immensely rewarding aspects of our sector. We back these up with quality photos, where possible. We want to attract like-minded people into our profession so that we can scale up our provision and support as many children as we can. Whilst we protect our pupil profiles, we have had a number of our past pupils who have also wanted to speak out against the way the media or television programmes have presented AP to date. Giving them a voice and a platform, with some sound professional advice and guidance in place, has been a thoroughly rewarding experience.


If anyone in the sector would like to be part of our journal, and are willing to share their success stories and best practice, please contact me on jfoster@eat.uk.com


June 2023


Equality in education


– FE provision for


students with SEND In the first of a new regular column for Education Today, EMMA SANDERSON, Managing Director, Options Autism, discusses the need for equality in access to further education for young people with SEND.


The Government’s recent SEND Review: ‘Right support, right place, right time’ should be welcomed, but we need positive outcomes for young people not presently afforded the same choices as their neurotypical peers. We need equality in further and higher education. According to the latest Government figures, in 2021/22 just 18% of young people with learning disabilities and/or disabilities (LLDD) participated in Further Education or Skills Training. The numbers progressing to Higher Education are even lower, just 8.7% of young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), compared to 48.6% for those with no additional needs.


There are increasing numbers of students with SEND, being educated in mainstream FE settings, with local authority data reporting an 11.5% increase from 2019/20, however, there is still a continuing role for specialist colleges to provide for students with more complex needs, who require multi-disciplinary specialist input and expertise. Over the past five years, there’s been little change in those numbers - approximately 6,000 students, catered for by 133 colleges, 113 funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) in 2020/21. If specialist colleges are to continue to provide this crucial role, the SEND Review must address continuing misperceptions. Some local authorities (LAs) consider them as ‘private’ and therefore exclude them from the Local Offer or from discussions between LAs and other providers. Those involved in SEND and high needs funding, need to recognise that both mainstream and specialist colleges, are independent of local authority control in terms of the SEND system. Specialist colleges can be perceived as a ‘last resort’, rather than appropriate provision. Placements follow disputes or appeals and the statutory March 31st deadline is routinely missed for the majority of learners.


Change is more likely if government departments were to use similar language - ‘specialist college’ alongside ‘mainstream college’, rather than the misleading multitude of terms: independent specialist provider (ISP), independent specialist college (ISC) and specialist post16 institution (SPI).


As part of a future vision, specialist colleges should be positioned as an integral part of the FE sector, with a clear set of distinct policies for mainstream and specialist FE. Specialist colleges must stop being seen as simply an ‘add on’ to secure a young persons placement when all other options have been exhausted.


Although the DfE’s consultation highlights poorer outcomes for young people with SEND throughout their education, there is no recognition of their needs nor explicit support for FE. In 2019/20 only 55% of young people in alternative provision sustained their post-16 destination for longer than six months.


There are positives in the review: the ambition to apply coherent standards to alternative provision; local inclusion plans to be overseen by the DfE; and banded price tariffs for high needs funding. But the proposals miss an opportunity to improve the way funding is fairly allocated for students, particularly those whose needs are real but less pronounced - autistic young people.


Of the £2.2 billion increase in high needs funding in 2020/21 compared to 2014/15, only £175 million went on post-16 provision. Young people with SEND are 25% less likely to be in sustained employment at age 27 than their peers, and more likely destined to become long-term NEET. We need equality in further and higher education.


www.education-today.co.uk 19


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