The Department for Education has “no clear understanding of the investment needed” to create a truly inclusive SEND system in schools, a committee of MPs has claimed.
The all-party Commons education select committee said in a wide-ranging report that Ministers should provide minimum resources and specialist expertise so that every school can support children with special needs.
It also called on the DfE to retain statutory entitlements in the form of EHCPs, following speculation that these might be scrapped or scaled down.
Listed here are many of the recommendations proposed by the committee:
Inclusivity and standards
- Establish national standards and expectations for ordinarily available provision and SEN support, providing a consistent baseline to help education settings become more inclusive
- Publish statutory requirements mandating the minimum resources, specialist expertise, and equipment that every educational setting must have access to as a part of their offer of SEN support
- Publish a definition of inclusive education and rationale for this vision alongside examples of good practice
- Mandatory standards of good practice should be published, covering physical facilities and equipment and good practice approaches to integration with the wider school community
Funding
- Assess urgently the funding required to implement meaningful SEND reforms. Publish a plan for how this investment will be delivered in the short and medium term
- Undertake a rigorous cost-benefit analysis to understand the short- and long-term economic benefits of investing in a fully inclusive education system
- Redirect a greater share of high needs funding towards early identification and support within mainstream settings and through multi-agency services
- A comprehensive review of the National Funding Formula is urgently needed to ensure funding is allocated fairly and reflects the real level of need across the country
- Reset local authority finances through a partial write-off of SEND-related deficits
- Develop and implement a comprehensive SEND capital investment strategy
- Expand specialist SEND provision by investing in high-quality specialist state schools and mainstream resource bases
EHCPs
- Provide support as soon as a need is identified, rather than only once an EHCP is in place
- Ensure SEND reforms do not include removal of statutory entitlements for children
- Strengthen the ability of local authorities to meet their EHCP obligations by ensuring that the necessary levers are in place to compel other services, such as the NHS, to cooperate with provision
Workforce
- Make it mandatory to appoint governors or trustees with specific responsibility for and relevant expertise (including lived experience) of SEND
- Improve cross-departmental coordination with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to establish clear, consistent accountability for SEND
- Extend SEND tribunal powers so they can issue binding recommendations to health services, not just education providers
- Implement a continuous review for teacher training and the early career frameworks to keep training relevant and effective. Explore the viability of mandating every teacher to complete a placement in a specialist setting during teacher training
- Provide comprehensive training within ITT on inclusive practice, and make SEND training mandatory for all educators
- In the short-term, mandate that at least one member of the senior leadership team in every school and every multi-academy trust holds SENCO qualifications
- Within four years, introduce a requirement for all new headteachers to hold a SEND-specific qualification
- Address urgently the crisis in recruiting and retaining TAs and learning support assistants to ensure these pupil ratios can be met
- The DfE and DHSC should urgently develop a joint SEND workforce plan to address shortages and build capacity across education, health, and care services
- Set out how to deliver, over time, a system in which highly skilled professionals, including educational psychologists and speech and language therapists are effectively deployed in providing support
Accountability
- Incorporate metrics in inspections such as the proportion of pupils with SEND on roll, attendance rates, and exclusion figures
- Introduce mandatory, comprehensive SEND training for all Ofsted inspectors
- Monitor SEND Tribunal outcomes and identify local authorities that repeatedly fail to comply with statutory duties
- The outcomes of SEND Tribunal cases must be factored into area SEND inspections, with clear scrutiny of how repeated non-compliance reflects the quality and effectiveness of local provision.
Early intervention
- Ensure Best Start Family Hubs incorporate routine SEND screening and awareness as a core part of their early years services
- Embed the commitment for every Best Start Family Hub to have a dedicated Senco within the SEND workforce strategy
Post-16
- Replace the current GCSE English and maths resit policy with a three-route model, with only those with a realistic prospect of getting a grade 4 supported to re-take the qualifications. Those on vocational courses with English and maths content should be exempt from resits, and other pupils supported to gain functional skills qualifications
Best practice
- High-performing state specialist schools should be designated as Centres of Excellence and play a leading role in supporting the development of expertise across schools and multi-academy trusts
- Monitor and report annually on the number of pupils with SEND in mainstream schools, specialist independent schools and specialist state schools
- Create a national SEND data strategy to require local authorities and education settings to collect and report standardised, high-quality data on levels of need, current provision, capacity, and projected demand
Health
- SEND should be treated as a priority across the health system and NHS restructuring must be an opportunity to strengthen the role and accountability of health services in supporting SEND children and young people
- Education and health should be more closely aligned and supported by an evidence-led approach, drawing on the role of NICE
- This should be back with appropriate financial investment from the health sector to meet statutory duties, provide timely access to therapies and assessments, and contribute equitably to joint commissioning arrangements
