Special Educational Needs and Disability in the Armed Forces community

One of our key priorities for the UK Government ahead of the next election is improving services for families. Lucy Vasiliou , RBL Policy Officer for Housing and Education shares her insights after chairing an event on Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) in the Armed Forces community.

We were pleased to welcome over 40 delegates from across the charity sector, Ministry of Defence, local government and service providers to RBL’s Head Office last month.

Focussed on understanding good practice, identifying barriers, and agreeing next steps to improve policy and practice for Armed Forces families, the day was rich in insight, expertise and enthusiasm and we are excited about leading actions to drive forward impactful change.

RBL General Election Manifesto

Ann Griffiths , RBL’s Head of Policy and Research began the day by providing an overview of RBL’s General Election Manifesto , highlighting one of RBL’s top priorities:

• Introduce a national protocol to provide consistent access to public services for Armed Forces families, and increase SEND support funding for service children.

Ann also highlighted relevant data from the latest Census, which included insights into the Armed Forces community thanks to our successful Count Them In campaign :

• There are 50,000 children and young people with disabilities in veteran households in England & Wales
• Estimates of at least 20,000 children with SEN, in serving families.

Delegates then heard presentations from a range of voices:

• Lorna Beard (National Association for Special Educational Needs) on the current context of national policy.
• Professor Nicola Fear (Kings College London) on what the research tells us.
• Stephanie Quintrell (Forces Additional Needs and Disability Forum) highlighted lived experience for the Forum as well as personal experience.
• Matt Blyton (Independent Educational Consultant) summarised the Catterick Garrison ASSIST Project which has just entered its second year bringing schools on the garrison together to improve support for SEND.
• The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity and the Naval Children’s Charity offered insights in to the support they are providing to families in accessing assessments, provision and navigating a challenging pathway for support.

A prominent part of the day was a personal account from a Naval family on the impact of Service life and the challenges they’ve faced in accessing support for their eldest child while moving locations multiple times and facing the wider pressures and separations of service life.

The afternoon featured a panel discussion, chaired by Angela Kitching - Director of Campaigns, Policy and Research - and included an overview from the UK Ministry of Defence on reflections from the morning and current priorities for the Education Policies Team.

Practical action setting

In the final session delegates identified what actions could be taken to drive forward changes and opportunities for collaboration. These included:

• Improving data
• Acting on collaboration opportunities
• Rolling out good practice models like champions and navigators helping families access support across areas

Thank you to all those who attended for your time and input.

Following the event we are developing an action plan and working across the sector to lead an increased pace and scale of change on this topic.

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