Urgent warning issued to prevent a ‘lost generation of children’ with SEND
Government urged to take action to improve the system amidst ‘SEND emergency’
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has issued an urgent warning to the government to prevent ‘a lost generation of children’ from leaving school without receiving the help they need.?
General secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), Daniel Kebede, said the report ‘highlights the full drastic extent of the crisis in SEND which school leaders, parents and unions have been telling the government about for years’.
The PAC criticised regional disparity in access to support and inconsistent wait times, which the Committee explains the Department for Education (DfE) has attributed to increased demand.?
There has been a 14% rise in the number of children receiving SEND support in school since 2015, though the DfE has yet to say why this is the case.?
Additionally, the DfE admitted to the PAC that it ‘has not looked hard enough at the barriers to encouraging inclusivity in mainstream schools’.?
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How can mainstream schools support inclusion?
For KS2 teachers, supporting pupils with SEND in their mainstream classrooms can be a challenge.?
Recognising the current barriers to inclusion, the PAC’s report concluded that the ‘Department has not made clear what it means by inclusive education, a core strand of its approach, or how it will be achieved’.?
Despite intending to create ‘more inclusive mainstream schools’ for SEND pupils, the PAC reported ‘little discernible progress’.?
The report sets out recommendations to the DfE to complete within six months, including clarity on the provision that children with SEND should expect to receive.?
This should indicate how inclusive education will be achieved and how schools will be held accountable to ensure this is upheld.?
Welcoming the PAC’s recognition that inclusion needs to be valued in the Curriculum Review, Kebede said: ‘Understanding what inclusion looks like is clearly at the heart of building a system for SEND children.’
The report also prioritises:?
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An inconsistent system
The report concluded that the current system is inconsistent and not delivering in line with expectations.?
Stating that the DfE considers ‘parental confidence’ a key indicator of their success, the PAC reflected that: ‘Parents will lack confidence in a system which is currently not delivering.’
The variations in how SEND needs are interpreted and the time taken for support to be given across the country leads the PAC to recommend that, over the next 12 months, the better performing local authorities should be supported to share good practice.?
15,600 parents appealed SEND decisions in 2023, with 98% of these being found in favour of parents.?
Urging the government to take action that matches ‘the gravity of this situation’, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Committee, described this statistic as ‘staggering’, criticising the fact that ‘we are forcing people to jump through bureaucratic hoops for no good reason’.?
The PAC urged the Department to learn from this and analyse whether the tribunal system contains ‘inequalities’.?
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Children are waiting too long for support?
The report revealed that only half of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) are issued within the 20-week period.?
Further echoing the regional disparity, the PAC found some local authorities issued only 1% of plans on time in 2023.?
The Committee recommended that the DfE work with local authorities to better understand these differences in identifying and supporting SEN needs across local areas and schools.?
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Increased demand for SEND support?
The report cited a 140% increase in EHCP’s from 2015 to January 2024. There is also a 14% increase in the number of children receiving SEND support in schools.?
Recognising that the government is yet to fully understand why this increase has occurred, the PAC urges them to do more.?
So far, the DfE has:
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What’s next?
Clifton-Brown welcomed the launch of the Education Committee's inquiry on ‘Solving the SEND crisis’ and urged interested parties to submit evidence before Thursday 30th January 2025.?
Committee Chair, Helen Hayes, said: ‘Despite the best efforts of professionals in schools and local authorities, across the country, children are being let down.’
In a letter addressed to the DfE permanent secretary, Susan Acland-Hood, the PAC requests a response to the report within two months, pledging to ‘closely monitor this issue to ensure the issues are resolved swiftly’.
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Have your say: Call for evidence – Solving the SEND Crisis
Read the report in full: Support for children and young people with special educational needs
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