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Changing times for SEN provisionGeoff Link, SEN consultant
The face of SEN provision in all schools will be changing in the coming years after the government published the Green Paper, Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability.
This consultation document was published in March and asked for comments by the end of June 2011 before pilot studies start in September. Detailed plans will then be brought out by the end of 2011 and these will form the basis for legislative changes to be taken forward from May 2012. By 2014 parents may have control of their own budget for their child and Statements will have been replaced by a new statutory device called the Education, Health and Care Plan. The aim is that, by 2015, all pupils with disability and young people with SEN will have:
The proposals
1. Early identification and assessment
2. Giving parents’ control
3. Learning and achieving
4. Preparing for adulthood
There will be:
5. Services working together for families
The government will:
Independent Schools Council SEN Committee
As you will see from the above, the scope of the changes is huge and much detail will be understood only when the final proposals are made. However, there serious concerns are being expressed by many professional people concerned with SEN provision and, in particular, by the Independent Schools Council SEN expert group. The Independent Schools Council SEN expert group – chaired by Barry Huggett, serving Head of specialist school More House, and coordinated by specialist SEN lawyer Sarah McKimm – engages with the government in response to their papers, such as the Green Paper on SEN changes, initiatives and ‘calls for evidence’ on matters concerning SEN and disability, raises the profile of ISC specialist schools with the DfE, scrutinises draft legislation and standards to ensure the protection of vulnerable children in ISC schools, while avoiding over-regulation. Particular concerns regard the assessment process as it is proposed that ‘School Action’ and ‘School Action plus’ should be merged together. The government is clear that too many pupils are diagnosed with SEN and want to cut this number in future. From this it follows that it will become more difficult to have children diagnosed with SEN and potentially many children who require extra help to enable them to achieve their potential will be left to flounder in unsuitable educational settings. The assessment process is central to this and care must be taken to ensure that children who need support are not excluded.
The requirement for schools to publish information regarding the academic attainment of the bottom 20% of their intake has the potential to create a perverse disincentive for schools to identify pupils that need specialist educational assistance with a view to avoiding publishing their results. The detail here will be crucial since the criteria, which have not yet been published, will determine which children’s results will need to be published. The ISC SEN expert group has sent representations to the government regarding these issues and will scrutinise the final proposals very carefully when they are published in due course. Just as the reforms to the NHS and Coastguard Service have been amended in the light of professional opinion, it is important that the reforms proposed for SEN children are scrutinised carefully to judge how they will affect vulnerable children. It might be vital in the coming months for interested parties who know the current SEN situation well to combine to ensure that the improvements in provision and practice seen in the last ten years for children with specific learning difficulties are not lost as local authorities and the government seek to save money. Independent specialist provision schools
The teaching of children with SEN, those that have statements and those who have specific learning difficulties, has improved markedly in all schools – both maintained and independent – in the last 20 years, as more research, better training and improved understanding of the best teaching methods have had their effect in mainstream classes and specialist units. This has been recognised by the Council for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexia (CReSTeD), which has for the first time recognised maintained schools that are proficient in helping children with specific learning difficulties. The biggest difficulty comes for parents in deciding which school is the right one for their child. Is a CReSTeD state school comparable with a CReSTeD independent school? The answer depends on the severity of the disability that a child displays, whether he or she could truly thrive in a class of 30, even in a supportive environment, as compared with the much smaller cohorts normal in independent schools. The specialist independent schools that cater solely or mainly for children with specific learning difficulties are at the forefront of innovation and support for such children. Their smaller class sizes, whole-school approach to individual problems and opportunities for the development of children’s strengths set them apart from their competitors. Senior school, More House, has recently invested £1.6 million in a Training and Research Centre and runs training courses for teachers and other professionals, as well as for parents. The school employs its own Research Associate, who is doing useful work in several fields of specific learning difficulties, in particular looking at the relationship between support given and outcomes achieved.
Stanbridge Earls is investigating an innovative use of IT to provide extra support for its children, which will help to make them independent learners, backed by a research project with Oxford University. At the junior end, Fairley House offers trans-disciplinary working, where a team of teachers, psychologists, speech and language therapists, and occupational therapists work together for assessment and in the classroom, blurring the boundaries between their professional skills and providing therapy fully integrated with children’s education rather than ‘bolt on’ therapy. These exciting innovations, from schools that are adjudged to be outstanding by inspectors both educationally and for the care provision they provide, show that the independent sector is not only keeping up to date with SEN developments, but is leading the way in developing better understanding of the way that children who need support can be taught and cared for effectively. It is crucial that research and development projects in the independent sector specialist provision schools continue to improve the lot of children who would otherwise face a challenging future. It might be that the new proposals for changes in SEN provision actually provide opportunities for this expertise to be available for all sectors of schools. The devil will be in the detail when the consultation process is over and decisions have been made as to the way forward in the coming months. With some projects already due to start in September it is important that all parties – professional, political and parental – ensure that their voices are heard in the continuing debate.  Since retiring Geoff Link has been working on a committee for the DFE rewriting the national Minimum Standards for Boarding Schools and Residential Special Schools. These will be with schools in time for the start of the new school year in September 2011. He continues to serve on the Independent Schools Special Educational Needs Expert Group and the Council for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexia (CReSTeD) Pre-Registration Committee. He is also an ISI school inspector. In the last year he has given talks for the Boarding Schools Association regarding the support of children with SEN in boarding schools and inset in two independent boarding schools – first, on the importance of teamwork for boarding staff and, second, on the New Minimum Standards in boarding schools. |
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