The Education Committee has launched a major new inquiry focused
on finding solutions to the crisis in special educational needs
and disabilities (SEND) provision.
The full terms of reference for this inquiry can be found in
the document attached, which is also subject to embargo until
00.01 on Friday 20 December.
Faced with years of increasing demand for SEND support, the
cross-party Committee will focus on how to stabilise the system
in the short term, and how to achieve long term sustainability
with improved outcomes for children and young people. The inquiry
will examine every phase of education and development, from the
early years through to the age of 25.
The Committee will look at how mainstream schools and other
educational settings can be more inclusive to children with SEND
by providing high quality support, including changes to the
curriculum, defining what inclusivity looks like in mainstream
settings, and improving support and training for education
practitioners.
Another focus will be increasing the capacity of SEND provision,
including finding ways to help local councils plan sufficient
SEND school places and examining capital investment in this
area.
With many councils facing a parlous financial state due to the
huge deficits accrued by spending millions a year on SEND
support, and with the statutory override due to
end in 2026, the Committee will consider reforms to the way
SEND is funded.
MPs will examine the Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan system
and look for potential alternatives without reducing the level of
support available. They will also look at the effectiveness of
multi-agency working across education, health and social
care.
With varying quality of provision across the country, the
Committee will consider how to make provision more consistent
between local authority areas. We will also look for
examples of replicable best practice, as well as seeking evidence
on how to make Ofsted's accountability measures more
effective.
The Committee will investigate how SEND support is provided in
other countries with better outcomes for children, parents and
carers. During the inquiry, MPs will hear directly from young
people and families about their experiences with the SEND system
as well as professionals delivering SEND support.
Education Committee Chair MP
said:
“In recent years, report after report has documented the
failures of the SEND system to deliver the support children and
their families need. Despite the best efforts of professionals in
schools and local authorities, across the country, children are
being let down. As a Committee we now want to move beyond simply
pointing out the problems and focus on finding solutions that are
realistic and practical for the Government to
implement.
“This crisis has many symptoms that bleed into the rest of
the education system: from attrition in the teaching workforce to
soaring levels of pupil absence. There are also symptoms which
blight local councils' budgets – ever increasing spending on
transporting pupils to settings far from where they live, and the
chaos of money being poured into tribunals that parents are
expected to win. It's widely accepted that many more councils
could face effective bankruptcy if change doesn't come
soon.
“There is absolute clarity that as a country we can't
continue with this endless cycle of failure. Turning this ship
around will likely take years of careful reform, but the
cross-party Education Committee will play our part by making
evidence-based recommendations that the government can
implement.”
Call for evidence
*Please note the hyperlinks to the Committee's website below
will go live after the embargo has ended.
The full terms of reference of this inquiry will be available
on the Committee's website.
The terms of reference (attached to this email) cover the
following themes:
· Support for children and
young people with SEND
· Current and future SEND
need
· Current and future model of
SEND provision
· Accountability and
inspection of SEND provision
· Finance, funding and
capacity of SEND provision
To inform the Committee's work on this inquiry, it welcomes
written evidence submissions, via its website. The
Committee would like to hear from parents and carers, early years
settings, schools, local authorities, voluntary sector
organisations, professionals, sector bodies and anyone else with
an interest in the system of support for children and young
people with SEND.
The terms of reference are also available in a number of
accessible formats, including British Sign Language, Easy Read
and in audio.
Submissions can address some or all of the inquiry's terms of
reference; they should be submitted to the Committee by
23.59 on 30 January 2025.
