Government’s special educational needs reforms failing young people and parents, say MPs

Today’s report from the Education Committee follows an 18-month inquiry into Government reforms aimed at placing children and young people at the heart of the SEND system. The Committee heard from more than 70 witnesses and received more than 700 submissions of written evidence.

The Committee concludes that while the reforms to the support for children and young people contained in the Children and Families Act 2014 were the right ones, poor implementation has put local authorities under pressure, left schools struggling to cope and, ultimately, thrown families into crisis. 

The Committee heard overwhelming evidence that the reforms were letting down young people who need additional support with their education. It heard from young people that poor support can result in them being isolated in school, unable to access the curriculum and find it hard to make friends. As adults, the training and employment opportunities were found to be poor, deriving from a fundamental lack of ambition for young people with SEND across the country. 

Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, Chair of the Education Committee, said: “Despite the good intentions of the reforms, many children with special educational needs and disabilities are being let down day after day. Many parents face a titanic struggle just to try and ensure their child gets access to the right support.

Families are often forced to wade through a treacle of bureaucracy, in a system which breeds conflict  and despair as parents try to navigate a postcode lottery of provision. A lack of accountability plagues the system as local authorities, social care and health providers too frequently seek to pass the buck rather than take responsibility for providing support.  

Children and parents should not have to struggle in this way – they should be supported. There needs to be a radical change to inspection, support for parents, and clear consequences for failure to ensure the 2014 Act delivers as the Government intended.” 

The report recommends a series of measures to strengthen inspections, support parents going through the Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) process and ensure those responsible for SEND provision are held accountable when things go wrong.

The Committee makes the following key recommendations:

·         A more rigorous inspection framework for local authorities, with clear consequences for failure. There should be a greater focus on SEND in school inspections. 

·         A direct line for parents and schools to appeal directly to the Department for Education where local authorities appear not to be complying with the law. 

·         Powers for the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to investigate complaints about schools. 

·         The development of more employment and training opportunities for post-16 young people 

Robert Halfon added: “We need to end this major social injustice, one which affects children and their families, particularly those who are not as well equipped to navigate this bureaucratic maze.  

Of course, extra funding for SEND announced in the spending round is welcome but the truth is that more cash will fail to make a difference to children with special education needs unless there is a radical change of approach throughout the system.

The DfE cannot continue with a piecemeal and reactive approach to supporting children with SEND. Rather than making do with sticking plasters, what is needed is a transformation, a more strategic oversight and fundamental change to ensure a generation of children is no longer let down.” 

ENDS 

Notes to editors 

• Two accessible summaries of the report will be available on 30 October – an audio summary and an EasyRead summary.  
• For a full list of conclusions and recommendations, see page 84 of the report. 
• The SEND inquiry was launched in April 2018. The Committee received more than 700 submissions of written evidence and held 12 oral evidence sessions, taking evidence from young people, parents and carers, charities, schools and colleges, local authorities and the Government. Submissions and transcripts are available on the Committee’s website or from page 109 of the report 
• Part 3 of the 2014 Children and Families Act introduced wide reaching reforms to support for children and young people with SEND – those with a difficulty or disability which makes learning harder for them than for other children their age. The legislation made a number of reforms including replacing statements with Education Health and Care Plans and introduced joint commissioning arrangements for the local authority and health services. 
• The Committee’s report from July A ten-year plan for school and college funding covers issues relating to how funding is allocated to schools, including the high needs block which is the part of the Dedicated Schools Grant that funds high level support for children with SEND.