NAHT comments on Ofsted report into supporting SEND in mainstream schools

Commenting on a new research report released by Ofsted today (Thurs 13 May) into supporting SEND in mainstream schools, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“A decade of underfunding schools and an ongoing failure by the government to properly get to grips with systemic failings within the SEND system has been even more exposed by the pandemic.

“Even before Covid, children and young people with SEND have too often been an after-thought for government, and in many cases schools have been left to pick up the pieces with little support and little, if any, additional resource. Delays in external agencies providing the right support, overly bureaucratic planning processes and the need for better training and support for staff all point to a woefully underfunded system.

"Children and young people with SEND and their families deserve to be prioritised. Without such a clear focus, the government risks allowing the disadvantage gap to widen still further.

“There is an opportunity to put pupils with SEND at the heart of the educational recovery agenda. This starts with greater investment. The government has said that no child should be left behind – now is the time to put its money where its mouth is and make sure the most vulnerable children in society are at the very heart of that promise.”