Could a trial in a London borough that supports special schools to set up provision in mainstream schools provide the blueprint for Labour’s inclusion mission. Jessica Hill investigates …
Seven-year-old Ahmed smiles at the rustling sound as he tips lentils into a tray, to the backdrop of soothing music.
Last year, he moved into a class for higher-needs pupils at his mainstream school, Malmesbury Primary, in Bow, East London. Since then, he’s been “much more settled” and made “amazing progress”, says teacher Natasha Walker.
On the day I visit, Walker is joined by three teaching assistants (TAs) supporting nine pupils.
The classroom is part of a pilot by Tower Hamlets Local Education Authority to meet soaring demand for special school placements without breaking the bank.
The LEA has commissioned Phoenix School, an ‘outstanding’ special school, to help run outreach high-needs provision across 22 mainstream schools in the borough.
The pupils – with complex needs – are taught in a separate class with access to curriculum materials and assessment that they would get if they were enrolled at Phoenix school which takes pupils from age three to 19 across several different sites and satellite provision.
The project, set to run until at least July 2026, costs the council around a third of what it would pay if children were placed in independent special schools, before transport costs are factored in.
Phoenix’s executive headteacher Veronica Armson says similar outreach models could be rolled out across the country.
She thinks it could achieve what might seem like a pipe dream right now: a SEND system where parents are no longer engaged in a fight for placements, where the local authority is saving money and, most importantly, where high-needs learners are taught in environments suited to their needs.
SEND specialist provision creation
The concept of separate specialist provision within mainstreams is nothing new.
Nearly 400 mainstream schools now have SEND units in which pupils are taught in separate classes at least half the time. Meanwhile, 1,168 mainstream schools have similar ‘resourced provision’, with access to specialist facilities.
What makes Phoenix’s model unique, Armson believes, is that mainstream school staff here benefit from the special school’s specialist training, resources, curriculum and assessment support.
Phoenix began providing outreach support to mainstreams in 2004. In 2021 a nearby primary, John Scurr School asked Armson to help with organising staff for separate classes for its high-needs pupils.
Whereas those pupils had previously received support from teaching assistants in class, Phoenix helped them set up with a class of 10, staffed by a teacher and three TAs. The outreach team noticed that mainstream schools were then starting to set up classrooms without funding and resources or curriculum or extra support from specialists.
So Armson went to the LEA with a proposal; they fund mainstream schools to set up high-needs specialist classrooms, but “linked into” Phoenix for support and resources.
This year, 30 Phoenix staff are involved in helping such schools.
Inclusion delusion
‘Inclusion’ has become a buzzword when it comes to SEND reforms. (It was referred to 87 times in the previous government’s SEND and AP improvement plan.). Now, it is the policy all hopes are being pinned on to fix the broken SEND system.
Mainstream schools will be expected to get better at supporting more pupils with complex needs. And the government will “encourage” schools and councils to set up more SEND units and resourced provision in mainstream settings.
Ministers will “consider the best approaches to extend the best practice across the system”, the Department for Education has said.
But Armson argues that too often, “inclusion” means having high-needs children “sat in the corner” of a mainstream classroom, with a TA who is sometimes shared across classes.
“These children are basically being catered for,” she says. “They’re not being taught. They need a different curriculum they can participate in”.
Phoenix began specialising in autism in 2000, expanding its provision at its main site in Bow and branching out into two more sites from 2015.
But regardless of how quickly they expanded, theycouldn’t keep up with demand.
There are currently 180 pupils on what Armson calls its “no space list”. (It’s not a “waiting list” because that “implies they will get a space at some point” which they “can’t guarantee”). Some children have been on it for four years.
A recent Tower Hamlets council report says a “lack of capacity in autism specialist placements” means 25 of its children and young people are being educated out of borough and 13 in independent schools, “who could be educated in Phoenix”.
Parent demand is partly driven by the fact Phoenix has been ‘outstanding’ since Ofsted inspections began, but it also reflects the national picture.
There were around 4,000 more pupils on roll in special schools than reported capacity in 2022-23. Two-thirds of special schools are full or over capacity, compared to 17 per cent of mainstream primaries and 23 per cent of secondaries.
Currently, nine per cent of children in Tower Hamlets have education, health and care plans. But this is predicted to rise to 16 per cent by 2030, which means the shortfall of 120 specialist placements could more than double.
‘The needs are so high’
On the new project, Phoenix intended to work with eight schools. But after 24 schools applied, they agreed on 22. “I found it very difficult to say no because the need is so high,” says Armson.
Outreach classes are funded for a maximum of 10 pupils per class.
The mainstream schools are split into two groups, with group B receiving £15,000 and group A £20,000 per pupil, as well as £10,000 to set up the specialist classroom. Phoenix gets separate council funding for its wider outreach work.
The higher-funded group, made up of the schools deemed most committed to the project and “most likely to succeed”, became part of a UCL research project that Phoenix is funding. Armson hopes it will evidence a positive impact so the council continues to back the project.
Each group is made up of one secondary and ten primary schools. Only two are academy trust schools, in a borough where three-quarters of mainstream schools are still maintained.
There were concerns about trusts overruling Phoenix’s decisions, and Armson concedes there could be “potential problems” in rolling out the model to more trust-dominated areas, though that’s “not a reason not to try”. She’s had interest from two other local authorities, including nearby Redbridge.
But recruiting teachers for specialist classes was challenging. Armson says during job interviews teachers sometimes say they wanted to be “in a special school with colleagues for support, not a mainstream”.
To combat fears of isolation, Phoenix established resource evenings for their specialist classroom teachers to “socialise and share stories”. These teachers were also allocated a ‘buddy’ teacher based at Phoenix to visit each half term and observe classes.
There’s also a shared online resource channel for those involved in the project.
Pupil support, multi-age classes
A recent government survey found parents were far more likely to feel their child with special needs was well supported in a special school (90 per cent), compared to a mainstream (59 per cent).
But Armson says parents of pupils in the specialist classes feel their children are getting a “Phoenix-quality education experience”.
Eloise Thomas, who leads Phoenix’s outreach team of eight staff, says when a new place at the special school opens up they can also offer it to pupils in the mainstream classes who would “most benefit from having it”.
“It is about working together – we’re in those schools so we know the kids.”
Phoenix’s project rules stipulate that specialist class pupils must either be autistic, or be awaiting an autism assessment or working at a “significantly lower level than their peers”.
That means a class may include pupils with a full spectrum of ages.
Phoenix’s assistant headteacher, Leanne Woodward admits the differing ages in classes have been difficult for some schools to manage.
In Malmesbury’s specialist class, where pupils range from reception to year four, all pupils except one are on an “engagement” model of learning (rather than subject-specific study), so they “work well together”, says inclusion lead Rebecca Phillips.
Two schools have set up more than one classroom to cater for different-age cohorts, but getting the funding for that wasn’t easy.
The model requires mainstream schools to have classrooms they’re not using. But falling rolls – a particularly acute problem in London – has helped.
Leadership stability is also crucial. One secondary has pulled out of the project where that wasn’t the case, and one primary is also struggling for the same reason.
Specialist training
Group A schools have to agree their high-needs classes will be taught by a teacher rather than a TA, and that their whole school undertakes at least three SEND teacher training sessions over two years.
In comparison, pupils with high needs in mainstream might otherwise be looked after in a ‘nurture’ or ‘inclusion hub’. Woodward believes the training for those who run these is “varied”.
Expanding the Tower Hamlets model to other areas would also depend on having special-school leaders with the inclination and drive to lead the work.
“If any of us at Phoenix stopped driving this, it wouldn’t happen,” Armson admits.
That said, preliminary evaluation findings bode well.
By the end of the first year, pupils moved into specialist classrooms progressed in their development by an average of nine sub-steps in their first term, then five sub-steps per term after that using the assessment system designed by Phoenix..
Within specialist classrooms there was “high staff morale”. And while some parents initially had concerns, “these worries have settled as improvements have translated to the home”.
However, the project’s long-term future could be scuppered by council instability, with schools concerned about security of funding for the specialist classrooms.
As break time begins for Malmesbury’s specialist class pupils, Armson watches as a TA helps Ahmed put his coat on. He’s slowly learning how to do it himself.
“Through this class, we can give the children what they need – and that’s the most important thing,” she says.
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