It is hard to think of a worse target for government cuts than disabled people. But this autumn, another prospective policy could plumb the depths even further: an assault on the hard-won rights of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Save Our Children’s Rights, a collection of SEND groups including the parental advocacy website Special Needs Jungle and legal support charities such as IPSEA, is fighting to prevent this.
The campaign is a response to briefings from government advisers and officials that the upcoming schools white paper will include proposals to remove education, health and care plans (EHCPs) from children attending mainstream education settings.
We launched our campaign amid ministers’ repeated refusal to deny these briefings, ensuring a media splash. Given the strength of feeling around this, as evidenced by a petition with 110,000 signatures, perhaps they should thank us for helping them to avoid another embarrassing climbdown.
We will not back down until they do.
But why do we want to save a system that most agree is “broken” and “on its knees”? The answer is simple. It is not the law that is at fault; it is how the last set of reforms in 2014 was implemented and funded that has failed.
It is not the law that has consistently underfunded education as a whole, and schools’ SEND budgets in particular.
It is not the law that has designed a curriculum that creates barriers for many neurodivergent children.
And it is not the law that makes so many poor EHCP decisions that they are overturned on appeal in 98.3 per cent of cases. That is on the human beings working for councils and schools.
Will children’s needs magically disappear?’
Far fewer parents appeal than could; they are too exhausted from caring and keeping a roof over their heads, or they have been poorly informed about their rights.
This also means that when an EHCP is obtained, many parents do not know if it is any good. Deficient EHCPs make for poor outcomes and are one reason why many parents want a specialist placement where they know their child will be properly supported.
The education select committee’s 2019 SEND inquiry and the last government’s SEND improvement plan both acknowledged that the 2014 reforms were, essentially, good ones.
But implementation coincided with austerity, from which local authorities are still reeling. The pandemic and lockdowns also played a large part in the number of children now in need of support.
Programmes funded by the Department for Education for SEND training, neurodiversity and speech and communication issues have had a positive reception.
But the direction of travel seems to be boosting the number of mainstream schools with resource bases or units – something for which there is little research evidence and no guidance or national policy to ensure quality.
How inclusive will they really be, so that children feel part of the mainstream experience? If children spend all their time in the base or unit, then it becomes segregation, not inclusion.
Without EHCPs in mainstream education, what will happen? Will children’s needs magically disappear? No. Will schools be guaranteed extra cash, ringfenced for SEND? Unlikely.
Better inclusion is a must, but without the safety net of an EHCP parents will not be won over. Their experience tells them that when a school is short of money or staff, SEND provision is always first to go.
EHCP-mandated provision means that a child’s needs must be met and, if not, parents can hold the council to account.
If the government believes that its plans for inclusive mainstream education will be successful, why waste time and money changing the law?
First, fewer schools will need to apply for EHC assessments. Second, if assessment applications fall, then tribunal appeals will also be reduced.
The government broke SEND through lack of funding and insufficient accountability for inclusion. It is a disgrace to make children with SEND pay for its mistakes.
Politicians should determine the cost of making inclusion work, and of supporting councils out of their financial holes.
Then they must find the money to fund it long term. Our children deserve nothing less, and our country’s future depends on it.
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