Schools could face increased workload and become “the eye of the storm” on SEND disputes, lawyers have warned, as more accountability shifts onto headteachers’ shoulders.
For the first time, schools will have a legal duty to create digital individual support plans for all children with additional needs in the new “targeted” layer and above.
They will also have to identify needs as early as possible and monitor progress to ensure interventions are working, the Department for Education said.
In routine inspections, Ofsted will look at how well schools are using these plans.
But, in a bid to create faster decision making, parents with concerns about provision will direct complaints to their child’s school.
The government will set out “clear expectations and timescales” through a new “digital solution” to simplify the process.
Ministers propose where a school complaint relates to SEND provision, the complaints panel must include a SEND specialist.
This could be a SENCO or inclusion lead, but they must be independent of the school or trust. Governors will be expected to sample a selection of the ISPs.
Complaints could ‘escalate significantly’
The government will also explore options for strengthening independent scrutiny over complaints data, and identify patterns such as unusually high numbers and “how patterns might initiate further interrogation of practice”.
Laura Berman, partner at Stone King law firm, said “the concern is that the workload in terms of complaints is going to magnify it significantly if there’s no other route to challenge these ISPs.
“Coupled with the SEND reforms in the white paper, it feels like school complaints are going to really escalate significantly, and that’s going to be very challenging.”
But Vic Goddard, chief executive at Passmores trust in Essex, said schools “should be held to account for meeting individual needs”.
“Will it leave us more vulnerable to more complaints? Yes, but if you’re already inclusive and doing these things, I’m not certain it’s as painful.”
Several MPs pressed education secretary Bridget Phillipson on the accountability and enforceability of the new plans this week.
Phillipson said we “need to ensure there is accountability” on the plans, including the independent SEND professional, but also that health authorities “must play their full role in delivering better support”.
Parents will worry about rights
For the specialist layer of the government’s plans, in future the SEND first-tier tribunal will only decide whether a council’s school decision is reasonable, rather than name a school. The council will then reconsider the decision.
Phillip Wood, from law firm Browne Jacobson, said parents “may view this as a significant downgrade of their legal rights.
“As a result, they may seek to make further complaints and claims to schools, in relation to their SEND provision, under the Equality Act 2010 instead.
“The eye of the storm on SEND disputes therefore looks set to move from local authorities to schools.”
Schools will also be duty bound to publish an annual inclusion strategy. This will replace the existing SEN information reports.
Staff will have to receive training on SEND and inclusion under a refreshed code of practice.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of ASCL school leaders’ union, said the “sheer volume of reforms will undoubtedly be a source of concern”.
“Schools must not be put in a position of being given extra responsibilities without being given the tools they need to meet these.
“The ambition is to make the system less adversarial, and reduce conflict – the challenge is turning that into reality.”
More strategic SENCO role
The government wants the SENCO role to become “more strategic and less administrative” under the reforms.
It will work with the sector “to redefine roles and responsibilities across the system to drive inclusive practice”.
However, it remains unclear which aspects of the new SEND system will fall to SENCOs, and whether they will be solely responsible for writing support plans.
Abigail Hawkins, director of Sensible SENCO, said to become genuinely strategic schools must ensure protected leadership time, access to administrative support, and “genuine inclusion” in the senior leadership team.
“Without those structural commitments, the rhetoric of strategic leadership risks remaining aspirational.”
The DfE said the reforms will reduce the workload burden that’s already in the system. They said the digital system for ISPs will reduce form filling.
Phillipson told BBC Breakfast she had heard from “lots of SENCOs and teaching assistants too, that they spend so much time on paperwork, on filling out forms, and they don’t get to do the face-to-face direct work with children. So this will be a better system.”
The children’s commissioner will also be given a new remit to oversee and provide scrutiny of SEND reform implementation.
Your thoughts