Solving SEND: MPs reveal their 48-point plan

The government should mandate the “minimum resources, specialist expertise and equipment” every school in the country should get to support pupils with SEND, a committee of MPs has said.

The Parliamentary education committee has also urged the government not to withdraw statutory entitlements from children and young people, amid concerns that education, health and care plans could be scrapped or scaled-back.

Rather than propose a new SEND system, a new report by the committee instead suggests scores of policies to improve the current one.

That includes urging ministers to increase accountability so parents can be “confident that their children’s needs will be met regardless of whether they have a diagnosis or EHCP”.

The government has said it will focus on increasing the inclusivity of mainstream schools in its upcoming reforms, due to be set out in a white paper later in the autumn.

DfE has ‘no clear understanding of investment needed’

But MPs warned today it was “unacceptable” the government had still not defined inclusive education, and “does not appear to have a clear understanding of the timescale and level of investment that is needed to achieve a truly inclusive mainstream education system”.

The committee has also recommended that notional SEND funding for schools be uprated in line with inflation each year, and that all new headteachers to hold a SEND-specific qualification within four years. 

It also warned government may need to partially bail out council SEND deficits, which are set to balloon to £5 billion next year.

Committee chair Helen Hayes said making sure every child in the country with SEND can attend a local school that meets their needs “will require a root and branch transformation. 

“SEND must become the business of every front line professional in educational settings, with in-depth training at the start and throughout the careers of teachers, senior leaders and teaching assistants.”

Here are the most important (but also many) schools-related recommendations…

Inclusive mainstream: Define it, and publish national standards 

• Establish national standards and expectations for ordinarily available provision and SEN support, providing a consistent baseline to help education settings become more inclusive 
• Publish statutory requirements mandating the minimum resources, specialist expertise, and equipment that every educational setting must have access to as a part of their offer of SEN support and in order to deliver an inclusive education
• Publish a definition of inclusive education and rationale for this vision alongside examples of good practice across different phases of education and settings within the next 3 months
• Set out a detailed implementation plan if proposals proceed to expand the use of resource bases to increase specialist provision within mainstream schools. Mandatory standards of good practice should also be published, covering physical facilities and equipment and good practice approaches to integration with the wider school community

Funding: Boost £6k notional funding, wipe off some SEND deficits, review funding formula

• Urgently assess the funding required to implement meaningful SEND reforms. Publish a plan for how this investment will be delivered in the short and medium term
• Uprate the current £6,000 notional funding threshold automatically each year in line with inflation to prevent further erosion of support for pupils with SEND
• Undertake a rigorous cost-benefit analysis to understand the short- and long-term economic benefits of investing in a fully inclusive education system
• Redirect a greater share of high needs funding towards early identification and support within mainstream settings and through multi-agency services
• A comprehensive review of the National Funding Formula is urgently needed to ensure funding is allocated fairly and reflects the real level of need across the country
• Resetting local authority finances through a partial write-off of SEND-related deficits could provide a necessary step towards long-term stability, but the approach must support improvement while ensuring accountability
• Develop and implement a comprehensive SEND capital investment strategy 
• Expand specialist SEND provision by investing in high-quality specialist state schools and mainstream resource bases and other mainstream provision

EHCPs: Increase accountability instead of revoking rights

• Provide support as soon as a need is identified, rather than only once an EHC plan is in place
• SEND reforms must not be based on any withdrawal of statutory entitlements for children, and must instead increase accountability across the whole of the system 
• Strengthen the ability of local authorities to meet their obligations under EHCPs by ensuring that the necessary levers are in place to compel other services, for example, NHS services and commissioners

Workforce: Mandatory SEND training for teachers, and qualifications for heads 

• Expertise should be embedded within schools and multi-academy trust (MAT) governance structures, for example, by making it mandatory to appoint governors or trustees with specific responsibility for and relevant expertise (including lived experience) of SEND
• Significantly improve cross-departmental coordination with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to establish clear, consistent accountability for SEND at the integrated care board level
• Extend SEND Tribunal powers so they can issue binding recommendations to health services, not just education providers
• Implement a continuous review and update cycle for the teacher training and the early career frameworks to keep training relevant and effective. Urgently increase the number of ITT placements and explore the viability of mandating every teacher to complete a placement in a specialist setting during ITT or ECF
• Provide comprehensive training within ITT and clear guidance for schools, multi-academy trusts and education staff on delivering inclusive education practice
• SEND CPD should be made mandatory to ensure that all educators are equipped to meet the diverse needs of children and young people with SEND
• In the short-term, mandate that at least one member of the senior leadership team in every school and every multi-academy trust holds SENCO qualifications
• Publish guidance on appropriate SENCO-to-pupil ratios and develop a national strategy to ensure these ratios are achieved consistently across schools and multi-academy trusts
• Within four years, introduce a requirement for all new headteachers to hold a SEND-specific qualification
• Issue guidance on teaching assistant-to-pupil ratios and urgently address the worsening crisis in recruiting and retaining TAs and learning support assistants to ensure these ratios can be met
• Local authority staff require improved training on child development, SEND law, parent engagement and mediation, alongside changes in practice that strengthen accountability and foster more constructive relationships 
• The DfE and DHSC should urgently develop a joint SEND workforce plan to address shortages and build capacity across education, health, and care services
• Set out how to deliver, over time, a system in which highly skilled professionals, including educational psychologists and speech and language therapists, are less tied up in undertaking assessments and writing reports and more effectively deployed in delivering the support children need

Accountability: Inspect Ofsted inclusion criteria, judge schools based on number of SEND kids

• Urgently engage with Ofsted to ensure that the inclusion criterion within the new inspection framework is robust, measurable, and reflective of the experiences of all pupils, particularly, those with SEND
• Incorporate metrics in inspections such as the proportion of pupils with SEND on roll, their attendance rates, exclusion figures, school swaps, progression and attainment and other indicators of engagement and outcomes
• Introduce mandatory, comprehensive SEND training for all Ofsted inspectors
• Extend the powers of the Local Government Ombudsman to cover complaints about the delivery of EHC plans, SEN support and other appropriate inclusive education for children with SEND in schools, multi-academy trusts and other education settings
• Monitor SEND Tribunal outcomes and identify local authorities that repeatedly fail to comply with their statutory duties
• The outcomes of SEND Tribunal cases must be factored into area SEND inspections, with clear scrutiny of how repeated non-compliance reflects the quality and effectiveness of local provision. Where local authorities fail to uphold their statutory duties, this should directly lower their inspection rating

Early intervention: SEND screening in family hubs

• Ensure Best Start Family Hubs incorporate routine SEND screening and awareness as a core part of their early years services, supported by targeted training for staff and childcare providers to enhance early identification 
• Embed the commitment for every Best Start Family Hub to have a dedicated SENCO within the SEND workforce strategy and extend to educational psychologists and speech and language therapists

Post-16: three-route model to replace GCSE resits

• Replace the current GCSE English and maths resit policy with a three-route model, with only those with a realistic prospect of getting a grade 4 supported to re-take the qualifications. Those on vocational courses with English and maths content should be exempt from resits, and other pupils supported to gain functional skills qualifications
• Read more about the post-16 suggestions from our sister paper FE Week here

Health: A NICE for SEND and school healthcare responsibility rules

• SEND should be identified as a priority across the health system and ongoing NHS restructuring must be used as an opportunity to strengthen the role and accountability of health services in supporting children and young people
• Bringing education and health more closely together should be supported by an evidence-led approach, drawing on the role of NICE to produce new SEND guidelines and intervention pathways
• Back this with appropriate financial investment from the health sector to meet statutory duties, provide timely access to therapies and assessments, and contribute equitably to joint commissioning arrangements
• The Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care should issue joint statutory guidance clarifying how and when healthcare responsibilities can safely be delegated in schools and multi-academy trusts
• The Department of Health and Social Care must urgently appoint a dedicated national SEND lead to drive accountability and coordination across the health system
• Place a clear statutory duty on health services, including ICBs and NHS providers, to ensure their full and accountable participation in the planning, commissioning, and delivery of SEND provision

Parents: ‘Fully engage’ with families on any reforms

• Actively and meaningfully involve parents and carers in all processes that affect their child’s education, support, and overall wellbeing
• Parents and carers must be fully engaged and any reforms must be implemented gradually and in a carefully phased manner. New approaches should first be piloted through a pathfinder model, allowing for thorough testing in real-world settings before national rollout

Best practice: Top SEND school ‘centre of excellences’

• As part of the expansion of specialist SEND, the highest-performing state specialist schools should be designated as Centres of Excellence and play a leading role in supporting the development of expertise across other schools, LAs or MATs
• Monitor and report on an annual basis on the number of pupils with SEND in mainstream schools, in specialist independent schools and specialist state schools
• Create a national SEND data strategy that requires local authorities and education settings to collect and report standardised, high-quality data on levels of need, current provision, capacity, and projected demand