You do not need me to tell you that our current approach to education for children with special educational needs is broken. Despite the best efforts of many dedicated professionals, it too often doesn’t deliver for the children it is meant to help.
Its bureaucracy causes frustration for parents and professionals. Costs are rapidly rising and, if fully realised, would leave many local authorities insolvent. At the same time, many providers report being under-resourced.
Today, CST has published 10 principles that seek to provide a framework for a new approach. They build on our previous work over many years and discussions with our member trusts, who together run more than three-quarters of academies, both specialist provisions and mainstream schools.
There have been attempts before to reform the approach. However, we believe there are fundamental flaws that mean iterative changes are not a sensible option.
Instead, we need a new concept of what a good outcome looks like for all involved. That includes seeing the SEND system as one that ensures high-quality specialist provision but intrinsically involves mainstream schools.
Our 10 principles cover the approaches we think are needed for policy, workforce and the system overall. These are not about changes at the margins. They challenge us to think from first principles so that we can define an end-state that really delivers for children rather than piecemeal changes to our current ways of working.
First, our policy approach must have a bold vision that is rooted in dignity and expertise, and shifts away from the current medicalised, deficit approach.
We should stop thinking of special educational needs as a ‘demand’-led, bolt-on system, and instead frame it as part of a positive social mission to ensure all children – including those with special educational needs and disabilities – can grow up to live rich and fulfilling lives in which they are both visible to and valued by their communities.
These principles provide a vital baseline for ongoing discussions
People are, of course, key to this. We must invest in a national programme of workforce development so that all school staff have the knowledge, expertise, confidence and flexibility to ensure that mainstream schools can identify and support all children with SEND, including those who present with a greater degree of complexity, to achieve well at school.
This may need new roles and structures, and it is important that legislation currently going through parliament on teacher pay and conditions, qualifications and the new school support staff negotiating body does not unwittingly create new barriers to getting this right.
We need to build in ways of ensuring best practice, through evidence-based guidance – similar to National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance in the NHS – that helps us understand the best models for effective provision, including specialist units and resources.
We also need to promote the sort of learning and knowledge building between specialist and mainstream settings that some mixed trusts already benefit from.
A ‘whole-system’ approach is key. There will inevitably be dependencies between schools, local authorities, the NHS, and other agencies, so we need to ensure that the system incentivises communities to work together.
The future system must have much stronger processes to project the demand for specialist placements and invest in building sufficient suitable placements. This includes more capacity ‘upstream’ in mainstream schools and less reliance on the statutory system for children to receive the support they need, relieving pressure on specialist providers.
SEND is a complex system. Indeed a key criticism of the current approach is that SEND itself is a blanket term that hides complexity and leads to seeing children as a series of labels rather than individuals.
That complexity means 10 principles cannot hope to reflect every intricacy of a new approach. More detail will be needed, but we believe the principles we are setting out today provide a vital baseline for those discussions.
Read CST’s 10 principles for a new SEND system here
This sounds great untill you started talking about building units in mainstream school…. Like the present system except the specialist provision is on mainstream grounds.
It’s not really the thinking that’s needed. While some children would never cope in mainstream so many others could if they were not so traumatised by it before anyone will accept they even need help.
These days I would be SEND in my day no such thing existed. My parents fought for help they had me assessed and diagnosed and dispite promises of support from my first 2 secondary schools the staff at those schools thought it they kept me in at lunch writing out spellings things would be resolved… News flash that made things worse anyway I would clock up detentions I just didn’t attend and messed about because better naughty than could try harder, could do well if she applied herself, I burned my blazer whenever mum brought one because it was scratchy and restrictive and like being tied up. I chewed my tie and my jumper in anxiety.
I ran away and slept in bus shelters because that was better than school. (I do laugh when people advise take away their tablet if they won’t go to school don’t make home so comfortable …. I would sleep in public loos in the snow school felt so overwhelming I wouldn’t have cared if you took my legs away )
Then I changed schools a 3rd time. I had a year head who one by one swept the obstacles away… Uniform and issue wear black and white anything as long as it’s comfortable. Keep losing it forgetting homework let me know we will agree a different deadline. Feeling overwhelmed in class being disruptive take 5 min to calm down and knock on my door. Taking things just so literally everyone thinks you are cheeky we will celebrate how you think. (I went home at lunch and called the office to say I had as ‘i don’t want any firemen risking their lives’ I was still facing consequences for skiving but rewarded for being responsible telling them not punished for being cheeky)
It was the way that although I couldn’t put these things into words she could identify what was the cause and just stop it.
So many kids would cope better with one of her. So much behaviour issues would be resolved with her flexibility. This was a very large over subscribed school. Yet I’m in no doubt she had a hundred of ‘me’ knocking her door. ‘i just threw a chair at sir’ ok come in… How she found the time to be head of maths head of year and look after us ‘naughty kids’ who knows. But that’s what you need.
I am proof. I was predicted 0 GCSEs. I achieved 7 (all u were offered in the 90s) 3 a levels and a degree.
What’s needed is high flexibility and total commitment to every child not a few more portacabins to hide us in
Daily school is failing to work with SEND students even in mix school , some students with special needs are leaving school with trauma, the school has becomes a nightmare for them.
I do not see how mixing students under SEND in mainstream without experienced teachers will help, in our days most teachers are young recruits and does not have much experience how to work with students under SEND however they are wearing badge SEND teacher. Sadly some of these students under SEND has abilities and yet not getting opportunities to study due to lack of funds , they are not getting 1 to 1 support in school. They are left to struggle calling parents to come and collect the student due to behavioural concerns and here the student cannot cope alone in the mainstream class having special needs and being with more than 28 students who are following the class with 1 teacher.
The school then suggest to contact Doctor for medication where the student does not need medication.
The amount of children with Special Needs are increasing day by day, there is no structure plan for those children , just now they will be mixed with others in mainstream getting bully and labelled as having behavioural concerns or asking parents to see doctors for medications.