Paces

Support and Aspiration: DfE publish 'Progress & Next Steps' document

This just published and taken straight from DfE web site:

This report sets out a summary of the key responses to the consultation questions in Support and aspiration, current progress and our further plans for the vision in the Green Paper, in which:

• children’s special educational needs are picked up early and support is routinely put in place quickly
• staff have the knowledge, understanding and skills to provide the right support for children and young people who have SEN or are disabled, wherever they are
• parents know what they can reasonably expect their local school, local college, local authority and local services to provide, without them having to fight for it
• children who would currently have a statement of SEN and young people over 16 who would have a learning difficulty assessment have an integrated assessment and a single Education, Health and Care Plan which is completed in a shorter time and without families having the stress of searching to get the support they need
• parents have greater control over the services they and their family use, with:
  • every family with an Education, Health and Care plan having the right to a personal budget for their support
  • parents whose children have an education, health and care plan having the right to seek a place at any state-funded school, whether that is a special or mainstream school, a maintained school, academy or Free School.

There's a DfE Press Release here, too.

Here is IPSEA's initial response.

How many children have SEN? Again.

Actually, I was googling "Brinks-Mat" and "Stephen Lawrence". Links between criminals and detectives in the two cases had been mentioned on BBC TV, last Saturday, as I was making myself a slice of cheese on toast for breakfast.

Searching for something quite different, in other words, as I find often happens Google threw up "Can 20 per cent of schoolchildren really have special needs?" - an article by "writer, biographer, journalist and broadcaster" Peter Stanford in yesterday's Daily Telegraph.

20% is some sort of average. Peter Stanford points out the difference between Richmond upon Thames (11.8% of primary pupils on the SEN register) and Liverpool (22.6%). On this blog, in October 2010, I noted DfE statistics that in primary schools boys overall were much more likely to be registered as having special educational needs (25.4% with or without a statement) than girls (14.3%): "Are we failing 1 in 4 boys said to have special educational needs?"

I concluded:

I don't know about you, but it strikes me that if as many as 1 in 4 boys have "some form of special educational need' then there is something seriously wrong with our perspective on schooling or on children or on special educational needs or on all three.

Peter Stanford, having asked the question, an important one in my view - perhaps the most important one in the five billion pound (and more) industry that is SEN - seems as perplexed as to the answer as anyone. "But why, if numbers of statements are falling, does the money spent on the system continue to rise?  ... No one seems clear about what is going on, least of all anyone at the Department for Education."

Pointing the finger in turn at parents or teachers or local authorities or money, reviewing possible explanations, hardly seems satisfactory. Perhaps it's the whole system, the whole apparatus, the whole concept? In 2005, even Baroness Warnock, who helped devise the SEN system, repudiated it.

In a blog posting on her website, Special Needs Jungle, author,former television journalist and Mum, Tania Tirraoro, who was interviewed for the Telegraph article, sets out "What I really think".

What I said when speaking to Peter but didn’t make it into the piece, was that I believe that the pressures of today’s society on children, parents and teachers are immense ...

(Some children) may or may not actually have special educational needs to start with, but if their home life is insecure and they live in poverty, it is sure to have an impact on their learning. They may just need attention and nurturing to give them self-esteem and confidence in themselves.

Tania is surely right, as you must read for yourself. But I still cannot bring myself to think it right to categorise 1 in 4 boys (never mind 1 in 5 children) as having a 'special educational need'. The term, the concept, the whole system is unwieldy, inefficient and does not serve the education of children, their parents or those who would teach them.

 

Queen's Speech & SEN - more next week

We can, next week, expect DfE Ministers to set out their detailed response to consultation on the SEND Green Paper "Support and Aspiration" and a timetable for what they are describing as the biggest reform of special education in 30 years.

In a DfE press release, accompanying the Queen's Speech to Parliament yesterday, the Minister, Sarah Teather, says, "In our Green Paper, Support and Aspiration, we set out plans for the biggest SEN reforms for 30 years – giving parents real choice and joining up health, education and social care services." (In fact, the SEND Green Paper does not set out "real choice" for parents when it comes to choice of school; as a careful reading shows, it sets out arrangements for expressing a preference; not at all the same thing, but let's not quibble here just now.)

Yesterday's Queen's Speech, which sets out the Government's proposed legislative programme for the coming year, announced "My government will propose measures to improve provision for disabled children and children with special educational needs." (Full text: Guardian)

A Children and Families Bill, to be introduced "early in 2013", will cover SEN, adoption, family law, shared parenting and the Office of the Children's Commissioner. The key measures of the SEN element will be:

• replacing SEN statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments (for 16- to 25-year-olds) with a single, simpler 0-25 assessment process and Education, Health and Care Plan from 2014
• providing statutory protections comparable to those currently associated with a statement of SEN to up to 25 in further education – instead of it being cut off at 16
• requiring local authorities to publish a local offer showing the  support available to disabled children and young people and those with SEN, and their families
• giving parents or young people with Education, Health and Care Plans the right to a personal budget for their support
• introducing mediation for disputes and trialling giving children the right to appeal if they are unhappy with their support.

The SEND Green Paper was published in March 2011. In September 2011, DfE announced arrangements for 20 'pathfinder' projects, covering 31 local authorities, to pilot the Green Paper reforms. "The interim evaluation will be published in autumn 2012 and final evaluation in 2013. The work of the pathfinders will continue to inform the changes we make to legislation through the Bill."

And that's about it. You can read more on the Department for Education website, where there are all the links mentioned above: "Children and Families Bill to give families support when they need it most".

Me? I'd like to see a Bill setting out truly radical changes in the education and upbringing of children with cerebral palsy - and I'm talking training, pedagogy and curriculum as well as the role of local authorities in assessment, provision and funding.But that's a debate for another day. Alternatively, you can read Scope's first response, in the form of a statement from CEO Richard Hawkes "Scope responds to the Queen's Speech".

We'll have to wait and see the detail. The measures for extending assessment and planning to 25 years particularly interest me, given Paces' long-standing commitment to achieving 'independent adulthood as active citizens' - and how that provision is to be funded. "Ambitious About Autism", "welcomes the commitment made in today’s Queen’s Speech to extend the legal right to educational support up to the age of 25 for young disabled people". On the other hand, these provisions need to relate to the provisions of the also-proposed draft bill to modernise adult care and support, about which Mencap has this to say "We now have serious concerns about the Government's desire to address the crisis in social care and move beyond the limited remit of the draft Bill. People with a learning disability and their families are increasingly unable to live full and independent lives".

To end this post on a positive note, then. This, which I agree with, from Mark Atkinson, Director of Campaigns, Policy and Research at Ambitious about Autism on extending entitlement to 25 years: “This reform has the potential to revolutionise the life chances of tens of thousands of young people with autism who are currently denied access to any educational opportunities beyond school."

More next week ......

Are we failing 1 in 4 boys said to have 'special educational needs'?

"Back in July, I queried the valueof the term 'special educational needs' when it was being applied to so many children".

That was how I began a posting here on 14th September, following the publication of an Ofsted report that among other things suggested that the term 'special educational needs' was being too widely applied. 

In July I had asked whether it was time to junk the term special educational need, after reading in the parliamentary debate on the Academies Bill that 21% of children "have some form of special educational need".

I wrote then: "It strikes me that if as many as 1 in 5 of our children have 'some form of special educational need' there is something wrong with our perspective on schooling or children or special educational needs or all three".

Now I have not checked the DfE source of the figures reported in today's Daily Mail online, which is where I happened upon them a moment ago online, but take a look anyway:

In primary schools:

489,250 boys (23.4%) are said to have SEN without a statement and

41,620 boys (2%) have statemented SEN.

The figures are 269,890 (13.5 per cent) and 15,660 (0.8 per cent) respectively among primary school girls.

In secondary schools:

386,730 boys (23.6 per cent) are said to have SEN without a statement and

47,090 (2.9 per cent) have statemented SEN.

This compares to 252,470 (15.7 per cent) and 16,540 (one per cent) among secondary girls respectively.

The report goes on to contrast the number of boys (26,170) with educational and behavioural difficulties compared with that of girls (3,590).

I don't know about you, but it strikes me that if as many as 1 in 4 boys have "some form of special educational need' then there is something seriously wrong with our perspective on schooling or on children or on special educational needs or on all three.

Furthermore, the report also says that the number of children getting statements actually fell from 236,750 in 2006 to 220,890 in the latest DfE report. At the same time, the number of children said to have special educational needs but not having a statement actually increased from 1.29m pupils (15.7 %) in 2006 to 1.47m (18.2%) in 2010.

Ofsted queries too wide use of "special needs"

Back in July, I queried the value of the term "special educational needs" when it was being applied to so many children.

I was following the debate on the Academies Bill as it passed through Parliament. Lord Low of Dalston advised the Lords that ""Twenty-one per cent of children have some form of special educational need."

Rather tentatively, I suggested that "if as many as 1 in 5 of our children have 'some form of special educational need' there is something wrong with our perspective on schooling or children or special educational needs or all three".

Now it seems Ofsted agrees. I read on the BBC News website today that: "Ofsted says special needs used too widely". 

The BBC report, by Education Correspondent Heather Sharp, says: "The wide-ranging study was Ofsted's biggest yet into a system that some parents have complained draws them into long and difficult battles to secure effective support for their children".

The Guardian story on the same Ofsted report quotes Jolanta Lasota, chief executive of TreeHouse pointing to the "immense barriers" faced by parents in getting the education of their choice for their children: "One of these barriers is getting that initial statement of SEN. But a statement alone is not enough and at TreeHouse we are calling for a greater understanding of special needs such as autism and more collaboration with young people and their families to deliver effective services which really support the family involved."

[Whether the Ofsted News page has not yet been updated with is story or it is to be found somewhere else I do not know. I cannot at the moment find you a link to obtain a copy of the actual Ofsted report.]

Whilst reading the first BBC News story, my eye was caught by another BBC News story published just a couple of days ago "Minister seeks more parental choice on special needs": "The children's minister [Sarah Teather] says parents should have more choice over special educational needs provision in England, as she seeks input for a Green Paper". [The Call for Views is available on the DfE Consultations website.]

Specifically, this report says that Ministers are looking to

• Give parents a choice of schools for children with SEN and disabilities,
• Transform the funding mechanisms in the system
• Prevent the "unnecessary" closure of special schools
• Support young people aged over 16 with disabilities
• Improve diagnosis and assessment.

Transforming funding and improving diagnosis and assessment are key areas in the 2nd Report of the Conservative Party Commission on Special Educational Needs [NB downloads as pdf file], Chaired by Sir Robert Balchin. Suggestions that Ministers are also looking to "support young people aged over 16 with disabilities" is most welcome.

Time to junk the term Special Educational Needs?

Is special needs a fad that harms children, as Francis Gilbert asserts in today's Daily Telegraph?

Make up your own mind.

In the Second Reading of the Academies Bill, Lord Low of Dalston who is also a vice-president of the Royal National Institute of Blind People, informed the Lords that "Twenty-one per cent of children have some form of special educational need." (As compared with the 2.7% who have statements of special educational need.)

It strikes me that if as many as 1 in 5 of our children have 'some form of special educational need' there is something wrong with our perspective on schooling or children or special educational needs or all three.

Just another parent; just another child

A story you've probably read many times before - different parent, different child, different disability.  It's all the same in the end. But take a look at the story in today's Independent on Sunday:

The boy in the corner: Why do children with special needs still get such a raw educational deal?

The system set up to help children with special educational needs can be as frustrating to parents as mainstream classes seem to their kids. With education a key pillar of the coming election, Bill Tuckey - who has himself battled the authorities on behalf of his son - corners Ed Balls and Michael Gove to ask: why is it so difficult to give our children the education they deserve?"