Our response to the government’s consultation, “SEND reform: putting children and young people first” 

Written by Amelia Canning on

Summary

On Monday 18 May, the government’s consultation on reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system closed. 

The consultation was a chance for thousands of members of the public to share their views on the Department for Education’s new proposals. 

Our consultation tool helped almost 200 families respond to the consultation, sharing their experiences directly with government.  

Alongside this, we also created our own response to the consultation, with insight from interviews and a survey with families we support. It’s clear that there are a range of different views on the proposals, and we made sure to capture these within our response. 

Our key asks

Throughout the response, we made sure to embed our three key asks of government. These are: 

  1. The legal right to support must be protected for all disabled children with complex needs, at all costs. This right is a vital lifeline for families and must not be diluted or replaced. 
  1. Establish clear, system-wide accountability. Accountability must be strengthened across local authorities, education, health and social care. 
  1. Deliver a credible, long-term workforce strategy. Reform will only succeed with investment in the right professionals, skills, and support. 

You can read more about our initial response to the consultation and our key asks in our blog: SEND reforms in England – what Sense thinks

Our response

In our response, we made sure to emphasise several concerns we have with the proposals. 

Erosion of legal rights and routes to challenge

We are particularly concerned that legal rights to support are being weakened. In the plans, every child with SEND will have an Individual Support Plan (ISP). This is a digital record of your child’s needs, outlining the day-to-day support your child should receive and how this support will be delivered. But the method to challenge support offered in an ISP is through the school, and it’s not clear how this will work in practice. 

We’re particularly concerned that these proposals pose a reduction in legal rights for children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), as families can no longer legally challenge how support is delivered within school, as through the proposals this will only be included in a child’s ISP. 

Most parents we surveyed were not confident an ISP would contain all the support their child needs, and one parent described being ‘scared’ of the route to legal challenge sitting with the school. 

We recommended that there must be a robust process for parents to legally challenge the contents of an ISP, particularly for those with an EHCP. 

Oversimplification of complex needs

The government has stated that all children on the ‘specialist’ tier of support will be able to access a Specialist Provision Plan (SPP) outlining the support they are eligible for. Children on this tier will also have an EHCP. However, in our response, we outlined our concerns around the lack of clarity around who will be able to access SPPs, and subsequently EHCPs. 

There is no one definition of ‘disabled child with complex needs’, and we know children should receive bespoke, personalised, and tailored packages. 

When we spoke to parents about this, they told us they are worried standardised approaches will not reflect the range and depth of need, especially in the absence of clear national eligibility criteria for accessing specialist provision. 

Going forward with the development of SPPs, we are urging government to adopt a genuinely holistic, child-centred approach which reflects the full spectrum of education, health, and social care needs. There must be greater clarity on pathways to EHCPs. 

Uncertain delivery of the Experts at Hand scheme and workforce capacity

Government also announced a £1.8 billion investment in the workforce, through its Experts at Hand scheme. However, we raised concerns about this scheme and wider workforce capacity. 

We know increased funding for specialist support is needed, and many families we spoke to said the most common gaps in support for their child were access to therapies, health support, specialist teachers and 1-1 support. However, it remains unclear whether the scheme has sufficient funding to deliver the level of specialist support needed, or how professionals will be recruited and retained. 

In order for special education needs coordinators (SENCOs) to take more of a strategic role, as outlined in the proposals, there must be proper investment in capacity and the wider specialist workforce. Our recent research found that only 54% of local authorities across England have a multi-sensory impairment teacher, meaning thousands of deafblind children are missing out on specialist support that means they can communicate and thrive at school. 

We called on government to create a comprehensive workforce strategy, to ensure expertise will not continue to depend on geography. Effective delivery of these proposals depends on significant collaboration between education, health, and social care, particularly better accountability for integrated care boards (ICBs). 

Lack of alignment with wider health system reforms

In our response, we outlined the missed opportunities to better align reforms to the SEND system with plans for disabled children within the NHS 10-year health plan for England. 

We are urging government to properly integrate these plans with the SEND reforms, particularly when it comes to the legislative stage. 

Insufficient focus on specialist provision

We mentioned our disappointment with the lack of focus on specialist provision, and our concerns that disabled children with complex needs may be pushed towards a placement that does not meet their needs as a result of the focus on mainstream inclusion. 

Most parents we spoke to said they did not think a mainstream school with tailored support would be able to meet their child’s needs. Some told us the local authority is already pushing their child towards a mainstream place, even when this would not meet their needs. 

Government must ensure all disabled children can attend a provision that best meets their needs, whatever type of provision that may be. 

Weak data and evidence foundations

Throughout our response, we highlighted that these proposals could not be delivered without a robust, comprehensive data to support understanding of what provision is needed, and where. 

Government must commit to commissioning a long-term programme of research and data development on disabled children and young people with complex needs, to ensure reforms are grounded in robust evidence. This would also support the evidence base underpinning the seven proposed SPPs. This should run alongside a long-term SEND data and evidence strategy. 

Next steps

Now the consultation has closed, we’ll continue to work with government to ensure all disabled children with complex needs can access education.

We’ll be continuing our work with Ministers in the Department for Education and hope to support their work in shaping the next part of the reforms and will keep you updated through our website and social channels.