All SEND pupils will be able to get support in school even if they have not been officially classed as requiring extra help, the Government will promise as it unveils a long-awaited shake-up of the system.
Reform of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) regime in England is designed to end the status quo where an increasing number of children have been given a legal right to extra support beyond the help available in mainstream schools.
It will cut the number of costly education, health and care plans (EHCPs) by requiring pupils on a plan to be reassessed when they move from primary to secondary school, and create a four-tier system with differing levels of intervention.
But new funding will allow all areas in England to employ specialist SEND teachers and speech and language therapists who can help pupils whether or not they have an EHCP.
The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, hopes to create a system that is less divided on the basis of EHCPs – lowering the stakes for parents who currently feel their children will only receive the support they need if they are put on a statutory plan.
She told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “The assurance I can give to parents is that under the new system, more children will receive support, but they’ll receive it more quickly, they’ll receive it when they need it and where they need it and parents won’t have to fight so hard to get support through an EHCP.
“Because what parents tell me is that the EHCP has become the means by which that route into the system, by which they get the support their children need. They shouldn’t have to go through that.”
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The Government is putting £600m a year into a new service, “experts at hand”, which will allow schools to access experts when needed, with specific interventions tailored to pupils’ needs. For example, a school could offer group therapy to children struggling with their speech and language, followed by one-on-one classes for those with the most serious problems.
Another pot of funding is intended to allow schools and further education colleges to intervene as early as possible so that pupils who are at risk of falling behind because of special needs receive help before their issues worsen.
Phillipson will seek to head off a revolt from Labour MPs, who have expressed concern about the withdrawal of EHCPs from some children, by arguing that she is breaking down the silos which separate SEND provision from mainstream education. She will say that removing the need for parents to fight for an EHCP before they get help will make the system less stressful and alienating.
Sir Keir Starmer commented: “I’ve heard first hand the struggles and exhaustion faced by too many parents who feel they have to fight the system to get their child the support they need.
“But getting the right support should never be a battle – it should be a given. That means no more ‘one size fits all’ system that only serves children who fit the mould. Instead, families will get tailored support built around their child’s individual needs, available on their doorstep.”
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Dani Payne, of the Social Market Foundation, warned that reassessing children with EHCPs “risks undermining one of the central objectives of reform” by creating further uncertainty – and could still prompt a rebellion.
“We have recently seen how sensitive welfare reforms can trigger organised backbench resistance. SEND is similarly emotive, and many MPs report that it is their most frequently raised constituency issue. A proposal framed – fairly or unfairly – as stripping already promised support away from children could prompt a significant rebellion.”
But Avnee Morjaria of the IPPR think tank said that the reforms “address the problems everyone has been pointing out for years”, adding: “At present support for children with special educational needs is too slow, too adversarial, too expensive, and too often arrives only after their needs have escalated.”
Laura Trott, the Conservatives’ shadow Education Secretary, raised concerns about Labour’s funding of the plans, saying “it remains unclear whether this is new money.
“This is not money you can find down the back of the sofa. Families deserve honesty and cast-iron guarantees that no child with an EHCP will lose the support that many parents have fought for.”
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