It had been my intention to finish writing this summary during the summer term rather than in August, and to devote the whole of it to a résumé of what has happened to date in terms of implementing the SEND and alternatice provision improvement plan (SENDAP IP). In the event, however, a general election was called rather earlier than anticipated, which resulted in Gillian Keegan losing her seat, along with a considerable cohort of her Conservative colleagues, and Bridget Phillipson succeeding her as secretary of state for education.

There is a consensus that the crisis in the SEND system will have to be addressed as a matter of urgency, so while the fate of the SENDAP IP may be uncertain, I thought it might be useful to give a quick overview of the stage it has reached. I’ve followed this by what is known about Labour’s approach to SEND in general, and finished with a reference to two recently published reviews pointing to what may lie ahead.

The SEND and alternative provision improvement plan

Published alongside the SENDAP IP was the SEND and alternative provision roadmap, listing the actions to be taken between 2023 and 2025. While some of you may have been involved in what has been known as the Change Programme, others may have wondered whether anything at all had been going on, beyond the clear intention of making SEND and alternative provision (AP) into a single system.

It seemed to catch the previous government by surprise that it might take months rather than weeks to set up change programme partnerships (CPPs) in each of the nine regions in England. Led by at least one local authority (LA), supported by two or three neighbouring LAs, and with integrated care board (ICB)-involvement, their role has been to test some of the reforms. I’ve listed these below alphabetically, together with some comments:

The reforms being tested

• Advisory tailored lists
  As part of having an education, health and care plan (EHCP), families would be given a list of mainstream, specialist and independent placements to assist them in expressing their preferences. This idea has received a mixed reaction. Parents’ right to request a mainstream placement would remain unchanged.
• Bands and tariffs
  An approach already used by many LAs, a national framework has been in development for high needs funding, to iron out the variations in levels of funding for similar needs.
• Effective multi-agency panels
  Also already existing in many LAs, this is aimed at making sure every LA has one and that they operate along similar lines.
• Education, health and care plans
  A digitised, standardised format with drop-down menus has been tested and generally welcomed as an improvement by those who have been involved in testing.
• Local area data dashboards
  Pulling together data from across education, health and social care these are designed to support the development of Local Area Improvement Plans (LAIPs).
• Local area improvement plans
  The aim here is to set out the provision available in each area, to assist with the planning and commissioning of support.
• National standards
  Designed to underpin a unified SEND and AP system and operating across education, health and social care, their purpose is to set clear expectations for identifying and meeting needs; clarifying who must secure support and from which budgets; and establishing what families could expect to receive and what providers are expected to deliver.
  Although many felt it would have been helpful to have these established before the other changes were tested, it was argued that they would emerge as the work on testing progressed.
• Practice guides
  Due to be developed alongside national standards and providing examples of best practice, the first three guides planned are on speech, language and communication needs (SLCN); autism; and mental health and well-being.
• Strengthened mediation
  Using better-trained mediators to handle disagreements with individual parents at an early stage, this is seen as a way of making the system less adversarial and reducing the number of tribunal cases.

Although the Department for Education (DfE) had been keen not to put too much information in the public domain while it was still testing the reforms, three online conferences had been scheduled for the beginning of July 2024 to let everyone who was interested know the progress that had been made. Due to the general election being brought forward, these had to be cancelled.

Programmes running alongside the improvement plan

• ELSEC (Early Language Support for Every Child)
  This was set up as a two-year pathfinder programme which started in September 2023, co-funded and co-led by the DfE and NHS England (NHSE). Each CPP has one ELSEC Pathfinder.
• APST (Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce)
  This pilot programme started in 2021 to test the effects of co-locating a diverse specialist workforce in AP schools, using teams with at least four different specialists, including counsellor, speech and language therapist, youth worker, transition coach, family support worker, youth justice worker. Funding was subsequently extended until March 2025.
• PINS (Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools)
  This time-limited project, funded jointly by the DfE and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), involves each integrated care board working with up to 40 primary schools. The delivery part of the programme is due to be operational from September 2024 to March 2025 and will test ways of improving outcomes for neurodiverse pupils.

Not surprisingly, given their levels of funding and staffing, these programmes have been favourably received and reviewed. Although their future may be uncertain, at least they will have shown what can be achieved with more appropriate levels of staffing and funding. It also demonstrates the effectiveness of working together across the services, which is key to supporting pupils with SEND. Just think what could be achieved if this became the norm rather than the exception!

A change of government

Although the Labour Manifesto said little about the party’s intentions as regards SEND and AP, it did refer to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, while ensuring special schools cater for those with the most complex needs. Bridget Phillipson was quick off the mark in talking to DfE staff about Labour being a mission-led government, giving all children the best start in their early years, delivering breakfast clubs to all primary pupils, expanding speech and language support, reviewing the curriculum and its assessment, reforming Ofsted, and improving mental health support for all children. She ended by saying that the DfE must be “a department for every child, for every young person, for every learner in our country.”

Bridget followed this up by writing to the education workforce, saying that although there might not be any easy solutions, she wanted to work with those involved to find practical ways forward. She said this involved working with local government to provide loving homes for children in care and providing support for children with SEND and their families.

At this point, it might be worth mentioning that among the influx of new MPs is Josh MacAlister, now Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington in Cumbria, whose name will be familiar to many for his meticulous and thoughtful work chairing the independent review of children’s social care. The review’s final report was published in May 2022, and one of the key recommendations was to implement a shift away from crisis intervention to early help across the children’s social care system.

A new ministerial team and a restructured department

Shortly after taking over the reins of government, the new team of ministers at the DfE was announced. I’ve listed the ministers below, together with some of their responsibilities:

• Catherine McKinnell, (MP for Newcastle North), is the schools minister, whose responsibilities include SEND, high needs and Alternative Provision
• Stephen Morgan, (MP for Portsmouth South), is the minister in charge of early years education, mental health support, and behaviour and exclusions
• Janet Daby, (MP for Lewisham East) takes responsibility for children’s social care, local authority improvement, and family hubs
• Baroness Smith of Malvern (formerly known as Jacqui Smith) returns to the DfE having been given a seat in the House of Lords, to take charge of apprenticeships, further and higher education.
• Anneliese Dodds, (Labour Co-op MP for Oxford East) combines being a minister at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with also being minister for women and equalities at the DfE, a responsibility she shares with Bridget Phillipson.

Along with this new team, a restructure of the DfE has been announced. This resulted in SEND and AP being placed within the schools group rather than existing as a separate entity. The reason given for this move is: “to ensure that we deliver improvements to inclusion within mainstream schools”. This could be a positive step in seeing SEND and AP as an integral part of the education system rather than separate from it, provided neither are lost within this wider group but both receive sufficient attention and their full share of any funding.

The way forward for SEND and AP?

Another delay in completing this summary was the publication of two reports towards the end of July 2024 which could have a bearing on the way forward. 

1) Towards an effective and financially sustainable approach to SEND in England

The Isos Partnership was commissioned by the County Councils Network (CCN) and Local Government Association (LGA) to produce a report focused on sustainability. The report’s eight recommendations include the following ideas:

• Clarifying the terminology around SEN/SEND and considering using ‘additional needs’ instead.
• Developing a national framework describing types and levels of need and which ones should be met in mainstream provision.
• Designing a new role for special schools which would result in a greater sharing of expertise, staff and pupils.
• Reforming part of the SEND statutory framework and devising a learner record for the majority of pupils needing additional support.
• Creating a new Destinations and Progression service in each local area, to have oversight of all students with additional needs as they approach the transition from children to adult services and in subsequent years.
• Creating statutory local inclusion partnerships, responsible for strategic planning and commissioning a continuum of support to meet local needs.
• Articulating a more strategic relationship between the state and the independent sector.
• Developing a cross-government, multi-disciplinary workforce strategy for inclusive education.

The researchers state that reform is both urgently needed and unavoidable. They use some of the ideas in the SENDAP IP, but believe it could never have been the complete answer. Instead, they “set out a vision of what an effective approach, focused on inclusion and support for additional needs, would look like.” Further information can be found at:

READ THE REPORT: Towards an effective and financially sustainable approach to SEND in England.
 

2) An evidence-based plan for addressing the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) assessment and support crisis

The second publication is by Child of the North, (a partnership aiming to build a fairer future for children across the North of England), and the Centre for Young Lives, (founded this year by Anne Longfield, the previous children’s commissioner for England). After pointing out that 32% of children with SEN(D) are persistently absent from school, that they are three times more likely to be suspended and three times more likely to become NEETs (not in employment, education or training), the report sets out three recommendations. In summary, these are about:

• using holistic measures of a child’s development to identify pupils with increased likelihood of having SEN(D),
• improving and extending training opportunities on SEN(D) for professionals and families, with continuing professional development courses being mandatory for educational professionals, and
• connecting systems more effectively to facilitate earlier identification of SEN(D) and the provision of appropriate support, by drawing on expertise from across education, health and social care, enabling more tailored and appropriate SEN(D) provision.

In a press release at the launch of the report, Anne Longfield said:

“I welcome the new secretary of state’s decision to give responsibility for improving SEND provision to the schools minister, and I hope this is the beginning of a fresh start for reforming a broken system.” She also said, “Ensuring that children with SEND have the support they need will also be essential to tackling the school attendance crisis, supporting all children to flourish and succeed in school, and to meet the new government’s ambitions to widen opportunity.”

READ THE REPORT: An evidence-based plan for addressing the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) assessment and support crisis.
 

And finally...

While it might be viewed as unfortunate that a change of government happened just when – after 5 years in the making and setting up a whole panoply of personnel at national, regional and local level – the SEND Review that began in 2019 had a chance of coming to fruition, it does provide an opportunity to think again about how far going ahead with the changes would solve the current crisis.

A new government also wants to look afresh at the broader context of issues, including reforming the curriculum and its assessment, the training and development of school staff, and the role of Ofsted in school improvement, all of which impinge on the educational opportunities for children and young people with SEND, including those in alternative provision.

I hope the new academic year will prove to be an interesting one!

Rona Tutt
08.08.24