Written evidence submitted by The British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People
SFC0030
Thank you for inviting the British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People (BATOD) to share our views on the Public Accounts Committee call for evidence. Please find below our response.
The British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People (BATOD) is the only professional association for Qualified Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People (QToDs) in the UK. A QToD is an experienced teacher with an additional mandatory qualification (MQ) in childhood deafness who has the skills, knowledge and expertise required to provide quality support to babies, deaf children, young people and their families from 0-25 in the home and in education settings (mainstream settings and those in specialist provisions).
BATOD represents the great majority of the QToDS in England (Consortium for Research into Deaf Education (CRIDE), England, 2023). BATOD also has Associate members who are not QToDs but are allied professionals in deaf education. Members work in all settings from the homes of deaf babies to universities, and mainstream schools with and without special provision, schools for the deaf and other special schools, hospital implant centres and charities.
A constitutional aim of the Association is “To promote the education of all deaf babies, children, young persons and adults and to promote the interests and status of all Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People, and members of allied professions.” Hence BATOD has a vetted interest in submitting a response to this call for evidence.
Schools, academies, colleges, local health service commissioners and providers, and local authorities have responsibilities across the special education needs and disability (SEND) system. Although there are some cross-government arrangements, the current system design creates challenges. For example, local authorities are held to account for provision but have limited levers to encourage changes within schools and health services.
The outcomes of a failure to invest in SEND training at a universal level was captured in the National Audit Office (2024) ‘Support for children and young people with special educational needs’ report. “Since 2019, there has been no consistent improvement in outcomes for children and young people with SEN”, page 6. This finding resonates with the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) attainment report 2023, whereby “39% of deaf children achieved a “good level of development” in the early years foundation stage (EYFS)”. “This compares to 67% of all children who achieved a “good level of development” in 2023.”
The 2020 National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) report ‘Emotional Well-being Survey of Deaf Children and Young People’ indicated “On average, young people in the Good Childhood Report (2022) were most happy with their family, health, and friends”. Deaf Children and Young People (CYP) from the NDCS report, pg 7, “were also most happy with family, but school and things ranked second and third for these young people”. The NDCS report highlighted that in the cases when the deaf CYP had not received the help they needed, the deaf CYP shared that help was not always offered: “I asked the school for help, but they did nothing”. This echoes the National Audit Office report findings that “Families and children lack confidence in a SEN system that often falls short of statutory and quality expectations”.
Within current arrangements there is a strong focus on a whole school SEND approach, with support for the professional bodies through National Association for Special Educational Needs (nasen) and Whole School SEND (WSS). However, this focus does not fit the needs of low incidence special educational needs (LISEN) cohorts eg CYP who are deaf, have a vision impairment, are deafblind. The issue is confounded with a lack of funding for specialist support, particularly LISEN support in local authorities (LAs), a lack of accountability for schools and particularly for academies.
“77% of school-aged deaf children attended mainstream schools” (CRIDE, England, 2023). The placement in mainstream may arise from parent/young person's preference, lack of local specialist provision for deaf children/young people etc. The 2022 NDCS Teacher Tapp surveys found “Just one in
20 teachers think the current education system allows deaf children to hit their full potential” and teachers responds reveal “86% of teachers received inadequate training to educate deaf children.” The frequency of visits by QToDs to mainstream settings to provide training, specialist interventions, direct teaching is impact due to frozen posts, lack of funding to recruit to maternity leave/long term sickness.
The National Audit Office reports states “In spring 2024, DfE identified that 69% of primary school and 73% of secondary school leaders were confident their schools could effectively support pupils with SEN”, it also highlighted “Stakeholders we heard from as part of this review told us that mainstream schools needed to be much more inclusive”. A challenge exists for the setting, supporting professionals and the family/CYP in that there is no clarity regarding what inclusion looks like in mainstream education.
BATOD recognises currently LAs have little power to ensure non-ringfenced notional funding is allocated to inclusive practice. This impacts on the ability to deliver and maintain effective service quality using evidence-based practices.
Some deaf CYP are able to access specialist provision. “6% [deaf children] attended mainstream schools with resource provisions” (CRIDE, England, 2023). BATOD is pleased that the Government recognises specialist provision within mainstream is required to meet the growing identified SEND population. However, BATOD is aware from its membership, that in relation to specialist resource provisions for deaf CYP that currently funding, staffing specialism and resource allocation within mainstream schools are not consistent. The BATOD membership frequently report the budget is not ringfenced. BATOD has a longstanding recommendation, since circular 11/90, that the minimum expected ratio in a resource provision is 0.18 teachers per pupil – approximately one to six. Within the last decade there has been a change in deaf CYP’s profile of need, coupled with a reluctance for expensive out of city/county placements, means specialist deaf resource provisions have more deaf CYP with additional learning, social/emotional, behavioural needs, multiple disabilities etc. The identification of the needs in additional to deafness, and support to effectively meet the academic and holistic needs of each CYP, requires more specialist intervention and input from QToDs.
It is important that parents are also confident in their deaf resource provision. While parents of nonSEND CYP typically have choices for educational setting for their CYP, parents of SEND CYP often do not. It is imperative that if there is a deaf resource provision attached to a mainstream setting, that parents and the CYP, feel it is appropriately staffed with specialist QToDs that can meet the needs of all deaf CYP. This requires settings to ensure QToDs are valued and involved in senior leadership decision making processes. Setting must engage parents, CYP and the local deaf community as stakeholders and actively involve positive deaf role models within the school to foster a positive deaf identity and inclusion. The setting’s curriculum options should be inclusive. For example, there is a British Sign Language (BSL) curriculum is available to use from nursery to secondary as well as the exciting prospect of GCSE BSL for secondary schools.
Parents of deaf CYP need an excellent deaf resource provision if they are only limited to one otherwise LAs will be forced to fund places outside of the local area. However, there is a misconception among some settings and authorities regarding the ‘resource provision’ label. Those settings are assuming minimal input is required with their view that resource provisions are “specialist facilities on a mainstream site for a small number of pupils who are otherwise in regular classrooms for most of their timetable” as opposed to the older terminology of SEND units [pupils] based there for at least half of their time in school. This misconception means some settings are not meeting the needs as set in the individual education, health, care (EHC) plans. This in turn has led to large cohorts of deaf CYP accessing an insufficient QToD to pupil ratio. The complexity of support and specialist access, and teaching input required for deaf CYP with such additional profile needs is witnessed in special schools for deaf CYP that are also experiencing an increase of these profiles. Schools for the deaf can be considered as an example of true inclusivity as these specialist settings create learning, teaching and social environments that focus on understanding and supporting the individual needs of deaf CYP. However, collectively these provisions and specialist resource provisions are typically lacking support for nurturing a BSL cohort/community.
BATOD recognises cohorts in non-deaf special schools are getting increasingly complex and welcomes the National Health Service England ‘Healthy hearing’ project in residential special schools. However, the excessive use of high needs budgets for increasingly high-cost unregulated provision and/or the escalation of need of CYP is related to a failure to respond early. The opportunities to implement appropriate early intervention is lost as a result of a failure to invest and hold school/academy leaders to account at universal level/SEN support. This in turn leads far too many parents chasing EHC plans, causing money to be wasted on bureaucracy and litigation and impact of the CYP/parental confidence in the system. The National Audit Office report identified “Between 2015 and 2024, demand for EHC plans increased by 140% and SEN support within schools 14%”. They highlight “a risk that DfE’s response, including increased funding, is neither targeted most effectively, nor addressing the underlying social, educational or medical causes which may extend beyond the education system.”
CRIDE, England (2023) indicates that 40% of children are identified as deaf through the newborn hearing screening programme or before they had started statutory education. The ‘failure to respond early’ has detrimental impact for deaf children when early intervention/access to specialist services is missed or significantly delayed in the early years. The lack of transport for under 5s to specialist (and even local) provisions has a massive effect on families’ choices for their deaf children which subsequently impacts the social, holistic and academic development of the children.
Within education, BATOD feels there is still too great a focus on age related expectations and end of key stage outcomes that does impact on funding usage, as schools/academies direct the money to improve data rather than focussing on progress of all. BATOD welcomes the National Audit Office recommendation to “develop a vision and long-term plan for inclusivity across mainstream education. This should consider opportunities to adapt funding and accountability arrangements to encourage inclusivity, building an evidence base for where mainstream settings can best support children with SEN; and how to improve parents’ confidence”.
BATOD welcomes the National Audit Office recommendation to “develop its use of evidence to better understand how and why pupil numbers change across different settings to assess the need for spaces across local areas and types of setting, and how this will impact, for example”. It is hoped this would address the postcode lottery experienced by deaf CYP and their families.
November 2024