Written evidence submitted by The National Education Union – NEU

(SFC0044)

The Need for Change

The current SEND system is broken and is failing SEND young people and the professionals working with them in schools, colleges, settings and specialist support services.

Greater numbers of children are presenting with special educational needs, particularly autism, ADHD and other neurodivergent impairments.  According to the government SEN data issued in June 2024 the number of EHCPs issued increased by 11.4% from January 2023 and the number of requests for EHCP assessment increased by 23,760 (20.8%).

Access to specialist assessment and support services has become increasingly fragmented due to funding cuts and lack of foresight or investment. 

Schools are trying to manage the business of educating, as well as providing specialist support to increasing numbers of students and their families.  In an educational environment which in the last 14 years has seen the growth of an increasingly overcrowded curriculum alongside pressured high stakes testing in all key stages, as well as a staff recruitment and retention crisis it is no wonder schools are struggling to meet the demand.

Performance of the System – financial

Policy changes in the last 10 years have led to an increasingly unmanageable financial situation, as well as decreased quality of SEND provision.  These changes removed an intermediate level of intervention for pupils with SEND needs and expanded support for 16 –19-year-olds. Despite a near doubling of the high needs budget over the past 9 years, there is still a substantial gap between actual and necessary funding. The majority of local authorities are now carrying substantial debt associated with high needs spending. At the same time, the proportion of EHC plans are completed within a target time frame has fallen, and parents have become increasingly unsatisfied, leading to higher rates of EHCP tribunals.

The NEU found in its ‘Why are high needs budgets so overspent?’ report a few common features of local authorities which are managing to keep balanced budgets; relatively less reliance on independent and non-maintained special schools, and better funded central services. Those local authorities with the highest levels of deficit had higher proportions of students with EHCPS in independent special schools. Places at these schools cost substantially more than places at maintained special schools and are more likely to receive negative Ofsted evaluations. The local authorities with the lowest levels of deficit tended to spend more of their high needs budgets on central services, which can be used to support pupils with EHCPs in mainstream schools. This report also notes that the current system of assessment and accountability can create incentives for mainstream schools to be less inclusive. This is particularly true of secondary schools.

Evidence to support these findings:

In the 2018-19 academic year the median balance carried forward per pupil was a small but positive figure - about £14. By 2022-23 the median balance carried forward was -£115 per pupil, a much more substantial negative.  Some LAs are now carrying negative Designated Schools Grant (DSG) balances of hundreds of pounds per pupil, amounting to a substantial proportion of the pupil premium (Figure 7).

Figure 6

Figure 7

The LAs in the worst financial situations had substantially higher proportions of pupils with EHCPs in independent schools or non-maintained special schools (INMSS) (Figure 10). Most LAs in the tercile with the highest budget carried forward had less than 2.5 per cent of pupils with EHCPs attending INMSS, while most in the worst performing group had over 2.5 per cent of pupils attending INMSS. INMSS places are generally more expensive than places in maintained special schools, often by thousands or tens of thousands of pounds per year. While some INMSS might provide specialist care not available in maintained special schools needed by some, placing pupils who could have their needs met in maintained special schools in INMSS can create a huge financial burden on LAs. The average proportion of pupils with EHCPs attending INMSS has remained relatively steady in the best performing tertile of LAs, but has increased among the worst performing tertile, suggesting that there is more pressure to place pupils in INMSS in these LAs.

Figure 10

Those LAs with positive balances carried forward into the next year spent substantially less of their budgets on top-up funding for pupils in INMSS (Figure 11). Three quarters of these LAs spent less than 20 per cent of their High Needs budget on these top-ups in 2022-23, while over half of the LAs with negative balances carried forward spent more than 20 per cent. A quarter of these LAs carrying negative balances spent over 30 per cent of their budgets on INMSS places. Many of these LAs were spending substantially over their total budgets each year so this may not amount to over 30 per cent of their total spend, but still is higher than that of LAs with positive balances. 

Figure 11

The finding that the higher the number of pupils placed at an INMSS correlates with the LAs in financial difficulties bears out the prediction made in the Local Government Association (LGA) report, “Have we reached a ‘tipping point’? Trends in spending for children and young people with SEND in England”6. In the report they say,

“One of the chief drivers of increasing costs identified through our survey was the capacity in local maintained special schools to meet demand. To put it bluntly, local special schools are full in too many places.

“It is important that the creation of additional special school places is not seen as a simple panacea. Evidence suggests that creating new places without doing all the other things that promote inclusion and early intervention will simply lead to those places becoming full again. Nonetheless the restrictions on local authorities as commissioners to expand the special school estate in response to rapidly rising demand leaves local government at the mercy of high and rising costs in the non-state sector.”

Independent and non-maintained special school places are significantly more expensive that maintained special school places. In 2022-23, the average cost of a place at an INMSS was £51,900 compared with £25,300 at an LA maintained special school or pupil referral unit.

The independent special school sector is growing rapidly with roughly 50 new schools opening every year. There are currently 600 independent special schools.

The quality of provision in independent special schools is lower than in the maintained sector. In The Annual Report of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2022/237 there is a comparison of the overall effectiveness of state-funded special schools and independent special schools (Figure 12). This shows that 90 per cent of state-funded special schools are judged to be good or outstanding compared with 81 per cent of independent special schools.

Figure 12

While there are clear national standards for all schools with residential places8, independent special schools offering only day placements are judged against The Independent School Standards which cover all types of independent schools9. Some independent special schools that should clearly never been allowed to open have slipped through this net10 and have then had to be closed following an inadequate Ofsted inspection.

Government action to create a sustainable SEN system and restore confidence

The government needs to focus on the funding model and change in culture/practice needed to create greater inclusion in mainstream schools and how this can be quickly implemented.  Schools and families have to feel confident in the system’s ability to support their young people before they will be comfortable to remove the safety net that the EHCPs are seen to provide.  This must be the heart of the SEND strategy.

Recommend:

1.      Remove the barriers to local authorities opening new special schools by changing the law to allow LAs to open new schools and increasing the capital budget.
Many local authorities have the opportunity to open new special schools much more affordably by converting vacated primary schools that have had to close due to the falling number of primary pupils. It is important that these are appropriate spaces and that viable schools are not closed purely for this purpose.

2.      Ensure good value from independent special schools by creating a price scheme for places at independent special schools based on state costs.
Places at independent special schools cost more than twice as much as at state special schools, even with a price cap set to allow for reasonable profits to be made then hundreds of millions of pounds can still be saved and directed to improving state provision.

3.      Support local authorities to strengthen their central service teams and protect that funding with a ringfence.

4.      Ensure that the proposed review of the curriculum and assessment takes full account of issues of SEND.
Pupils should not be restricted to a binary choice between academic and non-academic pathways. Assessment must be broad and inclusive so that achievements of all learners are recognised.

5.      Provide mainstream schools with increased funding to support pupils with lower-level additional needs and protect this funding with a ringfence.

6.      Reinstate the category of School Action Plus to allow local authorities to offer mediated support to pupils with moderate levels of additional needs through their central services.

Inclusive teaching practices and pedagogy around effectively teaching SEND students in mainstream classes should have been the central focus of the revised ITE/ECT framework.  Unfortunately, despite advice from the profession about what teachers were saying they needed, the current government retained SEND teaching as an ‘add-on’ rather than making inclusive teaching the enshrined principle upon which initial teacher education is based.

There are good practice examples of ITE courses which have inclusion and diversity at their core.  This needs to be the standard by which accreditation is achieved and the start of the pathway to building a workforce ready to embrace the rewards and challenges of working in an inclusive education system.

Genuine measures to attract more people into teaching and an inclusive and diverse training and ECT programme needs to be in place to retain them, alongside a fair pay deal and realistic workload measures.  Funding for a support staff workforce that is fairly paid for the work they do and trained and supported to do that work is urgently needed.

Recommendations related to points outlined above:

1.      Introduce a specific set of standards for independent special schools to guarantee quality provision for example by requiring that teachers are qualified.

2.      Ensure that the proposed review of the curriculum and assessment takes full account of issues of SEND.
Pupils should not be restricted to a binary choice between academic and non-academic pathways. Assessment must be broad and inclusive so that achievements of all learners are recognised.

3.      Change the accountability system to allow schools to be more inclusive.

4.      Schools should not be measured against the Progress 8 and Attainment 8 metrics that are not appropriate for children with high-level special needs. As a first step, children with an EHCP should not be included in the calculation of these metrics.

5.      Provide mainstream schools with increased funding to support pupils with lower-level additional needs and protect this funding with a ringfence.

6.      Reinstate the category of School Action Plus to allow local authorities to offer mediated support to pupils with moderate levels of additional needs through their central services.

The DfE needs to reassess the proposals in the Improvement Plan and in discussion with the SEND sector cease the proposals that are unnecessary and focus on measures that will make a difference to SEND young people, the educators and specialists working with them, and their families.

The DfE needs to look closely at the barriers that have been faced in Scotland with the introduction of the Additional Support for Learning (ASL) measures and look to address those issues in England as moves towards a more inclusive education system are made.

Suggested changes for government to achieve an inclusive education system

In a year’s time:

• Improved funding formula for local authorities enabling the development of specialist local SEND, behaviour and mental health support teams/hubs which work alongside clusters of schools supporting students and their families.
• Teacher and support staff pay will be restored to a level which reverses the real-terms cuts imposed since 2010 and which will begin to address recruitment and retention issues
• Initial teacher training and the Early Career Framework will have SEND and inclusion woven throughout, and new teachers will feel confident in teaching in inclusive classrooms.
• Use falling school rolls to work towards reducing class sizes.
• Remove the barriers to local authorities opening new special schools by changing the law to allow LAs to open new schools and increasing the capital budget.  Alongside this invest in mainstream schools and staffing to enable increased inclusion for more SEND students in a fit for purpose mainstream environment.
• Reduce contact time for teachers - as part of the Workload discussions with the profession agree ways in which non-contact time can be increased to allow teachers more time to plan for individual students, meet with specialists, attend additional training and meet with families of SEND students.
• SENCO’s allocated time according to the number of students with SEND or on SEND support programmes within their school or setting.  This will give them time to support classroom staff in the classroom and with follow-up training thus improving the ‘ordinarily available provision’ offer in all mainstream schools.  SENCOs to be on SLT and to have administrative support so that they can support class teachers and support staff in the classroom.
• School funding which is sufficient to: increase support staff, increase pastoral team capacity, create inclusive classrooms and spaces for additional support needs

In five years' time:

• Greater investment in mainstream school pastoral and local SEND specialist teams to enable more SEND students to be educated in mainstream without the requirement for EHC plans
• An improved curriculum, assessment and qualifications offer that provides achievable pathways for all students and enables SEND students to thrive in mainstream education.  The curriculum in all key stages to have a greater focus on Art, Music and Drama as well as practical skills for life
• Local SEND specialist teams, which include speech and language therapists (SaLTs), occupational therapists (OT), mental health specialists and behaviour specialists and which can respond quickly to school/early years referrals providing the earliest assessment and support for SEND children and young people, schools and families.
• Reduced contact time for teachers – with funding given to schools to ensure classes are covered by qualified teachers
• Reduced class sizes in all schools (primary, secondary and special

November 2024