Written evidence from Anonymous (SEN 84)

Education Committee

Solving the SEND Crisis

I am a SENDCo working in a mainstream primary setting. I am submitting evidence as I can see firsthand how unsustainable and broken the current system is. Families and children across the country are being failed on a mass scale and change needs to be made urgently. I hope that my submission provides helpful suggestions for moving forward.

Support for children and young people with SEND

The quality of SEND support in mainstream schools is highly variable, with significant disparities between settings, particularly when considering resourcing, staff expertise, and leadership commitment. While many schools offer high-quality provision, the lack of standardised resources and inconsistency in training results in a patchwork of services. In addition to this - the National Curriculum and the current assessment arrangements do not work for many pupils with additional needs, which provides significant challenge to schools in providing quality SEND support without costly resources and staffing to enable inclusion. Finances are a significant barrier to effective SEND support, especially given that Element 2 funding is not ringfenced for pupils with SEND.  Another barrier is the excessive bureaucracy in the SEND system - SENDCo time is now being used predominantly on administrative tasks rather than for providing direct support for staff and pupils which would have a greater impact on their support. Teachers and other school staff often lack sufficient training in SEND, impacting the quality of provision. While there is a wealth of training opportunities available, they are not always systematically embedded into teachers' professional development or aligned with actual classroom needs.

Suggested Solutions:

Inclusive curriculum and assessment design: The current curriculum and assessment arrangements do not work for many pupils with additional needs. The solution here is to design the curriculum and assessment systems to work universally and be adaptable to ensure that it is accessible to all from the beginning. The curriculum and assessment review is a great opportunity to re-design a system which works for all children. The government needs to listen carefully to what families and professionals are saying about the suitability of the current curriculum and how to adapt this to be truly inclusive. To start - I urge the review panel to look into continuous provision, EYFS provision, child-led learning and 'un-schooling'.

Standardisation of best practice and high quality training for all to improve mainstream expertise: The Department for Education (DfE) should develop clearer, evidence-based guidelines on what constitutes high-quality SEND support, encompassing both pedagogy and provision, and ensure these are consistently applied across schools. This should be underpinned by a rigorous, school-based training programme that is mandatory for all training teachers, teachers and LSAs to complete. This training should be continuous, regularly updated, and should focus on evidence-based, practical strategies for supporting a wide range of SEND. Ideally, specalist settings should link up with mainstream settings to provide high-quality support in how to make settings more inclusive and effective teaching strategies for children with additional needs.

Ringfence and increase funding for pupils with SEND: EHCP funding needs to be sufficient and not leave the school in a deficit, in line with Local Authorities' legal duties. This should be based on actual real-time costs so not to deter schools from admitting pupils with EHCPs. Element 2 funding must be ring-fenced to be used exclusively for pupils recieving SEND support.

Acknowledgement and reward for inclusivity and quality SEND support: Schools are currently not adequetly incentivised to provide quality SEND support. The disparity between funding recieved and funding needed is significant - meaning that schools who are inclusive and welcome pupils with complex needs have to take funding away from other pupils in order to adequetly meet their needs. In addition to this - pupils with complex needs are less likely to meet the national standards at the end of KS2, the school's published results do not acknowledge the individual progress that these pupils make or highlight this as a positive of the school.

Reduce bureaucratic demands: A national template for an EHCP and a reduction in paperwork required to access support would have a significant impact on the quality of support that pupils experience due to the SENDCo's time being freed to allow for greater strategic thinking and implementation as well as support for staff. A digital system where everything is in one central location, Annual Reviews can take place and amendments to the plan can be inputted and approved directly into the system / updated in real-time would massively reduce the demands on EHCP Annual Review teams.

Education, Health and Care Plans

The current waiting times for EHCP assessments are unacceptably long, leading to delays in support and mounting frustration for families and schools alike. Our local area has a huge backlog of EHCPNAs and none of the requests I have submitted in the past two years have been delivered to the legal timeline. The waiting time is several months longer than it should be. There is a need to streamline the process while ensuring a greater quality of assessments.

How can waiting times for EHC Plans be improved?:

Increase Local Authority Capacity: Immediate investment is needed in local authority SEND teams to increase capacity for timely assessments. This could be achieved through targeted funding, temporary roles, or partnerships with external providers.

Digitalise and nationalise EHCP Needs Assessments and EHC Plans: An online portal where professionals can submit their evidence and everything can be collated in the same place and a standardised national template (created in partnership with SENDCos, families and young people) would speed up the process and ensure consistency across Local Authorities. Everything which is non-essential should be stripped out - making documents as streamlined as possible with as few pages as possible to improve accessibility for families and reduce bureaucracy.

What can be done to support parents, carers and children or young people before, during and after the EHC Plan process? / How can the EHC Plan process be made non-adversarial?

Mediation and Parent Advocacy: Create accessible, independent parent advocacy services to help parents navigate the EHCP process. This should include early mediation services to resolve conflicts before they escalate into disputes.

Clear Communication and Support: Local authorities should provide clear, jargon-free communication and accessible guidance throughout the EHCP process, ensuring families understand their rights and how to engage with the system.

Introduce a new role, supporting families with school choices: Allocate a worker to support families with making choices on school placements - someone who knows all schools (mainstream and specialist) in the local area and what their offer is so that they can appropriately advise on the best placement to support the individual needs of their child.

What alternatives are there to the EHC Plan process?

The main benefits of EHC plans which are distinct from SEND Support plans are:

- They are legally binding, so the provision pupils need are protected by law.

- They enable access to alternative settings, where needs are not able to be met within mainstream provision

- They collate the views of multi-agency professionals in one place

- They enable individual funding above that of core school funding

However, there are many downfalls of the system. If the above 4 elements could still be included in an alternative streamlined system, the need for the lengthy EHC process would be removed. In theory - this could be achieved with a 'SEND Support +' type model. For this model, Local authorities could conduct a simplified assessment process to determine whether the child requires a higher level of SEND support than what the school can provide within its core funding. Rather than lengthy referrals and formal assessments, this model would rely on existing school-based data, teacher assessments, and collaborative professional insights (in a more integrated, less formalised way). The goal would be to identify whether additional support beyond the school’s core funding is needed and allocate resources more quickly to avoid delays to support. Once a need is identified, the child would be entitled to adequete funding for specific support as outlined in a statutory plan, including enabling access to alternative settings and an outline of the views of all necessary professionals. Again, this should follow a digitised and national template where professionals can update contributions to the plan and outcomes can be reviewed. The SEND Support + Plan would be hosted on a central platform that allows all contributors (parents, school staff, professionals, and local authorities) to view and update the plan in real time. This would increase communication, reduce delays, and ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding the child’s needs and progress.

Current and future model of SEND provision

SEND provision varies significantly between Local Authorities due to differences in available resources, local policies, and the ability to manage demand. This variability is especially pronounced in terms of funding allocations, specialist provision capacities, advisory support teams and availability of local services (e.g. inclusive sports clubs). Local authorities need to better plan for SEND provision, especially in light of rising demand for specialist school places and many families left in limbo waiting for specialist places which don't exist.

Suggested Solutions:

National SEND Strategy: The DfE should develop a national SEND strategy with clear guidelines on funding, training, and provision, to promote consistency while allowing flexibility to meet local needs.

SEND Accountability Framework: Holding local authorities more accountable for SEND outcomes through regular inspections and monitoring could ensure more consistent standards across the country.

Long-Term SEND Forecasting: LAs need to forecast SEND demand for at least a 10 year period, taking into account projected population growth, demographic changes, and emerging needs. This would help plan for new specialist schools and expand existing provisions before the needs arise. A centralised database for SEND statistics across local authorities would allow for better tracking of SEND needs and outcomes, helping to identify under-served areas and forward plan to address areas which need more funding. A national database showing the types of SEND provided for in each Local Authority and a team which plans for new provisions within local areas ensuring that all areas are accounted for to avoid out-of-county placements.

Increase in Resource Bases: A resource base located within a mainstream school is a fantastic idea in theory - however they need to be properly planned for and properly funded if they are going to be successful. Schools will need to have adequate funding to make a suitable space within their school site and to properly staff it. Depending on the size of the base, schools may need an additional SENDCo at the resource base to work alongside the SENDCo in the mainstream area of the school as there will be a significant increase in pupils with EHCPs which brings with it an increase in paperwork and meetings. There is also concern among SENDCos I know that if the school were to gain a resource base, there would be no flexibility in using that base for existing pupils at the school who would benefit as the allocation of spaces would be decided by the Local Authority (through the EHCP process) - therefore simply increasing the amount of pupils with needs across the school rather than providing a solution for the pupils who already attend the mainstream setting that are waiting for specialist provision. Schools should have some say and flexibility over how the spaces are allocated, leaving them room to use resource base spaces for pupils who already belong to the school even where pupils don't have an EHCP but would benefit from a short-term placement in the resource base before their difficulties escalate.

The government needs to ensure that capital funding is available to schools to not only create suitable physical spaces but to also ensure ongoing operational funding. This funding should be ring-fenced specifically for the resource base’s needs, including staffing and equipment. Schools will need funding for additional SENDCo positions or support staff within the resource base, particularly for larger bases that cater for more complex needs. It’s crucial that this funding is sufficient to ensure that staff are well-trained, not just in SEND provision but in the specific needs of the students in the resource base. One approach could be to create a funding formula that adjusts based on the number of students with EHCPs in the base and their specific needs. This way, the administrative burden associated with EHCPs, meetings, and paperwork can be alleviated by ensuring adequate staffing, resources and training.

There is a risk that resource bases might inadvertently create segregation if they isolate SEND students from the broader school community and so clear national guidelines around the prevention of this should be created and published. Schools and Local Authorities could better balance the demand for resource base places with the need for inclusive classroom settings. Some schools may need more resources or personnel for inclusive teaching, and clearer guidance on balancing these provisions could help prevent a shift towards more segregated settings unless absolutely necessary.

The other risk to be mindful of is if an effective capacity of resource bases would be exceeded as there is such high demand for specialist provision. To combat this - making the curriculum and assessment systems in mainstream schools more inclusive should be the first priority so that the need for provision outside of mainsteam is reduced. Resource bases should also have a clear upper limit of pupils based on national best practise models for the identified needs they support and these should be strictly adhered to.

What can be done to improve the effectiveness of multi-agency and joined up working cross education, health and social care?

We are in desperate need of a digital, centralised system. With this model - all professionals across multiple agencies would be able to see and contribute to key information about a child/young person. Families should only have to tell their story once and professionals shouldn't have to copy and paste information into a million different referral formats. This platform should enable: Real-time data sharing between health, education, and social care providers, giving all professionals involved in a child’s care a holistic view of their needs and progress. Family and child involvement: The system should be accessible to families, enabling them to track progress, update key information, and review professional input in real time. This means families would only need to tell their story once, avoiding the stress of repeated recounting to different professionals.

This is how I see this system working:

- One single, accessible and clear consent form which families access digitally - allowing them control over which agencies see their data and which professionals they give their consent to for working with them

- A clear and concise summary of the main needs and important information about the child

- Every agency would update the child’s file with their specific assessments, reports, and interventions. The system should contain a tab with a full history of professional involvement which all agencies can add to to give a comprehensive case file.

- Referrals to other services can be pre-populated by the system to lessen duplication and unnecessary bureaucracy.

Finance, funding and capacity of SEND provision

The current funding model is not fit for purpose - leaving many pupils without the early intervention needed in order for them to thrive because of the amount of hoops schools need to jump through in order to access the most basic level of additional funding support. Reforms are urgently needed. The current financial model, especially the responsibility placed on schools for the first £6,000 of SEND support which is not ring-fenced, puts significant strain on mainstream schools particularly those with a high proportion of pupils with SEND. Our school has a deficit of several tens of thousands of pounds due to the shortfall in EHCP funding, and my budget for resources for SEND Support this year is a mere £100. A shift towards more equitable, needs-based funding, including direct and ring-fenced allocations for SEND, would provide better support for children and young people and alleviate pressure on schools. EHCPs also need to be properly and fully funded so that schools are not left in a deficit. The amount of legal battles between Local Authorities and families/schools stem from predominantly the Local Authority being in financial deficit and having pressure to reduce the amount of funding they give to individuals, meanwhile the individuals and schools NEED the funding in order to make progress and have the support they require and are entitled to. 'Banding' and 'caps' on funding only make this problem worse, as the schools are not receiving enough financial support to put in place what is needed to support their students - again this penalises schools for being inclusive. Schools are expected to meet the needs of students with SEND with limited resources and substantial bureaucratic hurdles, while Local Authorities are financially constrained, leading to disputes and insufficient support.

Solutions:

Introduce Needs-Based, Ring-Fenced SEND funding for schools, simplify funding applications and streamline the process for schools and families to access SEND funding: Schools should be able to access funding without the need for extensive paperwork or complex processes. The funding allocation should be ring-fenced, transparent and prompt, and allow for early intervention.

Increase direct government funding to LAs: Provide additional, targeted funding to Local Authorities to meet the growing demand for SEND services. This funding should be allocated based on local population needs and should cover the FULL cost of supporting children with SEND, not just a percentage.

Increase transparency in Local Authority budgets: Local Authorities should be required to publish transparent SEND spending reports, detailing how funds are being allocated, spent, and monitored, to ensure accountability and prevent funds being diverted from SEND provision.

Long-term capital investment: Adequate funding must be allocated for the creation of new SEND schools and specialist provision to meet demand across the country. This will reduce the need for costly independent placements and reduce financial pressure on both LAs and mainstream schools.

Focus on early intervention: Earlier, more targeted interventions can reduce the long-term demand for more costly provisions and the need for specialist provisions down the line by closing the gap earlier. We need to embrace proactive, long-term planning.

January 2025