SEN0461

Written evidence submitted by The Multi-Schools Council

Summery

This evidence comes from the Multi-Schools Council (MSC) which is a group of young people with special educational needs helping to challenge negative perceptions. We hold engagement meetings with young people across Essex and the East of England, as well as direct work in schools which help to create understanding about different areas of SEND.

As part of this model, we have 177 young ambassadors who are part of our network and share their views of various local and national topics, as well as creating their own projects. For this piece of work, we had 20 young people meet or send in their feedback on the questions they wanted to respond to regarding this inquiry between the ages of 9 and 23.

Core evidence/feedback

Inclusion in schools – Young people felt that although some support in schools was positive there was still a culture of singling young people out and making them feel ‘different’ rather than just embracing them for who they are. In some cases, young people felt that there was a lack of resources in schools (equipment & staff) to really ensure all their needs could be met. There was evidence from young people where accessibility needs had not been catered for, from lifts not working to lights not being fixed when flashing which could be really overwhelming for some. A core part of the discussion was EHCP’s not being read, understood or allowing any input from young people and this was across both primary and secondary schools.

Teacher & staff training – Over many years now this has been a common theme within many of our engagement projects with young people. The group felt that within teacher training their should at least by one month that is dedicated to understanding different SEND needs or even create a course which specifically focuses on teaching those with SEND. Within their training they should be presented with real scenarios to help them prepare for the diversity within our classrooms. Every year young people would like a test introduced for adults that focuses on SEND to help keep their knowledge relevant and up to date.

All staff working in schools should have annual SEND training like we do with safeguarding because it’s just as important. Within extended training their should be people with lived experience involved so that they can sense check what is being delivered. Although much of this feedback has focused on teachers, they also wanted to ensure LSA’s also have training too as often they are the ones working closely with them.  Within training there should be more on understanding EHCP’s/one plans so that they can be better applied and reviewed.

There were many examples where young people spoke about adults admitting to them they hadn’t had any SEND training before working in a school. This is backed up by our own experience of delivering in schools, we have had conversations with staff with 10+ year’s experience in education who have not had any SEND training. There seems to be a lack of confidence in working with young people who may have more complex needs which leads to big challenges. There was a frustration among the group who felt that SEND training wasn’t prioritised like things such as safeguarding, which is important too but that meeting individual needs should be seen as important.

Identifying needs – Every headteacher should be able to do this was the first comments that came back in regard to this. The young people suggested having ‘peer experts’ in schools that could help identify and help other young people who may have similar needs. Generally, there should be more people who are able to diagnosis conditions so that people aren’t left waiting for years, with more places available.

Within schools there should be a better understanding about these individual needs from the point they join and they discussed how schools working well with their parents was really important here. Young people would like to see further investment into understanding different needs that can then again help the education system adapt to being more equal for all. There were some examples where observations of needs were happening too frequently online and the group felt this was not a fair way to really understand what a young person may need.

Schools could help setup blogs from their students which explain how individual needs may impact them so that communities can also have more understanding too. One of the big issues young people identified is that we need to ensure young people also have the same level of understanding because when this doesn’t happen it leads to bullying. Where needs aren’t understood by peers this can lead to them not wanting to be open about their needs which means they drop out of school or become ill with their mental health. The final line on this was subject was that young people feel they shouldn’t have to wait for a diagnosis to have their needs met.

What is working – Some young people spoke about how when they were vocal about their needs they were met and had some positive relationships with staff, keyworkers and other adults. When they area treated like ‘adults’ this seems to work better rather than being spoken down to. Young people in this group also have some positive examples of how they had been supported with their mental health, especially with some schools becoming more understanding of the impact the whole school day could have on them.

Some young people in the group had examples of how the number of lessons they were expected to attend had been reduced and that other interventions to support them had been put in place. Young people felt that when reducing the number of lessons this had a positive impact on their results and mental health. There were other positive examples of lessons where tasks had been re-explained or broken down which really helped them access the lesson. Some of the group also spoke about how when the pace of school was slowed down this really benefited them and enabled them to keep up with work.

Reducing exclusions from schools – Peer to peer programmes were a core part of this discussion topic. Young people said that they can often respond better to each other rather than adults and especially when things get difficult and investment in these types of programmes or interventions should be looked at. The group also felt their reflecting on their ideas around better training would also help reduce the number of young people being excluded from school.

Changing the culture in schools away from ‘adult control’ to ‘working together’ was another strong theme. Some young people gave examples of punishments/consequences that they felt went ‘way over the top’ and started a ‘snowball of incidents’ because they then felt like things were unjust. The group was balanced and did also say they felt consequences were important but just that they needed to be more proportionate. A big part of the problem young people was a lack of SEND awareness once again and asked the committee to reflect again on the comments above. The group would like adults to consider a young person’s ‘whole story’ before making quick discussions about their place in school. Young people felt frustrated that when they were getting picked up on ‘small things’ (uniform was the most common theme) they were missing out on learning.

What should OFSTED be focusing on – A core focus in any inspection should be SEND awareness and inclusivity, if schools are not meeting these there should be an immediate action plan put in place. OFSTED should look at data concerned to young people being excluded or not attending and if this is disproportionate in terms of numbers of young people with SEND there should be a panel in place made up of independent professionals and young people that is able to ask questions following this.

The role of OFSTED should also look to support teacher young people said. They felt inspections could help recommend different awareness courses or training that could then benefit young people with SEND. If OFSTED discover that there is a lack of SEND training or awareness the school should be given a fixed time scale to address this problem. The group would also like inspectors to have more discussions with young people, particularly those with SEND.

Final words

Through the work of the Multi-Schools Council we have many more reports and pieces of evidence that could help benefit this inquiry and we would welcome some further conversations with our young ambassadors. We have also kept a close eye on the live inquiry panels and feel they would benefit greatly from more young people’s input.

January 2025