SEN0476

Written evidence submitted by The Brook Special Primary School

Context.

I am the Headteacher of the Brook Special Primary School, a maintained school, situated in the heart of the notorious Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham, London.  We are graded as an outstanding school in all categories. Haringey is David Lammy’s constituency.

I am in my eighth year of headship at the school , having worked in SEND maintained special schools for over 4 decades, and have steered an expansion scheme to meet the increasing needs of SEND pupils in the borough so that my school has expanded from 108 pupils to 139 currently, with an additional 18 being gradually added this year through the Safety Valve programme; my final pupil numbers will be 157 as of September 2026.  My pupils are all Primary aged and have a variety of complex needs including ASC, ADHD, SEMH, Global developmental delay, SCLN and Physical and sensory impairment. 62% of my pupils are eligible for pupil premium. 

Although I work in a special school, I am aware of the SEND situation within primary and secondary mainstream schools for a number of reasons

• My school is part of the Broadwaters Inclusive Learning Community which incorporates the Willow Primary school and Children’s centre;
• As chair of the Haringey Special Heads forum, I sit on many of the Local Authority’s strategic boards (ie Startwell, SEND executive, Schools Consultative Group
• I am the SEND link Governor at a Haringey Primary school and in a Redbridge Secondary school
• I am also the County Disability Advisor for London-over-the-Border Girlguiding which means that I am often involved in supporting parents of children with SEND both within Guiding but also offering support and advice about their children’s lives outside of school (ie EHCP process, personal budgets, CAMHS referrals, Tribunals etc)

Support for children and young people with SEND

In order to meet the needs of our children both pastorally and academically it has been necessary for us to take certain steps by devising our own schemes of work to underpin the national Curriculum and to create our own assessment system following the removal of P Levels following the Rochford review publication.  OFSTED has confirmed that these two initiatives have been aspirational and provide appropriate stretch and challenge, and we are often called upon to share them with mainstream colleagues who are struggling to modify the National curriculum appropriately.

Whilst I totally applaud the opportunity for schools to be innovative and creative, there is nonetheless the sense that we are working in a vacuum nationally (not locally as Haringey has a Network learning Community scheme that brings a myriad of schools together).  Getting the balance between conforming to nationally set expectations whilst modifying and bespoking our offer to genuinely meet the needs of our cohort, is a difficult one.  P Levels were too rigid and the gap between each scale too large for the developmental needs of our children, but at least the scheme was portable  ie. A child at P4 would be recognised by colleagues nationally as having certain needs and capabilities. There can no longer be this accepted benchmark ; this makes mapping progress a more complex system than before and yet the disparate systems in operation are much more likely to identify the very small steps in progress that SEND children make than a broader stroke system.  The loss of P levels is particularly difficult for colleagues in mainstream schools who are requiring their children to fit within a particular assessment model ; whilst the majority of their children, including those with EHCPs, do fit within that model, there are a small minority for whom mapping progress is difficult without a bespoke assessment system.  In consequence, we gift our curriculum and assessment scheme to mainstream schools to fill this gap – but it is on an ad hoc basis and often headteachers are reluctant to adopt something which does not have national accreditation.

Suggestions

• Regional or Area networks to be set up for practitioners to share good practice and to ‘buddy’ with special schools that have a plethora of expertise that can be shared
• Teacher Training to have a much greater thrust on how to meet the needs of children on SEND support and with EHCPs, since more inclusion is going to challenge practitioners to meet more complex needs in their daily teaching lives.  More placements in special schools and more modules specifically addressing these needs would be beneficial as many of the techniques and strategies learnt can be adopted for mainstream children
• A centralised resource base where practitioners can share ideas and good practice rather than it being a case of ‘good luck’ if you happen upon someone in your local area who is able to support.

Finance, funding and capacity

No inquiry into SEND can fail to acknowledge the impact that insufficient funding is having on SEND delivery and I am well aware that there is no pot of gold at the end of the funding rainbow and that Government, Local Authorities as well as schools are all struggling to find ways of balancing budgets. One issue for schools in Haringey is that it is funded as an Outer London Borough, rather than an Inner London Borough.  Given that it is the fifth most deprived Borough in London, this has a very significant impact on what the Local Authority can deliver. When I began my tenure at the Brook I inherited a deficit which I was able to clear within the first 12 months.  I am confident that myself, my School Business Manager and my Governors have rigorous oversight of expenditure and that we are not mismanaging our finances.  Indeed, an independent reviewer (from DfE) examined our financial situation and was clear that we were being innovative and creative but that he could not offer any suggestions as to how we could decrease our deficit without unacceptably compromising the safety of pupils and staff , the quality of education we provided and the support we give to our families.

To give examples as to why I believe we are in this position:

• There has been no significant additional funding being given to my school for 7 years.  The top up funding has not increased whilst the cost of living and staff wages have risen year on year.
• The needs of the cohort are changing noticeably (far more violence, SEMH and over 76% of my cohort are on the Engagement Profile), requiring more Positive Behaviour Support and interventions and means that staff reduction is not possible.
• Support Staff are rarely considered in pay negotiations.  In my special school I have three times as many support staff as teachers and yet the latter are the only colleagues for whom a Government grant is issued.  Every time support staff get a pay rise (which is completely out of my control) it costs me on average an additional £200,000 for which there is no additional funding.
• COVID – for schools that did not open during COVID there was little financial penalty.  My school stayed open every single day of the COVID crisis and that decision (which was absolutely the right one) cost me all of my surplus - £170,000.  Why?  At the outset, if a percentage of teachers were shielding then a grant was given.  I had one teacher shielding but that did not meet the grant threshold.  However I had 29 support staff shielding who did not feature as part of the workforce grant.  Covering that number of staff and keeping those in school as safe as possible, resulted in me spending the figure given above. (the support staff situation was redressed in the second bout of closures which was a great relief)
• The current Safety Valve programme has resulted in all children being rebanded .  This will have a significant impact on special schools as the special school bandings have been considerably reduced to allow mainstream schools to have more funding.

I appreciate that it is all too easy to say ‘just give schools more funding’ when there is a lack of money in all sectors.  The reality, however, is that it will be very difficult for schools to maintain the quality of education we all want for our children if the funding remains at its current level. Indeed, there is a real worry that successful schools – like mine – will be forced on some days to close its doors if we cannot maintain a pupil:staff ratio that keeps everyone safe.

January 2025