SEN0756

Written evidence submitted by Herts Parent Carer Involvement

Herts Parent Carer Involvement is the Parent Carer Forum (PCF) for Hertfordshire.  We have over 1,500 members, all of whom are parent carers of children or young people (aged 0-25) with SEND.  As a PCF, we are a member of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums - this response is not exhaustive and should be read as additional to the NNPCF submission.

Support for children and young people with SEND

There are excellent schools and excellent teaching staff, however, the quality of support for children and young people with SEND is inconsistent – both between schools but often between classrooms.  Without clear and enforceable standards of support, parents of children with developing needs feel as if they have no other choice than to apply for an EHCP, to ensure that the support their child needs is delivered consistently and to a standard. It must be recognised that the needs of some children and young people have a degree of complexity that requires support to be delivered through an EHCP regardless of the quality of the school. This will not change.

National Standards should be established, setting out what families can expect as ordinarily available provision.  And schools should be inspected against their delivery of these, taking into account the timeliness of assessing need and providing support. 

Schools should be adequately resourced to deliver support as needed and all staff should have a strong understanding of SEND and are trained appropriately.  This requires a revision of existing teacher training but also must include training for existing staff too.

Good examples exist where school staff are trained to screen for speech and language needs and have staff Elklan trained to be able to deliver basic strategies to support speech and language needs.

It would be helpful to strengthen guidance around attendance and exclusions, particularly for CYP with SEND.    Consistent and coherent leadership from the DfE in terms of how attendance and inclusion policies should align with one another would be helpful for both schools and families.

Better support for the wellbeing and mental health of all pupils is vital.  A focus on attendance should not just be about getting CYP though the school gates but should look at the environment within the school and ensuring it allows all pupils to feel safe, supported and ready to learn.

Families should be advised (in an accessible way) about what can and should be provided within schools and also where else they might access help for their child.  This may require additional investment in SENDIASS services.

However, it should not be the responsibility of the parent carer to ensure that their child’s needs are met.  Professionals should take responsibility and work in partnership, keeping the needs and interests of the child at the heart of discussions and decision making.

Current and future model of SEND provision

Inclusive schools that meet the needs of all its pupils is the goal.  But there is concern that without adequate resources, training and accountability, that schools will (continue) to find themselves unable or unwilling to meet needs.  Delivering support for more children with SEND within mainstream schools must be built upon a clear understanding of needs and how these can be appropriately met.  We must not end up in a position where specialist bases within schools are used as “childcare” for children, rather than being used effectively to meet the individual needs of each pupil that uses them. 

The SEND workforce requires suitable planning – schools must be supported by specialists and this requires investment in Educational Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Visual Impairment teachers and teachers of the Deaf etc..

We do not believe that the current legislation should be changed.  We believe that the focus of reform should be on effective implementation of the legislation and improvements in the delivery of SEN support, so that more children have their needs met at that level.

There will also always be a need for specialist provision for some children.  Planning for specialist places should be a priority for local authorities and central government, with local authorities allowed to build special schools without going through full planning permission.  LAs should also be allowed to run their own special schools without requiring a Multi Academy Trust to do so.

Joint working at all levels, from strategic leadership, to commissioning, to local delivery, should be the default.  And a holistic approach to meeting the needs of each child should be supported by better data sharing, which might include introducing unique identifiers to track information across education, health and social care.

Equally, SEND must be a cross-government priority, with clear responsibilities and effective joint working between all the relevant departments.

Accountability and inspection of SEND provision

Families expect that, at a minimum, the law will be adhered to. There should be proper accountability within the system for poor decision making and missed deadlines – it should not rely on those parents who are resourced to do so challenging via formal routes.

The current Ofsted / CQC Area SEND Inspection Framework should be amended to include learning from local school inspections to inform the judgement.  For the majority of families of CYP with SEND their main engagement with the “SEND system” is with their school and this must inform the assessment of the experiences of children with SEND in that area.

In holding local partnerships to account, health partners should be held equally accountable to their local authorities.  In areas that are found to have “widespread and / or systemic failings”, there should be a DHSC improvement notice issued to the ICB(s), equivalent to that issued to the LA by the DfE.

School inspections must consider more effectively the school’s effectiveness in meeting the needs of CYP with SEND.  This might include looking at data on exclusions, the use of part time timetables, and flexi schooling.  This data should be triangulated by talking to parents, including those whose children have left the school in the last year. 

Inspecting inclusion should consider how far each pupil is able to engage both in learning and in wider school life, such as sports and assemblies.  And to what extent pupils are able to access positive friendships with a peer group.

Finance, funding and capacity of SEND

SEND funding for local authorities must be equitable and not based on an outdated funding formula.

The notional SEN budget to support SEND students in mainstream schools should be increased in line with inflation and should be identifiable within a schools’ budget.  It must be sufficient to support effective early intervention as well as contributing to the support of children with EHCPs.

The health service needs to invest in workforce development for therapies and mental health support services ensuring that they have capacity to work effectively in partnership with local authorities to meet the needs of child with SEND in their areas.

January 2025