Child of the North and Anne Longfield’s Centre for Young Lives think tank are today publishing a new joint report which reveals the scale of the crisis facing many children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEN(D)).
Child of the North and Anne Longfield’s Centre for Young Lives think tank are today publishing a new joint report which reveals the scale of the crisis facing many children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEN(D)).
The report – An evidence-based plan for addressing the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) assessment and support crisis – puts forward a plan to support the new Government in its mission to widen opportunity, by tackling the poor identification of SEN(D), the postcode lottery of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, and reducing the huge numbers of children not receiving the support they need to reach their full potential.
This is the sixth report in a series by Child of the North – led by the N8 Research Partnership and Health Equity North – and the Centre for Young Lives that are being published throughout 2024. Each publication focuses on how the Government can put the life chances of young people at the heart of policy making and delivery.
The report shows how the current system is failing many vulnerable children and young people with SEN(D). Over 1.5 million pupils in England have SEN(D), with 40% of children identified as having SEN(D) at some point between 5 and 16 years of age. Yet, the current system cannot cope, and has been unable to keep pace with advances made in identifying and recognising when children have additional needs and require extra support. 99% of school leaders have said that the funding they receive for pupils with SEN(D) is insufficient.
As the report makes clear, thousands of children and parents are crying out for a faster and kinder process and better early intervention support. The report highlights the impact of the stress on families trying to receive an EHC plan, with parents describing a traumatic process that leaves them feeling helpless, ‘begging for solutions’, and that can have a huge impact on their mental health and finances.
The report reveals how:
- In 2022, only 49% of EHC plans were produced within the 20-week statutory limit. In the same year, the percentage of EHC plans produced within 20 weeks across the North East of England ranged from 98% to only 13%. Similar disparities are present in other regions, such as the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber.
- There is large variability in the extent to which local authorities run the Healthy Child Programme, which can facilitate identification of SEN(D) before school entry.
- By the end of secondary school, the achievement gap between pupils with no identified SEN(D) and pupils with an EHC plan is almost 3.5 years. The gap between pupils with no identified SEN(D) and pupils with SEN support (but no EHC plan) is nearly two years.
- Just 30% of young people with SEN(D) achieved a Grade 4 or higher in English and Maths in 2022/23, compared to 72% without SEN(D). In 2021, 57% of children with SEND aged 6-16 years were reported to have a probable mental health disorder, compared with 13% of those without SEND.
- 32% of children with SEN(D) are persistently absent from school and children with SEN(D) are three times as likely to be suspended from school, nearly twice as likely to be persistently absent from school, and three times as likely to be ‘Not in Employment, Education or Training’ (NEET) at 16-17 years of age.
- The increasing demand for children and young people seeking assessment and support is placing significant pressure on the system. In 2021, councils faced a SEN(D) funding gap of £600 million.
- Children with SEN(D) were some of the hardest hit by COVID-19. The lockdowns and transition to home learning were particularly challenging for children with SEN(D).
The report makes a series of recommendations which offer the potential to cut the long-term costs of not acting early enough, including:
- Using holistic measures of child development to identify pupils with increased likelihood of having SEN(D).
- Improving and extending training on SEN(D) for professionals and families.
- Connecting systems more effectively to facilitate earlier identification of SEN(D) and the provision of more appropriate support.
The report highlights innovative approaches illustrating the incredible work that schools, universities, teachers, researchers, and others are undertaking to ensure the best possible SEN(D) provision, including:
- Hilltop and Forest View Schools in South Yorkshire, which provides specialised education and support for children with additional needs from diverse backgrounds, integrating academic, therapeutic, and life skills education.
- Tees Valley Education (TVEd), a multi-academy trust serving learners from nursery through to secondary, in a range of mainstream, specialist units, and full specialist school provisions.
- The Electronic Development and Support Tool (EDST), an online standardised tool designed to empower teachers in identifying and supporting SEN(D).
- FUNMOVES, a freely available universal screening tool that empowers schools with the knowledge and skills necessary to measure their pupils’ gross motor ability.
Read the full report – An evidence-based plan for addressing the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) assessment and support crisis
Find out more about the A country that works for all children and young people series
Anne Longfield, Executive Chair of the Centre for Young Lives, said:
“The SEND system is broken, and many families talk about the traumatic impact it has on their lives as they struggle to find support for their children. Tackling the delays, the poor early identification, and the postcode lottery should be a priority for new Ministers. This report puts forward a new evidence-based plan to identify SEND earlier and cut assessment times.
“I welcome the new Secretary of State’s decision to give responsibility for improving SEND provision to the Schools Minister, and I hope this is the beginning of a fresh start for reforming a broken system. We need to level the playing field of support nationally, prioritising those areas of the country which are failing to meet the 20-week goal, and being much more creative about how to achieve it.
“Ensuring that children with SEND have the support they need will also be essential to tackling the school attendance crisis, supporting all children to flourish and succeed in school, and to meeting the new Government’s ambitions to widen opportunity.”
Professor Mark Mon Williams, Child of the North series editor, said:
“Our collective failure to support SEND is a millstone around the neck of the UK. The new government will improve the lives of millions of children and grow the economy by ‘following the evidence’. The time has come to support every child to thrive in school and ensure the benefits of a healthy and well educated population are reaped by the UK.”
Dr Amy Atkinson, Lancaster University and Report Author, said:
“The current SEND system is failing children and young people. Urgent action is needed to ensure that children, young people, and their families receive the support they need and are entitled to”.
Professor Uta Papen, Lancaster University and Report Author, said:
“The SEND system is in crisis. There’s a postcode lottery – children and families experience very long waiting times and schools, despite best intentions, more often than not don’t have the resources to help all children in the way they’d like to. But there’s a lot we can do. Our report, drawing on evidence-based practices and new research illustrates a number of promising approaches and solutions ready to be adopted widely and promising to make a real difference to children and young people with SEND.”
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