In what the Government says are the biggest reforms of SEN provision for 30 years families will be given specialist budgets and health, education and social care services will be legally required to work together to plan and commission services.
The reforms are set out in the Government’s response to last year’s consultation on the Green Paper on special educational needs.
The key points are:
- Education, health and care plans will replace SEN statements for under-16s and learning difficulty assessments for over-16s. There will be a single assessment for from birth to 25 and this will be introduced in 2014.
- All families with an approved plan will have a legal right to a personal budget, which means that if they want to, they will be able to to buy in any support identified in the plan themselves by receiving direct payments. Alternatively, local authorities and other agencies can manage the funding for them.
- Services for disabled children and SEN will be jointly commissioned by local authorities and health services.
Parents whose children have an education, health and care plan will have a legal right to apply for a place at a state-funded school – whether maintained, academy, free school or special school
All local authorities will have to publish a local offer of support, so that parents know what is available in their area.
The Government is planning to introduce a new single category of SEN and tighten up the guidance for identifying children with special educational needs.
The changes could also mean that fewer children will be diagnosed as having SEN.
The Green Paper found that the number of children diagnosed as having special educational needs, but without a statement, has risen sharply in recent years.
The number of children with speech, language and communication problems identified as a special needs rose by 58 per cent between 2005 and 2010.
A report by Ofsted in September 2010 also said that many children were wrongly identified as having special educational needs and that their needs could have been met with good teaching and pastoral report.
Children’s minister Sarah Teather said that the reforms would end delays to children getting the support they need.
She said, ‘The current system is outdated and not fit for purpose. Thousands of families have had to battle for months, even years, with different agencies to get the specialist care their children need. It is unacceptable they are forced to go from pillar to post–facing agonising delays and bureaucracy to get support, therapy and equipment.’
She added, ‘These reforms will put parents in charge. We trust parents to do the right thing for their own child because they know what is best. The right to a personal budget will give them real choice and control of care, instead of councils and health services dictating how they get support.
‘It is a huge step forward to require health, education and care services work together. The reforms will give families better information and given them a comprehensive package of support that meets their needs.’
However, children’s charities warned that tightening up the guidelines for identifying children with SEN could mean that some children do not get the right support.
A recent survey by the National Autistic Society found that only 65 per cent of children with autism have a statement. Eighteen per cent of these children had some support through School Action Plus (a lower level of special need), but just under half of parents surveyed said they were dissatisfied with it.
Mark Lever, chief executive of the NAS, said, ‘The proposed changes to the statementing process look promising. The concern is exactly how support will be improved for children with SEN who don’t have a statement but still have significant needs.
‘There has been much media hype over identification of SEN, but for children with autism this is not a picture we recognise. Many parents we speak to have faced a huge battle to get their child the educational help and support they need.
‘With the Government pledging to change how it identifies SEN, there is a danger that more children with autism will fall through the gaps in the education system and miss out on an effective preparation for adult life and employment.’
The Communication Trust, a coalition of 50 voluntary organisations specialising in speech, language and communication, said that more than half of children excluded from school have an unidentified speech, language and communication need.
Wendy Lee, professional director for the trust, said, ‘Changes in labelling, particularly around the diagnosis of behavioural, social and emotional problems, will need to be managed carefully.
‘Parents and the children’s workforce often notice and recognise poor literacy or poor behaviour but may not notice the SLCN underneath, such as poor understanding, vocabulary or conversational skills.
‘We need to work hard to ensure that the hidden difficulties of children with SLCN are identified early across all phases of education.’
Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, said, ‘We welcome greater partnership working between agencies, particularly at the early years stage, and the greater focus on working with health professionals.
‘With the right training, early years professionals are very well placed to identify those children with SEN. But it is crucial that early years qualifications are made to better reflect these new challenges.
"These changes should deliver positive outcomes for more families of children with SEN, but funding will need to be maintained at appropriate levels going forward to deliver effective change.’
Srabani Sen, chief executive of Contact a Family, welcomed proposals to simplify and streamline the system to make it easier for disabled children and their families to get the support that they need.
She added, ‘However, we are concerned that the education, health and care plan will only be available to children who need support in education. This could mean that disabled children whose first need is for social care or health support will miss out.’
She added, ‘In addition, while the aims of the SEN Green Paper are laudable, this is against a backdrop of cuts to welfare and local authority budgets which will have a huge impact on disabled children and their families.
‘With trials of these proposals only just beginning, there is clearly still much work to be done on the finer detail, and we urge the government to pay close attention to how the proposed new system is working in the local authority pathfinder areas.’
