SEN reforms not improving quality of life, study finds
Jess Brown
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Ambitious changes to the way young people with special educational needs (SEN) receive support are yet to improve outcomes for children and families, a study has found.
Research commissioned by the Department for Education found there is little evidence that the SEN shakeup, which came into effect last September, has led to significant improvements in children’s health or quality of life.
Under the "simpler and more joined-up" system, statements of SEN have been replaced with education, health and care (EHC) plans, which co-ordinate support for all children and young people aged up to 25.
Parents and young people can also request a personal budget to deliver aspects of the EHC.
But a final evaluation report on the SEND pathfinder programme, which has been trialling new approaches to deliver EHC plans across 31 local authority areas since 2011, found that there was “no statistical evidence” that the changes had an impact on the health and quality of life of young people.
It says there had been little change in terms of their confidence, independence or social contact, or the extent to which they enjoyed their education setting.
“This could either be because the impacts were too small to detect through the sample, or because the survey took place too soon after the new EHC plan was agreed for impacts to have occurred,” the evaluation, based on a survey of 698 pathfinder families, states.
The report says it may take time for the changes to the system to lead to improved outcomes, and also speculated that changing the system to get support may not change outcomes if much of the support delivered remains the same.
Overall, the report found that the SEN process has improved for families.
Families who had received an EHC plan through the pathfinder were statistically more likely to report that their views had been taken into account and their views had been sought and listened to.
There is also evidence indicating that the process was more joined up and integrated, and that the plan was delivered in a more acceptable timescale.
But despite higher overall satisfaction with the process there, around 20 per cent of families were dissatisfied with the way decision were reached.
"While too early to tell, this might indicate that it will be difficult to achieve the hoped-for reduction in tribunal cases without further improvements around the process," the report states.
Earlier this month Contact-a-Family, a charity for families of disabled children, was awarded more than £600,000 to help explain how the government’s special educational needs (SEN) reforms work.