Eight years on from the 2014 reforms, heralded to ameliorate the inclusion of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools and reduce the number who required statutory assessment, the evidence would suggest otherwise. Department for Education figures, based on the January local authority census, shows the number of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) has increased by 9.9 per cent, the largest annual increase since the reforms were introduced.
There are several reasons for this. One is that parents and education settings have become much better at identifying needs, through increased continuing professional development and awareness. Early intervention, defined as providing support to children and young people at risk of poor outcomes at the earliest opportunity, can improve life chances and offer a more holistic and long-term transformation. Accessing specialist support is costly however and some local authorities lack the specialist services that schools are requiring.
Another factor is that the education system, with the focus of accountability measures being results-based, is not working for a growing number of children and young people, especially those with SEND. Inclusion as a principle has not filtered down into practice consistently. This is reinforced by the statistics showing that the number of young people with EHCPs either in alternative provision or pupil referral units has increased by 11 per cent, notwithstanding the 12,000 young people not in education, employment, or training and a further 20,000 educated outside of a formal setting or on a waiting list for placement.
Pandemic disruption
The disruption to education caused by the pandemic has also disproportionately impacted children and young people with SEND. The removal of access to interventions, specialist support and those key relationships have seen young people requiring further intervention to support their development. Schools are only now seeing the impact of the pandemic on budgets and resources to support young people are decreasing. The local area SEND reviews are echoing this with an increase in the number of authorities needing to address significant weaknesses in their SEND provision.
These viewpoints may, to a greater or lesser extent, explain the increase in EHCPs, but the figures do not show the quality of the provision that is being put in place through these plans. If quality support and intervention can be provided through SEN support, then this increase would likely be smaller. It is an issue that the recently published SEND review must address.
FURTHER READING
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Education, health and care plan census data 2022, DfE, May 2022
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SEND Review: right support, right place, right time, DfE, March 2022
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Have we reached a tipping point? Trends in spending on children and young people with SEND, LGA/ISOS Partnership, Dec 2018
