Academies 'discriminating against SEN pupils', MPs told

As part of evidence submitted to the education select committee, which is conducting an inquiry into MATs, concerns were raised about “illegal and discriminatory practices” of some MATs around admission and exclusion practices relating to children with SEN.

The SENCO Forum, a DfE-hosted forum to support special needs co-ordinators (SENCOs), said there are particular concerns about how academies and MATs fulfil their SEN responsibilities.

This included “illegal and discriminatory practices in some academies and MATs with regard to the admission and exclusion of children and young people with SEND”. It also raised concerns that MAT leadership teams are “out of touch” with local SEND policy.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT), said that the overall exclusion rate in academies is five times higher than in maintained schools, with pupils with SEN accounting for 70 per cent of these. It said that if there is an increase in the number of MATs, there will likely to be an increase in overall numbers of exclusions each year.

In terms of admissions, it said "some evidence to suggest that academies are more likely than maintained schools to discourage children with special educational needs and disabled children".

And social policy research organisation Race on the Agenda said that academies are using informal methods of exclusion, such as putting a pupil on five months of "exam leave", in cases where they find a pupil too challenging to work with.

"This becomes particularly an issue with MATs where the mechanisms for accountability and transparency that existed within local authority managed schools no longer exist," it states.

The National Association of Head Teachers said that special schools and other alternative providers are concerned that, if forced to join existing MATs, they will become "little more than receiving houses for the pupils other schools in the MAT cannot or will not support".

The education select committee's inquiry will examine their role of MATs, and how the expansion of MATs should be monitored and managed.

Last week Education Secretary Nicky Morgan climbed down on plans to force all schools to become academies by 2022. However, she said that schools in underperforming areas will still be required to convert to academies, and that she still expected all schools to become academies in the next six years.