Making her inaugural presidential speech in London, Rachael Wardell highlighted pressures in the SEND system as one of the key challenges facing directors of children’s services (DCS) over the coming year.
Addressing an audience of DCSs, Wardell said: “I don’t need to rehearse with you all of the reasons why we urgently need reform of our support and services for children with additional needs and disabilities but I think it’s important that we continue to remind ourselves that under the current system spend has never been higher and outcomes are getting worse for children and young people.”
She added that to create a more sustainable system and improve children’s outcomes the government must focus its reforms on delivering an inclusive education system “with mainstream provision as the presumption, and a graduated response to those children who need additional support”.
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