SEN reform urgently needed - but let's do it properly

Reform and simplification of this stagnating system is urgently needed. The administration of the statutory process has become an industry in itself, with time and money swallowed up in repeated assessments and appeals. The adversarial approach of the SEN system sets parents against the school or the local authority, rather than encouraging a shared approach to meeting the needs of the child. Statutory processes have too often been seen as the best way to secure the resources that parents feel are needed or, alternatively, the best way for local authorities to resist unreasonable demands.

Another feature of the current SEN system is fragmentation between health, early years, schools, colleges and transition into adulthood. I have been meeting groups of parents and volunteers who support them through the morass of unlinked systems. The words they use tell the story - "fight", "battle", "worn down", "argue".