Children’s commissioner backs call for inclusive SEND support in mainstream schools
Fiona Simpson
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
The children’s commissioner for England has backed the government’s focus on making mainstream schools more inclusive for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The SEND and alternative provision green paper, which puts forward a raft of proposals for reform of the SEND system in England, makes calls for mainstream provision to improve SEND support through the creation of “local inclusion plans” and “local inclusion dashboards”.
The recommendations suggest putting a legal duty on local authorities to introduce plans across early years, school, and post-16 education with support from health and care services.
Meanwhile, “local inclusion dashboards” will set out the role and responsibilities of partners offering support for children and young people with SEND up to the age of 25.
In a new blog, published on the children’s commissioner’s website, Dame Rachel de Souza said that improving access to mainstream provision for all children was a key factor cited by local authority in her attendance audit carried out last year.
“Children with SEND can struggle to attend school regularly if they don’t receive the right support.
“The whole system needs to address the challenges experienced by children with SEND, with a joined-up approach,” de Souza said.
The children’s commissioner has set a target to see 100 per cent attendance when schools return in September.
She added that in order to achieve this “every school should have a co-ordinated pastoral strategy which pulls together safeguarding, mental health, SEND and behaviour into an integrated approach, with a focus on supporting children to be in school, and to thrive in school”.
“We need to better support staff to support SEND students. All teachers are teachers of children with additional needs, and so it is vital that all teachers receive the support and training to do this effectively,” de Souza said.
The blog notes that the government’s report on responses to an open consultation on the review will be published “shortly”. The 13-week consultation closed at the end of July.