Thousands of children with SEND 'not enrolled in school'

The inspectorate's annual report states that 3,500 children were still waiting for a place at the setting specified in their education, health and care plan (EHC) on 31 March 2019.

Of these, 2,700 were not registered in an alternative school or provision, the report adds.

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman branded these figures “concerning” and noted the number of children subject to an EHC plan has increased by 47 per cent over the last four years, rising from 240,000 in January 2015 to 354,000 in January 2019.

In the same month, there were more than 1.3 million school-age pupils with SEND, 15 per cent of all pupils on roll in schools. Of these, just over one million pupils were receiving SEN support and 270,000 pupils had an EHC plan.

• Commissioning: Rethinking SEND support

The report also raised concerns over the number of children with SEND excluded, temporarily or permanently, from state-funded primary or secondary schools. Pupils with SEND accounted for more than 178,000 (43 per cent) of fixed-term and nearly 3,600 (45 per cent) of permanent exclusions in 2017/18. 

“The primary need for just over half of pupils with SEND at the time of exclusion was recorded as social, emotional and mental health, despite this being only the third most prevalent primary need,” the report states.

More than 5,500 pupils with SEND left their school between years 10 and 11, the inspectorate says, adding “some of them may have been off-rolled”.

While Spielman said that “there are legitimate reasons for pupils moving between schools, and between mainstream schools and alternative provision or pupil referral units” she also accused some schools of “gaming” exam systems by off-rolling pupils when it is “not in their best interest” and forcing students to take exams in certain subjects.

A YouGov poll on off-rolling, carried out by Ofsted, showed that the majority of teachers believed vulnerable children or those with SEND and other needs were more likely to be affected by the issue.

Spielman called for greater collaborative working across education, health and care to improve standards for children with SEND.

She said: “System leaders across education, health and care in a local area do not always see themselves as collectively accountable for this provision. Too often, parents encounter significant fractures in statutory arrangements such as EHC assessment and planning, even in areas that seem to be working well.”

“All agencies involved in this area must think carefully about why partnerships are not working well enough and about why resources are not being employed effectively,” she added.

Responding to the report, Jolanta Lasota, chief executive of Ambitious about Autism, said:  “Pupils with special educational needs, including autism, are much more likely to be permanently excluded from school and teachers also admit that these vulnerable young people are more likely to be affected by off-rolling.  

“Alarmingly the report highlights that thousands of children with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans are currently out of school, despite a legal obligation on local authorities to provide support for these pupil’s needs. This exclusion has a huge impact on pupils and their families – both emotionally and financially, with many parents having to give up jobs or miss time off work to look after children who are out of school. 

“It’s clear that problems for special educational needs pupils are getting worse, not better, and we need decisive action to reverse this trend. This includes funding that ensures all children’s needs can be met and better autism training for all school staff to support these pupils. 

“We also need greater accountability. Any school found to have unlawfully excluded or off-rolled a child with SEND or an EHC plan has failed the most vulnerable – and therefore should be considered inadequate by Ofsted. The Government must also give greater powers to Ofsted to inspect multi-academy trusts to find out who makes decisions to exclude children.”