Anyone who has had dealings with children with special needs or disabilities will know that the current system has byzantine bureaucracy. It frustrates schools, students, parents and the other agencies involved in the assessment and planning process for that young person.
The government has issued the Green Paper Right Support, Right Place, Right Time with a raft of proposals. It is now calling for evidence and responses. Interested parties have until 11:45pm on 22 July 2022 to respond.
The Green Paper has acknowledged that the present system is unsatisfactory and has identified three challenges:
Challenge 1: outcomes for children and young people with SEN or in alternative provision are poor
Challenge 2: navigating the SEND system and alternative provision is not a positive experience for children, young people and their families
Challenge 3: despite unprecedented investment, the system is not delivering value for money for children, young people and families
At present it is often a case of too little, too late. Problems are exacerbated by delays and as a result young people feel marginalised and vulnerable. They are excluded in every sense and do not feel they belong. This impacts their wellbeing and resilience.
I certainly welcome the emphasis on a single national SEND and alternative provision system. At present it is all too often inconsistent.
A common EHCP framework, a more cohesive system, an emphasis on excellent teaching in mainstream are all to be applauded. Despite core elements of an EHCP being signalled already through the 2014 SEND Reform process, there appears to be too much divergence at local level making the job of a SENCO more time consuming and complex than it needs to be.
But I would like to raise certain questions:
Why is the current system not working?
Firstly, as always, it is about resource and money. Parents and carers are frustrated with the difficulties and delays they face. Children are out of education for unconscionably long periods of time and in the case of young people with mental health needs for example, support only arrives when the family is at crisis point.
Secondly, decisions do not always put the child at the heart of the process. Too many LAs use the EHCP process as a gatekeeping procedure, not based on a child’s needs but based on available provision. Parents are encouraged to express a preference but all too often there is no provision that closely matches the child’s needs. This is especially true of young people with autism, and social, emotional and mental health issues.
What do we mean by inclusion?
Does it mean “including every child possible in a mainstream setting close to their home, whatever their needs, be they social and emotional, cognitive or physical”… or does it mean “included somewhere”.
If the local definition, at academy, school and local authority level is the latter, then the alternative and special provision will be swamped with children deemed to be someone else’s problem. This is certainly the case in terms of children whose behaviour is judged as “persistently disruptive”, with permanent exclusions, coerced home education agreements, managed moves and alternative provision seen as a solution. These may be in the best interests of the school, but not of the child.
How schools can meet targets while being inclusive
Raising Attainment With Wellbeing is a programme that addresses the fundamentals of high-impact, intelligently designed inclusive practice within an education setting. It is designed for primary or secondary, academies, community schools, grammar schools, maintained schools, in fact, any education setting whatever phase and wherever it may be:
- It will support a school community to review its inclusive provision, culture, ethos and practice, at all levels, from leadership and governance to the classroom practice of every teacher and teaching assistant
- It will raise levels of progress and attainment through improved wellbeing, social and emotional resilience, and promote a stronger sense of belonging
- It will deepen significantly the knowledge and awareness of all teachers and leaders on the impact of childhood trauma and neglect
- Critically, it will give teachers tools and workable strategies to help children overcome these barriers to learning
- It will support the work of SENCOs by building knowledge and skills across the whole workforce about special education needs. This means that the SENCO does not do all the heavy-lifting alone
- SEND should be everyone’s responsibility, and Raising Attainment with Wellbeing will enable this
- It supports early identification and early help, a critical aspect of the Green Paper
- It helps a school community to truly understand the impact of poverty on academic progress and attainment, especially when conflated with health, well-being and collisions of additional disadvantage
- It will encourage the use of positive behaviour management, cognitive development tools and strategies and the use of assistive technologies, empowering social and emotional confidence and resilience
- It will transform the classroom experience for marginalised and disadvantaged children, especially those with hidden needs
A truly whole school approach
The best bit for me is that Raising Attainment with Wellbeing is structured in a way that enables different teams of teachers to proceed with different aspects of the programme simultaneously, at their own pace:
- NQTs can work on transforming the culture and climate of their classrooms through tried and tested positive behaviour management techniques
- Experienced teachers can learn more about adapting “quality first” Wave 1 teaching to address children showing low levels of needs in all four SEND areas: communication and interaction, cognition and learning, social emotional and mental health, as well as sensory/physical needs
- Middle Leaders can be considering cognitive acceleration programmes or the deployment of assistive technologies
- Senior Leaders can be reviewing behaviour policy
- Governors can be considering how to celebrate diversity
Raising Attainment with Wellbeing can be seen as the engine room that will drive the next wave of inclusive school improvement, not just as a response to the Green Paper, but because it is the right thing to do.
Marius Frank is the lead author of RAW – Raising Attainment with Wellbeing – a course run by TeachingTimes in conjunction with MicrolinkPC UK Limited.
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