OVERVIEW OF THE CHANGES
TO SPECIAL NEEDS
Brian Lamb
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Background to the New Approach
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Government Aims
• To support better life outcomes for young people
• A new single assessment process and ‘Education, Health
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and Care Plan’
To give parents confidence by giving them more Control
through a Personal buget
To transfer power to professionals on the front line and to
local communities
Local authorities and other services will set out a local
offer of all services available
Reduce Conflict
From Support and Aspiration 2011
What's in the Bill?
• New Plan to replace the statement covering
Education, Health and Social Care
• School Action and School Action plus
disappear to be replaced by new school
based category
• Local Offer for Parents
• Mediation-but not going to be compulsory
• New Code of Practice
• Personal Budgets for those with a plan
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EDUCATION, HEALTH AND
CARE PLAN
How Statements are being replaced
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Education Health and Care Plan
• Replacing SEN statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments (for
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16- to 25-year-olds) with a single, simpler 0-25 assessment process
and Education, Health and Care Plan from 2014.
Threshold for triggering a plan does not change-but already worrying
signs that some Local Authorities are interpreting more narrowly
Rights for triggering a plan remain the same, there will be timescales
and others can also trigger a plan and it will have to be reviewed
EHC plans extend statutory rights into the further education and
training sector for the first time
Section 139 assessments finish.
New duties in relation to health but not social care in relation to the
plan
Duty to jointly commission services
THE LOCAL OFFER
Addressing confidence in the SEN system?
What do parents want?
• Appropriate and timely recognition of a child’s needs by
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professionals
Knowledge and understanding of staff about a child’s difficulties
and needs the willingness of the service/school to listen to their
views and respond flexibly.
Parental beliefs and views are important for their confidence in
a professional’s approach to concerns about a child.
Access to specialist services and someone who understands
“my child” crucial. Parents look up the system until they find the
support their child needs.
Decisions are transparent and information about entitlements
and what is available is crucial to making informed decision
and “choice”.
Local Offer
Inquiry-”the core offer developed through Aiming High for
Disabled Children is extended to provide a set of principles
for engagement by schools and children’s services with
parents of children with SEN.”
Support and Aspiration “We propose to ensure that local
authorities set out a local offer of the support that is
available for children with SEN or who are disabled and
their families, and from whom. In order to achieve this we
intend to change the existing regulations covering what the
local authority is required to publish and describing how
authorities work with parents, local schools and colleges,
and other local services including those on the Health and
Wellbeing Board, to develop the offer.”
Governments View
Edward Timpson SEN Minister Jan 7th
“The local offer would enable families to see readily what
they can expect from mainstream services across
education, health and social care; how to access more
specialist support; how decisions are made including
eligibility criteria for accessing services, where appropriate;
and how to complain or appeal.
Local authorities would be required to involve local
children, young people and families in developing their
local offer to take account of their needs and aspirations.”
Government Bill-Local Offer
• Parents, children and young people must be involved developing the local
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offer
It must set out what families can expect from local services and where they
have eligibility criteria and/or thresholds for accessing services,
What services are available to support those without Education, Health and
Care Plans, including what children, young people and parents can expect
schools and colleges, to provide from their delegated funds
What specialist support is available and how to access it and to give details of
where parents and young people can go for information, advice and support.
Each service will be accountable for delivering what is set out in the local
offer and if families are unhappy with what they receive or what is available
they will be able to take this up with those services.
The local offer will give details of how to complain about provision and about
rights of appeal.
It must be reviewed
Accountability
“A local authority must from time to time publish.
(a) comments about its local offer it has received from or on
behalf of children and young people with special
educational needs, and the parents of children with special
educational needs, and
(b) the authority's response to those comments."
Good Parental Involvement?
• Planning-Parental engagement must be planned for and
embedded in a whole school or service strategy.
• Leadership-Effective leadership of parental engagement is
essential to the success of programmes and strategies.
• Collaboration and engagement-Parental engagement requires
active collaboration with parents and should be pro-active
rather than reactive. It should be sensitive to the circumstances
of all families, recognise the contributions parents can make,
and aim to empower parents.
• Sustained improvement-A parental engagement strategy
should be the subject of on-going support, monitoring and
development.
Goodhall, J. and Vorhaus. J. (2011) Review of Best Practice in Parental Engagement. London. DfE.
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SCHOOL BASED
CATEGORY
What replaces school action and school action plus?
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“THE CULTURE OF SCHOOLS IS STILL TO
FOCUS THE BEST TEACHERS ON THE THOSE
CHILDREN WITH HIGHEST ABILITIES…
HOWEVER WE ALSO NEED THE BEST
TEACHERS AND BETTER TARGETED
RESOURCES TO THOSE MOST IN NEED”
Lamb Inquiry
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School Based Category?
• School Action and School Action Plus to go
• Concerns that EHC Plan will apply to less pupils
• School based category posses the question of what the
school offer should look like to achieve better outcomes
• New Funding guidelines-Schools responsible for provision
up to £10,000
• Currently different models of intervention-what is the
evidence base for different approach's
• A number of models look to develop teacher based
expertise supported by specialist provision-this is what the
New Code now expects
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New Categories for the School Based
Offer
1. Communication and interaction;
2. Cognition and learning;
3. Emotional, social and behavioural development;
4. Sensory and/or physical.
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Early Identification-New Code
• Consider their core teaching and adapt that to meet needs of the cohort as a
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whole;
Ensure that parents of children are fully engaged, consulted and informed
and agreement is reached on how the child’s needs will be met;
Ensure that the child or young person is fully engaged, consulted and
informed and agreement is reached on how their needs will be met;
There should be a plan that focuses on what outcomes are expected and the
support that the school, college and any relevant agencies will provide;
Reviews of progress should be held at least once a term;
Where relevant, external services and providers should work with settings to
meet the needs of children and young people with SEN; and
Settings should review the effectiveness of what is happening and consider
the need for a further assessment and any whether there should be changes
to the support provided;
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New Code Admissions
• The School Admissions Code of Practice requires children
and young people with SEN to be treated as fairly as
others. Admissions authorities:
• must consider applications from parents of children who
have SEN who do not have an EHC plan on the basis of
the school’s published admissions criteria as part of
normal admissions procedures
• must not refuse to admit a child who has SEN but does
not have an EHC plan because they do not feel able to
cater for those needs
• cannot refuse to admit a child on the grounds that they do
not have an Education, Health and Plan
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School Information
1. Information about the school's policies for the identification, assessment and
provision for pupils with special educational needs, whether or not pupils have
EHC Plans, including how the school evaluates the effectiveness of its
provision for such pupils.
2.The school’s arrangements for assessing the progress of pupils with special
educational needs
3.The name and contact details of the SEN co-ordinator.
4.Information about the expertise and training of staff in relation to children and
young people with special educational needs and about how specialist
expertise will be secured.
5.Information about how equipment and facilities to support children and young
people with special educational needs will be secured.
6.The role played by the parents of pupils with special educational needs.
7.Any arrangements made by the governing body or the proprietor relating to
the treatment of complaints from parents of pupils with special educational
needs concerning the provision made at the school.
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Other Measures
• Offering mediation for disputes
• Pilots on young people having the right to appeal to
the Tribunal in their own right not through their
parents
• Extends the current right of appeal to the First-tier
Tribunal to young people aged up to 25 and, in the
case of young people in school, transfers the right
from the parent to the young person.
• New OFSTED framework expects to see progression
for all pupils-greater focus on SEN
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Challenges
• What does a good school offer look like-
how do parents know?
• What expectations should we have of
classroom teachers and what is the role of
professional support-when should it be
deployed?
• How is expertise accessed within the
schools context?
• What is the evidence for different
approaches?
OUTCOMES
“We know that the educational achievement for children with SEN is to
low and the gap with their peers to wide. This is a hangover of a
system, and a society, which did not place enough value on achieving
good outcomes for disabled children and children with SEN”
Lamb Inquiry.
“PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE FORM OF
‘AT-HOME GOOD PARENTING’ HAS A
SIGNIFICANT POSITIVE EFFECT ON
CHILDREN’S ACHIEVEMENT AND
ADJUSTMENT EVEN AFTER ALL OTHER
FACTORS SHAPING ATTAINMENT HAVE BEEN
TAKEN OUT OF THE EQUATION.”
(Desforges 2003).
THE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE SHOWS
THAT PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IS ONE OF
THE KEY FACTORS IN SECURING HIGHER
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
AND SUSTAINED SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
(Harris 2006).
Achievement for All - 4 elements
• Element 1 Leadership: to ensure schools maintain a sharp
focus on the achievement, access and aspirations of the 20%
vulnerable learners and those with SEND.
• Element 2 High quality teaching and learning: leading to
improved progress for all pupils (assessment and target
setting).
• Element 3 Structured conversations with parents/carers: to
improve parents’/carers’ engagement with school and their
involvement in their child’s learning and achievement.
• Element 4 Wider outcomes: to support the participation,
enjoyment and achievement of children in all elements of
school life.
Important Links
• http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/sen/a0075339/sengree
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npaper
http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/s/support%20and%20aspiration
%20a%20new%20approach%20to%20special%20educational%20needs%20
and%20disability%20%20%20progress%20and%20next%20steps.pdf
http://www.afa3as.org.uk/
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20091207163458/dcsf.gov.uk/lambi
nquiry/
http://www.education.gov.uk/complexneeds/
http://www.sendpathfinder.co.uk/
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/sen/a00209601/sendmaterials-advanced
http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm84/8438/8438.pdf
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFERR248.pdf
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/sen/a00209601/sendmaterials-advanced
CONTACT DETAILS
Brian.publicaffairs@gmail.com