With its education white paper, the key section of which concerns support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), the government is returning to a more holistic view of schools. High standards and inclusion should be “two sides of the same coin”, the document states. The narrowing of the Department for Education’s focus under Michael Gove is being reversed – even if the New Labour name for the Department for Children, Schools and Families is not coming back.
Ambitious targets on attendance and a halving of the attainment gap between richer and poorer pupils are meant to boost wellbeing as well as standards. But the overall package’s success or failure will depend on whether Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, can win support for her Send reforms and implement them so that children do not lose out. Stricter criteria for the education, health and care plans (EHCPs) that oblige councils to provide individual support are dreaded by some parents and charities. The processes surrounding the new individual support plans, which will address less complex needs in future, must be robust and open to challenge. Schools must be resourced to play the bigger role that ministers envision for them – not handed extra responsibilities with no means of carrying them out.
By winning new funding from the Treasury, Ms Phillipson and her colleagues have allayed fears of a disguised exercise in cost-cutting – although the fiscal envelope remains too tight. The £1.8bn to be spent on rebuilding local services including speech and language therapy and educational psychology should boost councils and communities. The emphasis on inclusion as a principle should also be welcomed. The huge increase in children being educated separately from peers – from 1.1% to 1.9% of the school population in 20 years – is concerning on grounds other than rising costs. New national standards should increase confidence, as long as they do not lead to existing good practice being squashed. The goal of reducing dependence on the private sector, including a growing number of private-equity-backed special schools, is in line with a social democratic view of education as a public good.
Concerns include the criteria that will determine eligibility for an EHCP, reduced access to tribunals and the plan to reassess pupils when they move to secondary school – given the stresses already involved in this transition. Another is around staffing and whether the £200m pledged for teacher training will deliver the desired result.
Understanding of mental health and illness, and the differences between people’s brains and minds, is constantly evolving. The white paper rightly recognises that rising need may be linked to “new pressures” on children in a changing world, with social media and the pandemic both linked to adverse experiences. There is also a link between Send and socioeconomic disadvantage. Currently, around a third of pupils with Send support are eligible for free school meals. One in nine have a social worker, while 70% of those with an EHCP are boys.
Given such complexities, and the range of needs to be met, a gradualist approach makes sense. Specialist providers must be recognised as part of the system, even as it is reshaped. Existing arrangements must not be torn up. It is welcome to see education as a shared public responsibility, not one left to markets or families. But the plans will only work if ministers back them with real money and skilled staff.
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