\n<\/p>\n
Ministers will unveil a \u201cgenerational\u201d overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities (Send) support, pledging \u00a34bn to transform provision in schools in England and warning councils they could lose control of Send services if they fail to meet their legal duties.<\/p>\n
The reforms are expected to be a key policy moment for Keir Starmer and for the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson \u2013 who delayed the changes last autumn after a ferocious backlash from MPs and parents.<\/p>\n
Writing for the Guardian, Phillipson said it would be \u201cimproved support, not removed support\u201d and said it was a once in a generation moment to \u201cdefine the future of education\u201d.<\/p>\n
The overhaul will bring about significant extra investment in special needs provision \u2013 welcome news as many people had feared the overhaul would be a cuts exercise, given the soaring costs of the services.<\/p>\n
chart<\/p>\n
Phillipson will promise a multibillion-pound investment including tailored specialist support in all mainstream schools and 60,000 additional special needs school places.<\/p>\n
The long-delayed proposals to transform Send in schools in England have resulted in a major listening drive led by Phillipson to try to smooth their landing with parents, and with MPs, many of whom had previously said they were prepared to rebel on the proposals.<\/p>\n
MPs who had been wary of the reforms told the Guardian they were privately optimistic that concerns had been heard and the vast majority of cases, especially poorer children, would receive improved provision, though they cautioned that detail may yet emerge in the full white paper to throw that into doubt.<\/p>\n
Backing the reforms, the prime minister said he had closely observed the engagement with parents. \u201cGetting the right support should never be a battle \u2013 it should be a given,\u201d Starmer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means no more \u2018one size fits all\u2019 system that only serves children who fit the mould. Instead, families will get tailored support built around their child\u2019s individual needs, available on their doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the changes, schools will get additional funding for specialised support for all those with special needs, but there will be stricter criteria for children who have an education, health and care plan (EHCP), which legally entitles children with Send to get support.<\/p>\n
Those will now be reserved for children with the most severe and complex needs, but new plans for children on lower tiers will still confer additional support and legal rights. Parents have raised concerns that those rights will be reviewed when children arrive at secondary school.<\/p>\n
Parents will also no longer have a free choice of which school to send their child to and will instead be given a list of possibilities, though appeals will be allowed and the Send tribunal can ask local authorities to reconsider.<\/p>\n
The shake-up comes amid record demand for special needs provision and mounting parental distrust of a system in which families currently win almost all Send tribunal appeals that go to a full hearing.<\/p>\n
Government sources said there would be new obligations for councils to meet their legal duties towards pupils with special needs \u2013 more than half of EHCPs are still issued outside the 20-week legal deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe white paper will put councils on notice \u2013 fail to meet their legal duties and they\u2019ll be stripped of their powers to run Send services,\u201d a government source said.<\/p>\n
The schools white paper will on Monday propose \u00a34bn over three years to improve inclusion in every mainstream school, which the government will say directly responds to parents\u2019 concerns that Send support is only provided after years of fighting for it.<\/p>\n
Early years settings, schools and colleges will get direct funding of \u00a31.6bn over three years, which can be spent on provisions such as small-group language support.<\/p>\n
There will be an additional pot of \u00a31.8bn to create an \u201cexperts at hand\u201d service, provided by local authorities, to fund additional Send teachers and speech and language therapists \u2013 which can be accessed whether or not children have EHCPs.<\/p>\n
There will also be more funding for high needs provision, additional special needs training for every teacher and the creation of 60,000 extra special school places, which the Department for Education said would end the \u201cpostcode lottery\u201d and reduce costs for private schools and long-distance transport.<\/p>\n
In practice, the funding is likely to be the equivalent of about \u00a320,000-\u00a340,000 a year for primary schools and about \u00a350,000-\u00a370,000 for secondary schools.<\/p>\n
Once the reforms are rolled out in full, an average secondary school will receive more than 160 days\u2019 worth of additional dedicated specialist time every year<\/p>\n
Schools will also be required to have an \u201cinclusion base\u201d, delivered through the government\u2019s previously announced \u00a33.7bn capital investment in schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not going to be taking away effective support from children, and what I\u2019ll be setting out tomorrow is a decade-long, very careful transition from the system that we have, which everyone recognises isn\u2019t working,\u201d Phillipson told the BBC on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019ll be a statutory underpinning and this will be set out. This will mean that there are clear routes and clear principles set out in statute that will guide all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charities and thinktanks have cautiously praised the reforms, though several said that they believed they would fail without significant efforts to improve retention and recruitment of staff \u2013 and with local authorities already routinely failing to meet their current obligations.<\/p>\n
Jo Hutchinson, the director of Send at the Education Policy Institute, said that \u201cwithout substantial increases in the number of funded training places each year, there will not be enough educational psychologists available to staff these services\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nick Harrison, the chief executive of social mobility charity the Sutton Trust, said the changes would benefit poorer families who did not have the resources to fight for EHCPs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese ambitious reforms to the Send system are a significant step in the right direction. It\u2019s essential that they tackle the double disadvantage that those with Send from poorer backgrounds face today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese reforms will stand or fall depending on whether the provision for pupils without EHCPs has enough funding to succeed in mainstream schools, and ultimately serves them better than the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Madeleine Cassidy, the chief executive of Send legal charity IPSEA, said the announcements \u201cdo not yet address the central issue of how unlawful decision-making by public bodies will be tackled and how accountability will be strengthened.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage, it also remains unclear whether these reforms will strengthen, maintain or inadvertently limit the existing legal rights of children and young people with Send.\u201d<\/p>\n
The learning disability charity Mencap, which was highly critical of the welfare reforms, also said there was cause for optimism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe move to make mainstream schools more inclusive is welcome news,\u201d it said. \u201cFamilies must have their children\u2019s needs identified early and for them to be given the right help straight away, backed by services fully funded to do the job, and rights underpinned by law.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her Guardian article, Phillipson said she had heeded the calls for more funding to improve the system. \u201cMany people have said \u2013 including in this newspaper \u2013 that the only way to achieve this is with significant new investment. That is exactly what we are doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But she said reform was necessary as well as additional investment. \u201cThis is a reforming government: fixing brick by brick the crises left behind by our predecessors. It is hard to think of one greater than this.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny parent or teacher who has experienced the Send system will say change is the right thing. Inaction \u2013 or indeed action that falls short of genuine change \u2013 is itself a choice, because children with Send have been let down time and again over the past 10 years and more. Now is the time to turn it around.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said he was prepared for the region to be an early adopter of the reforms and said he had made the offer to the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current Send system isn\u2019t working well enough for anyone. That is the unanimous conclusion of the Greater Manchester Send board, which combines parents and professionals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could help to build confidence in the changes if one area is prepared to go first and share our learning. We would not do this if we thought this reform is only about cuts and reductions of service and support.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the contrary, we are confident that a less adversarial and more preventative approach, with children and parents at the heart of everything, is achievable, and that Greater Manchester is uniquely placed to pioneer it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ministers will unveil a \u201cgenerational\u201d overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities (Send) support, pledging \u00a34bn to transform provision in schools in England and warning councils they could lose control of Send services if they fail to meet their legal duties. The reforms are expected to be a key policy moment for Keir Starmer and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[18546,1018,311,1015,20360,1014,1017,694],"class_list":{"0":"post-44993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-4bn","9":"tag-educational","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-overhaul","12":"tag-schoolchildren","13":"tag-send","14":"tag-special","15":"tag-support"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}