Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government how often they review the level
of support given in schools to special needs pupils.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, provision is reviewed regularly through school and
local area inspections. Schools must demonstrate that children
with SEND achieve good outcomes in order to be judged good or
outstanding. We also strengthened local area inspections in
January 2023. Annually, we collect and review data on education,
health and care plans, including timeliness and volumes. We have
also started collecting data from local authorities on capacity
in special schools, SEND units and resourced provision. We also
plan to introduce new local inclusion dashboards to improve local
accountability.
(Lab)
That is most helpful indeed; I am grateful. The Children and
Families Act defines a child as having special educational needs
if he or she has a
“learning difficulty or disability which calls for special
educational provision to be made”.
Some 69% of teachers surveyed by the Pearson school report said
that our education system is ineffective in supporting these
special needs pupils. They said that we need more teaching
assistants, better teacher training, more resources, and most
importantly, easier access to diagnostic testing. Do the
Government agree?
(Con)
The Government are acting on a number of those issues. On
diagnostic testing, as the noble Lord well knows, our approach is
that the child should not need a diagnosis to be eligible for
support. Early identification is incredibly important, and the
Government are doing a great deal to train up the early years
workforce and provide more specialist educational psychologists.
More broadly, the shape of special educational needs has changed
a bit over the last five years, with a much greater prevalence of
social, emotional and mental health needs and of children with an
autism spectrum disorder, and we are working closely to address
that.
(CB)
My Lords, 96% of education, health and care plan appeals are
successful, but in less-affluent areas parents are less likely to
appeal an EHCP decision, which must contribute to the current
inequalities in provision. What are His Majesty’s Government
doing to achieve greater equality in the support offered to all
children with special educational needs?
(Con)
The noble Baroness is right about the success of appeals, but I
point out that just over 2.3% of all decisions went to appeal.
Although the success rate is very high, the level of appeals is
perhaps lower than the House might believe from the media. We are
currently trying to test a range of measures that will mean that
the quality of decisions—and, crucially, the confidence that
parents can take in those decisions—is improved. That includes
testing a single national education, health and care plan
template and guidance, testing multiagency panels to improve the
quality of and parental confidence in decision-making, and
resolving disagreements quicker by strengthening mediation.
The Lord
My Lords, I declare my interest as a parent who had to fight hard
for an EHCP for his child. It is not only in deprived areas that
it is very hard to be awarded an EHCP; it is certainly true in
Worcestershire, where a large proportion of applications are
turned down. As I was fighting through mediation, I was told by a
health professional, “Remember, John, only pushy parents get
EHCPs”, and that seemed to be the case. Does the Minister agree
that this is shameful? Does she also agree with the LSE that the
basic problem is that more money needs to be put into the
system?
(Con)
I tried to address some of the points that the right reverend
Prelate raised in my answer to the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins.
We definitely do not want a world where only pushy parents get an
EHCP; we want a world where the children who need an EHCP get
one. On funding, this Government have massively increased the
high-needs budget; it will be worth over £10.5 billion by
2024-25, a 60% increase on 2019-20. We are also committing
significant capital to expand the number of special needs
places.
(Con)
My Lords, I declare my interest as chief executive of Cerebral
Palsy Scotland. Does the Minister share my concern that, despite
the significant increase in children with special needs, almost a
third are people with an EHCP identifying autistic spectrum
disorder as their primary need? A diagnosis in itself is not the
be-all and end-all, particularly for umbrella terms such as
autism or cerebral palsy. Can she reassure me that her department
understands the importance of considering individual impairment
levels to successfully sustain long-term improvements in
participation?
(Con)
I thank my noble friend for the work she does as chief executive
of Cerebral Palsy Scotland. She raised an important point and is
absolutely right. In our schools and colleges, support should be
in place to address the identified need, barriers and level of
impairment, as she described it, so that children and young
people can not just participate but thrive in their education and
preparation for adulthood. That should not be dependent on the
nature of the diagnosis.
(LD)
My Lords, will the Minister comment on a meeting I had earlier
today, in which representatives of different ethnic groups were
saying that it is much more difficult for them to get diagnosed
with dyslexia? This is because the teachers do not know how to
pick out dyslexia from things such as second-language problems,
and the fact that those parent groups do not know that diagnosis
and assessment is for them and not just for white boys.
(Con)
The noble Lord raises a very relevant point—the wider issue of
how parents can be aware of how our special educational needs
system works, feel confident in it and understand how to have
conversations with their children’s teachers about any concerns
they might have. That is why we have altered the initial teacher
training and early career framework for teachers, as well as
introducing a new national professional qualification for special
educational needs co-ordinators. This is to make sure that
schools can be really proactive with parents and give them the
confidence to address their children’s concerns.
(Lab)
My Lords, the noble Baroness has outlined a range of measures,
but the truth is that there is insufficient capacity in the
system. I spoke to one parent—I do not think she would mind me
referring to her as a pushy parent—who has waited for 18 months
and has still not had her child assessed. Given the social and
the ethnic disparities mentioned by noble Lords, is the noble
Baroness 100% confident that government policy and what is on
track at the moment will actually meet the growing demand?
(Con)
The Government have made a huge amount of progress, and a very
significant financial commitment working closely with those on
the ground. As I said, we have announced £2.6 billion between
2022 and 2025 to fund new special educational needs and
alternative provision places. Together with the new free schools
we have already announced, it will add 60,000 new specialist
places to the system. I know the noble Baroness will appreciate
that this is a very significant increase.
(CB)
I have a grandson with ADHD who has had little or no support from
his school throughout his education. He was sitting his A-level
mocks recently. He has time blindness, among many other problems,
and spent the whole exam doing one question. Can the Minister
take any action to make sure that children with ADHD actually
receive the support they need? ADHD makes a complete havoc of a
child’s education, however bright they seem to be.
(Con)
I am sorry to hear about the struggles of the noble Baroness’s
grandson. Of course we want our schools to be well equipped to
respond to a range of special educational needs and disabilities,
but we also know that often those will have knock-on effects in
other aspects of a child’s life. It is not just the response
within the school that is crucial, but also the partnership with
local health services in particular.
