The Government has finally responded to the petition, “Protect legal rights to support for children with SEND”. Read the full response here.
The response took a month-and-a-half to arrive, far in excess of the limit set by the Petitions Committee. We understand the DfE has a lot on its plate, but when the petitioner is a disabled teenager, worried about the impact on his support and the support of those coming after him, the delay is unacceptable.
What does SOCR think?
In Save Our Children’s Rights’ view, while the Government says its proposed reforms would strengthen support for children with SEND, significant concerns remain.
- The response says the proposed reforms would “strengthen the legal duties to support children with SEND in mainstream settings”. While Individual Support Plans may create new duties for schools, without a statutory duty to deliver the provision in those plans, it remains unclear how support will be enforced and monitored.
- The response also states that an EHCP would be underpinned by “evidence-based specialist provision packages” commissioned by local authorities and delivered by settings. However, replacing individually assessed provision with pre-commissioned support packages risks moving away from a system based on a child or young person’s specific needs.
- The Government says it wants “to meet children’s needs earlier and more effectively without needing to wait for a diagnosis or bureaucratic assessment processes”. However, the law already says children do not need a diagnosis to access support without a diagnosis. Delays often occur because public bodies fail to comply with existing legal duties, including the 20-week EHCP assessment process.
- The response further states that “the SEND Tribunal would remain a legal backstop for the most important EHC decisions”. However, proposals to remove the right to secure a placement that meets a child or young person’s individual needs would weaken one of the most important protections currently available to families.
- We support meaningful reform of the SEND system. What we do not support is removing existing legal rights to achieve it.
- These rights are not administrative obstacles – they are essential safeguards for families when things go wrong.
- Thank you to everyone who has signed the petition so far. Please continue sharing and help us get this issue back before the House of Lords.
Read the reponse in full
Click to reveal the full text
The government’s proposed reforms strengthen the legal duties to support children with SEND in mainstream settings. The SEND consultation proposes a new legal requirement for schools to create individual support plans (ISPs) for all children with SEND, developed by their nursery, school or college in discussion with parents, children and any other professionals such as healthcare experts involved in that child’s care. ISPs would evolve with the child’s needs, enable information about their needs and support to transfer with them as a digital record throughout the education system ensuring support can be planned and parents aren’t having to retell stories or repeatedly fight for support, ultimately helping to transform the life chances of children with SEND. EHCPs will continue for children with complex needs, securing statutory right to education and healthcare support.
Under our proposed reforms, educational provision in a reformed EHCP would be underpinned by evidence-based specialist provision packages commissioned by local authorities (LAs) and delivered by settings. Because settings know the child or young person best, we propose they work with families before EHCPs are finalised to set out the provision aligned with the package(s) that the child needs. Settings will have a legal duty to deliver what is in the EHCP.
Effective early identification and intervention is critical in improving the outcomes of children and young people with SEND. To support schools to meet this legal duty, we have appointed an Independent Expert Panel to develop National Inclusion Standards. The Standards should set out minimum standards that all settings must adhere to, and include a range of evidence-informed tools, strategies and approaches for educators to draw on to identify and support children and young people with additional needs. With earlier identification and a more inclusive mainstream, children and young people with SEND should get the support they need, as soon as they need it. This will be backed by investment of £1.6 billion over the next three years for early years settings, schools and colleges to deliver whole school approaches and individual support in line with the National Inclusion Standards.
In addition, we are investing £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and Integrated Care Boards, to develop a new Experts at Hand offer. This offer is designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings by providing access to support from health and specialist education practitioners, including speech and language therapists, support workers or assistants, occupational therapists and support workers or assistants, educational psychologists and trainees, and specialist teachers, both local authority-based and those based in specialist or alternative provision settings.
This new offer is designed to meet children’s needs earlier and more effectively without needing to wait for a diagnosis or bureaucratic assessment processes. Expert health and education staff will work alongside nursery workers and school and college staff to embed effective interventions, provide training and upskilling and help to accurately identify and assess need.
To support delivery, over £40 million is being invested in the specialist workforce, including £26 million to train more educational psychologists and £15 million to support more speech and language therapists to work with education settings.
The package of proposed reforms aims to put an end to the postcode lottery in support ensuring there are clear national standards for the support every child with SEND should receive. We are reforming the statutory needs assessment, co-designing with families, education and healthcare experts to deliver high quality, fair assessments across the country. Alongside this both EHCPs and ISPs will have a new digital template meaning they can move easily with children and families and preventing the need for reassessments and new local processes if children move between local authority areas.
Under our proposed reforms, the SEND Tribunal would remain a legal backstop for the most important EHC decisions. We propose strengthening mediation services to encourage families to work closely with local authorities and settings to develop solutions to problems, without the need for a Tribunal appeal, in line with the best practice currently seen in some local authorities. However, if early resolution is not possible, under our proposed reforms, parents and young people would be able to appeal to the Tribunal about:
- a local authority’s refusal to assess whether a child or young person needs an EHCP
- whether a child or young person needs a Specialist Provision Package and therefore needs an EHCP
- which Specialist Provision Package(s) the child or young person should have
- the local authority’s decision about which school or setting should be named in the EHCP – although we propose to amend the Tribunal’s existing powers so that it can require the LA to retake the decision, rather than the Tribunal deciding which school or setting should be named in the EHCP.
- a decision to amend, not amend or cease an EHCP following review.
We have recently welcomed feedback via the consultation on ‘SEND reform: putting children and young people first’, which ran for 12 weeks closing on 18 May. We are reviewing responses alongside feedback from over 200 engagement events held over the 12 weeks.
Department for Education
Are you convinced?
The Government says many words, while not responding to the specific point its been asked about. It does the same thing here. This response does not provide reassurance because we know their aims are to effectively reduce entitlements. Despite their narrative that this is the “biggest expansion of rights in a generation”, this is not the case. Creating a duty to provide a document means nothing if what is in the document cannot be enforced. Reducing the individual nature of support is also a step back from what we currently have.
The fact that the “system isn’t working” is nothing to do with the law. It’s entirely to do with those funding and implementing the law. This is where the changes need to be made, not to those whose rights are not being carried out.
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