The last government’s plan to improve the SEND system “didn’t go far enough”, a senior Department for Education official has said.
MPs were also told limiting access to EHCPs “isn’t the goal” of its deficit-management schemes.
DfE permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood and other senior civil servants were quizzed by the public accounts committee this week.
It follows a damning report by the National Audit Office that found whole-system reform was needed and it was “financial unsustainable”.
Here’s what we learned…
1. Improvement plan ‘didn’t go far enough’
In March last year, the previous government published a long-awaited SEND and alternative provision improvement plan setting out reform of the system.
But Juliet Chua, director general for schools, said part of the challenge was “recognition that actually the improvement plan just didn’t go far enough”.
She said they needed to go further in “understanding the levers and incentives around inclusive mainstream and looking more deeply at the ways in which local authorities were finding that without some of the levers they needed, it was challenging to meet some of their responsibilities”.
Some of the “actions were absolutely right and appropriate but nevertheless not sufficient in the context and scale of the challenge”.
Acland-Hood said officials were looking “really carefully with ministers” at a report by the Isos Partnership, commissioned by councils, which made a series of recommendations this summer.
Chua added the join up with the health service “is critical to this” and they had established a cross-government board.
2. Reducing EHCPs ‘isn’t the goal‘
The government has recently faced questions over whether it will seek to limit the use of education, health and care plans to a smaller group of pupils with the most complex needs.
Acland-Hood said it was “really important that it’s possible for people to get more support without having to go through an (EHCP) assessment process”.
“When you look at the types of need that we’ve seen accelerating, it’s autistic spectrum disorder, social emotional and mental health need and speech language and communication needs that have driven about 88 per cent of that increase in EHCPs.
“So we also want to be putting in place really good quality support that means that everybody can get both straightforwardly identified but more importantly the support.”
But Acland-Hood said reducing EHCPs “isn’t the goal, meeting more people’s needs more quickly is the goal” through its safety valve programme, where it provides strings-attached bailouts for councils with large deficits.
“But we do find that when authorities do that it does help them to manage the budget because when you let needs go later they become more expensive.”
3. Parents’ view of mainstream narrative ‘a risk’
Labour’s plan is for more inclusive mainstream schools, with special schools supporting those with the most complex needs.
Acland-Hood said she was “very conscious” when they talk about inclusive mainstream “there is a risk that parents may hear that as seeking to support children in mainstream who really need specialist provision”.
“It’s much more about making sure the special provision is available for those children for whom that is undoubtedly the right place to be.”
The government wants to increase the number of special resourced provision and SEN units in mainstream schools.
Acland-Hood said it was a “positive model, but again we see that very variably across the country”.
4. Tribunal system ‘risks favouring those who have got capacity’
The proportion of SEND tribunal appeals found in favour of families now stands at 98 per cent.
Acland-Hood acknowledged: “I do think there is a risk that it favours those who have got the capacity to navigate [that system].”
She added about 2.5 per cent of appealable decisions go to appeal.
But the DfE is working “very hard” with the Ministry of Justice and SEND tribunal to do “more” through alternative dispute resolution and other means “because we don’t think that a very adversarial process is a positive feature of the system or one that we should build on”.
Acland-Hood added they were trying to get more disaggregated data as it is recorded “as a win… for the parent if it goes in favour on any aspect of what is appealed, which does rather push that number up”.
5. DfE believed LA deficit protection would be ‘short-term’
A “statutory override” introduced in 2020 and extended in 2022 that keeps high needs deficits from forcing councils to effectively go bankrupt will expire in March 2026.
Acland-Hood said it was “fair to say that when it was first introduced, it was believed the deficits would be a short-term and relatively localised issue while those reforms were bedding in. I don’t think that is something we believe anymore.”
The NAO now predicts four in 10 councils may be at risk of declaring effective bankruptcy when the override ends. The cumulative deficit could be up to £4.9 billion at that time.
Acland-Hood said DfE was working with Treasury and the local government department “to look at how we can manage the impact of DSG deficits on finances and what will happen when the override comes to an end in 2026”.
“I can’t tell you definitively what the outcome of those conversations are going to be.”
They are also encouraging councils to “look at the lessons” from deficit-management programmes and reform pilot programme as they spend the extra £1 billion allocated at the budget “to try and pull it further upstream”.
6. Inclusive buildings guidelines may need revising
Helen Hayes, chair of the committee, asked what DfE were doing to make sure new school buildings were built inclusively.
Acland-Hood said they had core building designs which looked at accessibility, but “I think that we need to keep revising those to make sure we are also thinking about for example the building in of small group work space.”
“This goes to the point about a profile of need we’re seeing changing a bit overtime and we would always keep those under review.”
7. SENCO NPQ seen as ‘critical to leadership’
DfE has introduced a new mandatory SENCO national professional qualification.
Chua said they’ve seen schools putting forward “not just their SENCOs but actually where they’ve got teachers who are sort of in training for leadership, seeing that as an absolutely critical qualification and development path on the way towards leadership.
“So growing that cadre of leaders who will essentially increase the confidence of the school overall” on SEND.
