A damning parents’ survey has revealed the scale of the task ahead for ministers in fixing the broken SEND system by making mainstream schools more inclusive.
While 90 per cent of parents of pupils with additional needs said their child was well supported in a special school, just 59 per cent said the same in a mainstream school.
The sobering findings heap further pressure on the new government as it gets to grips with its SEND challenge.
Schools Week reveals the four key problems facing Labour’s inclusive school drive…
The parent perception problem
The SEND improvement plan’s key theme is to make mainstream schools move inclusive.
Labour, while still assessing the scale of the SEND problem and what its approach will be, has promised a “community-wide” solution.
This will include “improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs”.
But a government survey of more than 2,000 parents with children in year 9, published on Friday, found “markedly less positive views” from parents of pupils with SEND of mainstream schools.
Researchers concluded there is “some way to go to achieve the aim of building parents’ confidence in the ability of mainstream settings to effectively meet the needs” of youngsters with SEND.
Dan Morrow, chief executive at Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust, said it reveals “the challenge ahead, but what education leaders have known for some time”.
The survey suggested mainstream schools prioritise resources to improve awareness of SEND among teachers and staff, and reflect this in policies and practices.
They should also “ensure parents are meaningfully involved in decision-making related to their child” to boost confidence.
“Meeting parents’ choices is key and we clearly aren’t doing this,” Morrow added. “The responsibility of the Labour government, and all education leaders, is to ensure children with SEND in mainstream settings get a better deal – and we repair relationships that are fractured.”
But the hurdles to get there are numerous, and high.
The school funding problem
One in eight school leaders surveyed by government said they could not effectively support pupils with SEND.
More than nine in 10 primary leaders, taking part in the December survey of schools, cited a “lack of funding” as a barrier.
But extra cash is something Labour does not readily have available.
The issue with boosting inclusivity without providing funding to support schools is playing out right now in Kent.
The council, which has a near £200 million deficit in its high needs budget, is part of the government’s controversial safety valve programme.
Government will contribute £140 million to clear the deficit, but strict strings attached will force Kent to slash its spending.
One of those is for the council to implement a countrywide approach to “inclusive education”, which includes building more capacity in mainstream schools, and reducing dependence on specialist provision.
Kent is now consulting on changing admissions criteria for 2026 to correct an “overreliance” on special schools. It would mean only the pupils with the most severe need will be placed in specialist provision.
But some schools are up in arms. Simon Beamish, chief executive at Leigh Academies Trust, said if the plans were implemented, his trust would consider legal action against the council.
The teacher training problem
Another issue Labour will need to resolve is ensuring the schools workforce is sufficiently trained to deal with the explosion in pupils with additional needs.
The government has introduced a new national professional qualification (NPQ) for SENcos, which is mandatory.
While all NPQs were free as part of the previous government’s lost learning catch-up plan, funding was slashed just before the election.
It left NPQ providers overwhelmed by demand as an application deadline for funded training approached last month. Figures provided by the Association of School and College Leaders show demand for SENco NPQ places in some parts of the country outstripped places by 600 per cent.
The Exceed Academies Trust, one delivery partner, allocated 18 SENco places but received 100 applications.
Teach First, a lead provider, is “seeing strong demand” across all its NPQ courses, with demand likely to “outstrip supply for funded places” particularly for SENcos.
The DfE is aware of the issue but has done little so far. It said demand is driven by leaders who are not yet required to gain the qualification, which is mandatory within their first three years in the role.
Instead, schools are now being forced to raid already-stretched budgets to pay for the course, which costs around £1,300.
The health services support problem
The DfE schools’ survey showed the second most common barrier to providing adequate SEND support was a lack of access to external specialist support or professionals.
The decimation of wider support services, like CAMHS, has left schools scrambling to source their own specialists.
While nearly nine in 10 parents surveyed said their child was getting the required medical support, this dropped to around half for mental health and educational psychologist support, a parent, pupil and learner voice survey found.
DfE’s school survey found 44 per cent of special school teachers said they were able to access the external support they needed for “all or most” of the time.
But this dropped to 24 per cent for primary teachers, and 19 per cent of those in secondaries.
Morrow said schools are at the “sharp end of systemic failure” due to 14 years of austerity.
Government needs to “really reconsider how the multi-agency approach works”, he added.
“I do think this is about getting health and education ministers together and saying ‘what are you on the hook for? How can it be different?’ Joining up a strategic taskforce around SEND is vital.”
But some in the sector fear Labour doesn’t yet get the urgency required to resolve the SEND crisis.
Children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said SEND system reform “is urgent”.
She wants a joint health, education and care workforce strategy, alongside “greater investment in healthcare teams working preventatively in schools, whether that’s mental health practitioners, speech and language therapists, or occupational therapists”.
She added: “Without an ambitious plan for change, too many children will continue to face insurmountable barriers to opportunity and having happy, successful lives.”
What will Labour do?
It’s clear if the party didn’t know SEND was probably its most urgent problem, it does now.
The issue was repeatedly brought up at its recent party conference. Just this week, Conservative shadow education minister Gagan Mohindra said his party “should hang our heads in shame” over its SEND failures.
The government is reviewing the current intervention schemes. But education secretary Bridget Phillipson has also hinted at a wider-shake up, saying “we need to have a conversation about how we look to reform the system overall”.
Schools minister Catherine McKinnell pointed to announcements already introduced, such as the curriculum and assessment review which will look at improvements for SEND children and Ofsted inspections from next year probing how inclusive schools are.
Ministers have also moved SEND policy from the families to schools directorate.
McKinnell said while ministers are “listening, we want to move as fast as we can to really fix what we can as quickly as we can”.
“But there will be time that needs to be taken to get them absolutely right because it is a complex system – there are complex decisions to be made.
“We need to make sure we get it right, but can build that trust while we do so as well.”
She added the government is “looking at teacher training to ensure people have the things they need to be able to identify children’s needs, and to stop those issues from escalating”.
“We’ll be making sure that teachers as well get that support and training they need to be able to meet every child’s need within their cohort,” she added.
The DfE did not provide further details on this work. But it has recently updated the teaching training framework to include “significantly more content” on SEND.
More education bills on way
Labour’s Children’s Wellbeing Bill, due in Parliament before Christmas, will require all schools to cooperate with their council on school admissions, SEND inclusion and place planning.
But beyond this, McKinnell said there will “be more we’re looking to legislate on”.
Asked if this related to SEND or other education issues, she added: “We’ve got a number of bills that we are looking to bring through – but we are working out the details. Fundamentally, we have a journey to go on.
“We’ve been very clear we have a mission to achieve over the next five to 10 years, and we’ll have to shape legislation that will enable us to deliver that.”
