Parliament’s education select committee has launched a major inquiry to find solutions for the growing crisis in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision.
Expert witnesses will be called for hearings in the new year to suggest ways to stabilise the creaking SEND system in the short term and offer longer-term solutions to improve outcomes for children and young people up to age 25.
In the meantime, the committee is now inviting evidence from learners, parents, local authorities and education professionals.
Its call for evidence lists over 40 topics of concern for the committee along five themes: support for young people with SEND, current and future SEND needs, current and future model of SEND provision, accountability and inspection of SEND provision and finance, funding and capacity of SEND provision.
In addition to questions on future demands on local authority finances for SEND provision, the committee will also ask about how councils should improve their transport offer to post 16 students.
Questions will also be raised about the improvements needed in post 16 provision, including whether qualifications on offer are fit for purpose.
Not another one
This inquiry follows numerous research reports on the SEND system this year alone from organisations like the Local Government Association, Education Policy Institute, and the National Audit Office. All of them point to a system struggling to cope with rapidly rising demand amid deteriorating local authority budgets.
But it’s been five years since the parliamentary committee last held an inquiry on SEND.
Education committee chair Helen Hayes said: “In recent years, report after report has documented the failures of the SEND system to deliver the support children and their families need.
“This crisis has many symptoms that bleed into the rest of the education system: from attrition in the teaching workforce to soaring levels of pupil absence. There are also symptoms which blight local councils’ budgets – ever-increasing spending on transporting pupils to settings far from where they live and the chaos of money being poured into tribunals that parents are expected to win.
“It’s widely accepted that many more councils could face effective bankruptcy if change doesn’t come soon.”
An FE Week investigation earlier this year found councils signed up to so-called ‘safety valve’ deals were cutting the use of specialist SEND provision for post 16 students in favour of places at general FE colleges that aren’t always equipped to meet their needs.
And a recent survey by specialist college body Natspec revealed 65 per cent of their members had students start late this year because of issues with local authority arranged transport.
Written evidence that addresses some or all of the committee’s lines of enquiry can be submitted from now until January 30.
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