Education, health and care (EHC) plans should include preparation for adulthood arrangements, two watchdogs have said after finding a “cliff edge” in support still exists for young people with SEND.
A new Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) joint thematic review has confirmed that “systemic” barriers persist for people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), with many falling out of work, employment or training after they leave the school system.
The report recommends that the Department for Education (DfE) should include preparation for adulthood section in national EHC plan templates to ensure earlier planning is considered across the country.
The department should also issue national guidance to ensure there is a “transitional” period of support to reduce the number of “abrupt” cut offs for some young people.
It comes as the new government searches for solutions to the crisis in SEND support, which includes widespread local authority deficits in high needs budgets reaching an estimated £3.6 billion this year, delays in approving EHC plans, and a lack of “clear actionable plan” under the last government.
But local partnerships and national government have long been aware of “serious weakness[es]” in services for young people with SEND who are transitioning to adulthood.
‘Cliff edge’ continues
In 2021, FE Week highlighted similar concerns about “confusion” at transition points, when support often abruptly ends, in a series of area SEND inspection reports by Ofsted and the CQC.
Today’s report reiterated that “too many young people face a ‘cliff edge’ in health support” once they turn 18, and called for more joined-up working across local area partnerships.
Ofsted and CQC looked closely at the effectiveness of six anonymised local area partnerships, which are groups including local authorities, schools, colleges and NHS bodies that are responsible for planning, commissioning and providing services.
The watchdogs also considered over 2,400 survey responses from children, young people, parents and practitioners.
Overall, areas with stronger local partnerships started preparation for adulthood early, took an “all age” approach to SEND support, and worked collaboratively between organisations.
Weaker partnerships failed to jointly commission or coordinate services, didn’t effectively communicate with parents about local services, and were “slow to initiate transition” from children’s to adult health services.
The report’s key findings were that support was worse for young people in mainstream education who did not have an EHC plan.
Some children reported how school leaders had chased DfE accountability measures such as the EBacc, which encourages take up of key academic subjects such as English, maths and science. This meant “limited vocational study options” were available.
Expand supported internships
The report also calls for expanded supported internships, which usually include a work placement and a job coach’s support for up to a year, because they offer “positive experiences” of work for a group who are less likely to sustain employment after key stage 4.
But take up of internships on offer was “hampered” because the EHC plan would “end” once they entered employment, the report found.
Practitioners and parents were also “frustrated” because young people with SEND but no EHC plan were unable to get an internship at all.
Historic data shows the DfE has gradually increased the number of internships on offer from about 200 per year in 2013-14, to 2,500 in 2020-21.
While some see them as a positive experience for young people with SEND, the data suggested that only about a quarter of participants entered employment in the year after completion.
Alongside its plans to increase annual internship figures to 4,500 per year this year, DfE has also commissioned an external evaluation which is ongoing.
Interim findings suggest that almost half of 49 interns in the first cohort had a job in the six months after the end of their internship’s academic year. One third of the second cohort of 85 interns had a job at the end of their internship.
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