The Education Committee has today published its long-awaited report into special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It was tasked with investigating how well the Government’s major 2014 reforms were delivering for 1.3 million disabled children. The verdict is clear – these children are being failed on a daily basis.
It’s hard to think of a Committee report which has been more damning of a Government. “A serious failure of administration, policy and expenditure”, “a system of unmet need and strain” and “a bureaucratic nightmare” are just some of the quotes that finally lift the lid on what families are going through. For many who fight day in, day out for the support their children need, it will be a huge relief to have their experiences recognised.
The aims of the Government’s 2014 reforms – to deliver better, more joined-up support for children with SEND and their families – were admirable. But as the Committee has found, there have been some colossal failings.
Perhaps the most damning section is where MPs discuss the Government’s extraordinarily relaxed attitude towards making sure that the reforms were even working. At the National Deaf Children’s Society, we were sceptical that new laws would make any real difference without a system in place to make sure they were being followed.
Despite this, the Government seemed content to rely on a system where it was largely left to parents and ensure their children were getting the support they needed. This was always completely unacceptable. Parents should be free to be parents, not forced into acting as a watchdog to stop their child being repeatedly failed.
Now this injustice has been identified in no uncertain terms, it must be followed by swift action. The Committee made some important recommendations, including more regular inspections of education support for disabled children and creating a direct line from parents to the Government so they can call out council that act unlawfully.
There has long been a need for much more serious consequences for schools and local authorities that fail to meet their duties towards children with SEND. These steps would be real progress towards that.
Sadly, the vast array of problems doesn’t end there. Funding, unsurprisingly, is mentioned as another major Government failing. The reforms were introduced at a time of wider education cuts, making them difficult to implement effectively. Funding cuts have also led to reductions in the specialist staff that disabled children rely on.
In deaf education alone, one in three local authorities have reduced their budgets since 2014, with over £6.6m of support lost just to balance the books. Teachers of the Deaf, who provide crucial support to deaf children and their parents, have been cut by 10% over the same period. In case the Government thinks that’s acceptable, deaf children now fall behind at every stage of school and achieve an entire grade lower on average at GCSE.
The Government’s default excuse is pointing to its announcement of £700m in extra cash for SEND. But as the Committee clearly states, this doesn’t go far enough and comes way too late. Our biggest fear now is that much of this money will be used by local authorities to reduce the deficits they’ve been building up in recent years, rather than being spent on front-line specialist staff.
There can be no doubt that children with special educational needs and disabilities have been failed over the past five years. Parents have been forced to become protestors, lawyers and bureaucrats to stand any sort of chance of getting the support their child is legally entitled to.
It’s now time for the Government to stop churning out soundbites and actually devise a plan to end this disgraceful failure. Over a million children are depending on it.
Ian Noon is Chief Policy Advisor at the National Deaf Children’s Society.