Is our SEND system a mess?

Published: September 20th, 2024

The radio programme, Woman’s Hour’ on 10.9.24 focused on issues mainly related to SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities). What a mess our SEND system seems to be in. One of the problems is that we cannot talk about SEND without talking about the educational system as a whole. How far is UK education failing children? 

It appears that 73% of mothers feel that the SEND system is broken; that it is adversarial. Navigating the system is also unnecessarily complex – and highly stressful for many parents. How effectively does the system cater for pupils who are autistic, have ADHD, or other diagnosed needs? It is also reported that of the numbers of children missing school (100,000 severely absent), the majority of these have SEND. Where do we start to improve the system? 

Twenty years ago, when I was working within the SEND system; as Head of a service that supported mainstream schools and their SEND intake (SENSS – Special Educational Needs Support Service), the Local Education Authority employed teams of specialists for various learning difficulties, as well as for behaviour and sensory difficulties. Are those teams still available? Recent communication with SENCOs as part of research for my latest SEND publication seemed to indicate that the involvement of specialist teams is either less available now – or too expensive for schools to purchase.

A number of other points were made on the radio programme: that LAs are greatly overstretched, there is inadequate training, as well as inadequate recognition of the challenges that SEND learners and their parents face. While the SEND system is complex, it also follows an orderly approach towards intervention for those children who fall into the category of SEND.

The assumption that SEND intervention necessarily involves an EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) also worries me greatly, because, I believe, we are keeping our eyes on the wrong ball. The great majority of learners diagnosed with SEND can achieve with adequate SEN Support. Only those children with more significant, severe, or long term needs, require the additional support of an EHCP. 

So why are so many parents frustrated with the system, perhaps feeling that their child must have an EHCP? Is SEN Support not working? 

During my years of working with schools, as a supporting professional, the focus was on making SEN Support work for every child who needed it. So, it follows that every teacher or other member of staff must be part of this in-school system, enabling every child to achieve potential.

Assess, Plan, Do, Review! This procedure is meant to underpin SEN Support in every mainstream school. Following this orderly sequence, any child who is not achieving from this within-school approach, may need the more specialised support of an EHCP; but as an add-on, not instead of. 

It follows therefore, that the better SEN Support within school actually is, then the fewer EHCPs will be needed. I am not referring here to the severe difficulties experienced by those children who need EHCPs – whose difficulties are mainly obvious: but to those who have been failed by a system of SEN Support that should be far more effective than it is.

So where is the problem? I firmly believe that school staff are not being adequately trained to cope with SEND in their lessons – with inclusion as the foundation. Where staff understand children with SEND, and also understand how lessons need to be adapted in order to cope with a greater diversity of talent – the achievements of pupils with SEND naturally soars. 

So the focus must be on improving the SEN Support system. Inclusion! Schools must value this as a foundation. Assess, Plan, Do, Review! This system needs to work for ALL pupils.

PS. Sylvia Edwards is author of fourteen books on education, mainly on literacy and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), plus a further five for parents. Now retired, she remains interested in, and passionate about, improving the educational outcomes for all young people, especially those with SEND. 

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