SEN Green Paper - ‘Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability’

As I have received a number of emails during the past couple of weeks from people asking about the SEN Green Paper, I thought it may be easier to write this webpage.

On 9 March 2011, the Coalition Government published its long awaited and much anticipated SEN Green Paper entitled - "Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability - A consultation". The full document runs to 134 pages!

The Press Release entitled "Government proposes biggest reforms to special educational needs in 30 years" stated:

"Children’s Minister Sarah Teather today unveiled proposals which would mean the biggest programme of reform in the education and health support for children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities in 30 years.

The Government wants to fundamentally reform the SEN system to address problems including:

• parents having to battle to get the support their child needs
• SEN statements not joining up education, health and care support
• children falling between the gaps in services or having to undergo multiple assessments.
• multiple layers of paperwork and bureaucracy adding delays to getting support, therapy and vital equipment
• a confusing and adversarial assessment process, with parents’ confidence in the system undermined by the perceived conflict of interest where the local authority must provide SEN support as well as assess children’s needs
• Ofsted and others suggest that too many children are being over-identified as SEN, which prevents them from achieving their potential because teachers have lower expectations of them.

The Government proposes to:

• include parents in the assessment process and introduce a legal right, by 2014, to give them control of funding for the support their child needs
• replace statements with a single assessment process and a combined education, health and care plan so that health and social services is included in the package of support, along with education
• ensure assessment and plans run from birth to 25 years old
• replace the existing complicated School Action and School Action Plus system with a simpler new school-based category to help teachers focus on raising attainment
• overhaul teacher training and professional development to better help pupils with special educational needs and to raise their attainment
• inject greater independence from local authorities in assessments by looking at how voluntary groups might coordinate the package of support
• give parents a greater choice of school and give parents and community groups the power to set up special free schools. 

Currently children who have severe, profound or multiple health and learning needs or disabilities receive a statement of support from their local authority. However, it often isn’t clear – to parents, and to local services – who is responsible for delivering on the statement. For example, services such as speech and language therapy may appear in the statement but are funded and commissioned by local health services.

So the Government will tackle this problem – which has never been addressed before – by introducing one single assessment process and education, health and care plan to give children all the help they need. It will mean education, health and social services must work together to give families one single package of support, tailored to their individual needs."

There were then quotes from Children’s Minister Sarah Teather, Public Health Minister Anne Milton and Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, John Hayes.The Press Release then continued:

"Currently more than one in five children (21 per cent) in this country are identified as having SEN but only 2.7 per cent have statements.

To help children that have a learning need, but not necessarily a special educational need, we will:

• Extend the Achievement for All programme so personalised support is mainstream in all schools. This programme has seen an increase in results and a decrease in pupils on the SEN register. We are inviting bids for an independent organisation to extend the programme across the country.
• Facilitate the transition to the open market of Every Child a Reader, Every Child a Talker and Ever Child Counts programmes to help those children struggling with early communication, reading and mathematics.
• Introduce phonics-based training to support children who need additional help in reading.
• Work with SEN specialists as we develop the Reading Progress Check for six year olds to help identify children who require additional support.
• Introduce a new performance table indicator to give parents clear information on the progress of the lowest attaining pupils.
• Direct funding to the most deprived pupils – a third of whom are currently identified as having SEN – through the Pupil Premium."

"Every child deserves a fair start in life, with the very best opportunity to succeed. Currently, life chances for the approximately two million children and young people in England who are identified as having a special educational need (SEN), or who are disabled, are disproportionately poor.

The Department for Education's (DfE) website also provided a helpful 33 point executive summary which stated, amongst other things (under a heading 'Case For Change'):

32. The ambitious vision for reform set out in this Green Paper includes wide ranging proposals to improve outcomes for children and young people who are disabled or have SEN, minimise the adversarial nature of the system for families and maximise value for money.

33. This publication marks the start of a four month period of consultation and a period of testing proposals in local areas from September 2011. We will work across government and with local and national partners to set out detailed plans by the end of the year. This will form the basis for any necessary legislative changes to be taken forward from May 2012 at the earliest."

Elsewhere it was stated that the consultation would run from 9 March to 30 June and gave details for submitting views on the proposals.

The DfE also produced a 'Word Cloud' which they said would offer a visual representation of the main themes of the SEN Green Paper and a 16-page slide presentation of it. Sarah Teather also wrote a letter to headteachers and chairs of governors and a separate letter to Local Authorities.

There were subsequent press releases from IPSEA (Independent Parental Special Educational Advice), the NUT (the National Union of Teachers), Barnados, Mencap, Ambitious About Autism (formerly TreeHouse), the NASUWT, the Children's Commissioner, the Alliance for Inclusive Education, the NAS (National Autistic Society), Children and Young People Now (CYPG), the NCDS (National Deaf Children's Society) and the Local Government Association (LGA), to name but a few.

The media was also quick to discuss the SEN Green Paper and the BBC produced a video new article which it aired on TV and published on its website under a heading of: 'Special needs education shake-up unveiled' which you may find helpful to watch.

There were also news pieces under headings of:

• "Parents to get budgets to spend on special needs children" (Guardian)
• "SEN shake-up: every child assessed before three" (TES)
• "Change to special needs funding proposed" (Financial Times)
• "Children 'in pain over wheelchairs" (Independent)
• "'Special Educational Needs' – or just badly behaved children?" (Telegraph)
• "Cuts threaten plans for special needs children" (Guardian)
• "Budgets For Parents In Special Needs Shake-Up" (Sky News)

Unfortunately, I still felt that everyone was slightly 'spinning' the Green Paper and only looking at it from their own perspective, so I asked my colleague, Helene Israel to summarise it in just a couple of pages for me which she did succinctly as follows:

Green Paper on Special Educational Needs: ‘Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability’

• Published on 9 March 2011
• 134 pages
• Consultation runs until 9 June 2011

OVERVIEW
After the Foreword (from Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, and Sarah Teather, Minister of State for Children and Families), the Executive Summary and Introduction, the Paper is split into five main sections:

• Early identification and assessment
• Giving parents control
• Learning and achieving
• Preparing for adulthood
• Services working together for families

The Paper then concludes with ‘Next steps’, ‘Consultation Questions’ (there are 59) and details of how to get involved.

SUMMARY
Each main section of the Paper is briefly summarised below (with the main issues in bold):

Early identification and assessment

• Early identification of need
• Support in the early years from health professionals
• Accessible and high quality early years provision
• Replacement of statements with a single statutory assessment process and ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’, from birth to 25. By 2014, all children who currently have statements would be entitled to this single assessment and plan. The plan would be clear about who is responsible across education, health and social care for which services. The way the child is supported would evolve over time including their preparation for adulthood/employment
• A more efficient statutory assessment process - e.g. reducing the time from 26 to 20 weeks

Giving parents control

• Supporting families through the system - e.g. DfE funding for voluntary and community organisations to maintain existing Early Support resources and provide free training for professionals
• Clear information for parents – e.g. ‘slimming down’ requirements on schools to publish information so that parents are clear about schools’ approaches to SEN
• Giving parents more control over support and funding for their child – e.g. greater use of personal budgets (pilots have started). By 2014 all families with the proposed ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’ will be entitled to a personal budget.
• Encourage LAs to make use of new voluntary and community sector providers to increase the range of support available
• DfE will continue to fund parent forums in every local area
• Clearer choice of school – legislation would ensure that parents of children with a statement or ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’ have equivalent rights to other parents to express a preference for any state-funded school
• Removal of bias towards inclusion
• Short breaks for carers and children – DfE will continue to invest in this, providing £800m from 2011-12 to 2014-15
• Mediation to resolve disagreements – parents and LAs should always try mediation before an appeal can be registered (but do not want to affect the time in which parents can appeal or the right to appeal itself)

Learning and achieving

• Additional funding for initial teacher training providers to secure more placements for trainee teachers in special schools
• Better support in higher education - disability training for those teaching in colleges
• Funding of scholarships for teachers to develop their practice in supporting disabled pupils and pupils with SEN, including in specific impairments
• Outstanding special schools will be able to apply to become Teaching Schools to share their expertise
• Creation of a new designation of Specialist Leaders of Education (envisage 5,000 by the end of 2014)
• Additional scholarship fund, open to the most able teaching assistants and other support staff, to build on their SEN roles
• ‘Achievement for All’ approach – tender for bids from external organisations has been launched to spread the practices that those involved with Achievement for All have developed
• Funding to facilitate the transition to the open market of the Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts programmes (to ensure training is available); funding for phonics-based training and resources
• Replace School Action and School Action Plus with a single school-based SEN category, providing clear guidance to schools on the appropriate identification of SEN - to avoid confusion, identify fewer children as having SEN and reduce the use of the term ‘SEN’
• Identifying and tackling the causes of difficult behaviour – work with Anti-Bullying Alliance to share best practice
• Exclusions: Trial of a new exclusions approach to consider needs of SEN children; guidance that children are assessed for any underlying causal factors – i.e. exclusion could trigger a statutory assessment
• Improved access to wider behaviour support
• Special schools will have the opportunity to become Academies
• Stronger school accountability

Preparing for adulthood

• Planning for young people’s futures – DfE will build on the findings of the Wolf Review of vocational education to improve options of young people aged 14 to 25 who are disabled or have SEN
• Employment opportunities and support – DWP will work with stakeholders to ensure that welfare reforms support young people with SEN or disabilities as they attempt to find work
• DWP will explore role of Disability Employment Advisers and supported internships
• Coordinated transition to adult health services
• Support for independent living

Services working together for families

• Enable families to make informed choices and exercise greater control over services
• Reduce bureaucratic burdens by simplifying the statutory guidance for professionals working with young people with SEN/disabilities; withdrawal of guidance that does not provide useful support
• Empowering local professionals
• Supporting the development of a high quality speech and language therapy workforce & educational psychology profession
• Encouraging greater collaboration between local areas
• Extending local freedom and flexibility over the use of funding
• Enabling the voluntary and community sector to take a greater role in delivering services – targeted funding to organisations with a strong track record. DfE will publish a further SEN and disabilities voluntary and community sector prospectus with guidance on bidding for grants or contracts
• Exploring a national banded funding framework
• Better alignment between pre- and post-16 funding arrangements

Next steps…

• By June 2011: expressions of interest invited from groups of LAs to start piloting a single assessment process, and to join the existing Individual Budget Pilots (from September 2011)
• Work with LAs and other partners to test a system of banded funding
• Look to take forward any legislative changes needed from 2012 to secure the new ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’, the offer of a personal budget and any other necessary improvements identified by the pilots
• Views welcomed on the Consultation Questions

I realise that some people would like me to share my thoughts on the SEN Green Paper but I am still reflecting on it. I am due to be speaking briefly at the Westminster Education Forum Keynote Seminar: The future for Special Educational Needs post-Green Paper on the morning of Monday, 4th April 2011 which is being held at the Royal Society in London. The draft agenda that I have been sent (which is subject to change) says:

9.00 - 9.05               Chairman’s opening remarks

Paul Maynard MP, Vice-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Muscular Dystrophy and Vice-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Paediatric Mobility Reform

9.05 - 9.35               Does the Green Paper deliver?

Responses to the Government’s recently released Special Educational Needs Green Paper, ‘Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability.’

                               Jeevan Vasagar, Education Editor, The Guardian

                                     Lorraine Petersen, Chief Executive Officer, nasen

                                     Ralph Hartley, Research Fellow, Education Unit, Policy Exchange

9.35 - 10.05             Questions and comments from the floor

10.05 - 10.35           The future of regulation

                                Patrick Leeson, Director, Development, Education and Care, Ofsted

                                Questions and comments from the floor

10.35 - 10.40           Chairman’s closing remarks

Paul Maynard MP, Vice-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Muscular Dystrophy and Vice-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Paediatric Mobility Reform

 10.40 - 11.00           Coffee

11.00 - 11.05           Chairman’s opening remarks

Rt Hon Kevin Barron MP, Vice-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Speech and Language Difficulties

11.05 - 12.05           Next steps for SEN provision

Perspectives on the Green Paper, and its impact on SEN provision.

• How can the identification of SEN be improved to ensure diagnosis at the earliest stage?
• Are too many pupils currently wrongly diagnosed with SEN, and if so, will the proposals for more pastoral care in schools help reduce numbers misdiagnosed?
• How will local authority SEN provision be impacted by the increased diversity of provision, including private and third sector providers, to be offered to parents via personal budgets?
• How does the Green Paper affect the legal rights of parents to choose inclusive or special school provision for their child?
• How will new ‘Education, Health and Care Plans’ improve upon the current three-level ‘School Action’ and ‘statements’ system?
• What role could non-state organisations play in carrying out assessments for the Plans?
• How can teacher training be improved to help teachers work better with pupils with SEN? 
• Does the Green Paper deal effectively with the extension of the education leaving age to 18?

                                 Heather Stack, Director and SEN Consultant, Learning Services (SEN)

                                Jolanta Lasota, Chief Executive, Ambitious about Autism

                         Kim Johnson, Headteacher, Bradfields School, Chatham

                               Douglas Silas, Principal, Douglas Silas Solicitors

                Jonathan Bartley, Co-Director, Ekklesia and Trustee, Centre for Inclusive Education

                Senior representative, local authority

12.05 - 12.25           Questions and comments from the floor

12.25 - 12.55           The SEN Green Paper - next steps for policy

                                Senior speaker to be announced

                                Questions and comments from the floor

12.55 - 13.00           Chairman’s and Westminster Education Forum thanks and closing remarks

Rt Hon Kevin Barron MP, Vice-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Speech and Language Difficulties

Sean Cudmore, Senior Producer, Westminster Education Forum

The cost of a place is £190 plus VAT and includes delegate materials and refreshments. One PDF copy of the briefing document. (including transcripts of the speeches, comments and questions, as well as extra articles submitted by delegates, which is distributed to all attendees approximately seven days after the seminar).

If this is something which interests you professionally or personally and you feel the need to find out more about the SEN Green Paper then I suggest that you try and come by booking a place online.

I hope that this information is of help to you.

Douglas

P.S. It is total coincidence that the Government published its SEN Green Paper which says that we should now be trying to consider children's needs 'holistically'  just the day after I publicised the judgment in the 'K v Hillingdon' case which now affirms the principle that Local Authorities and Tribunals also need to do the same thing.

Hopefully the message is slowly getting through that meeting the needs of a child with SEN should be at the centre of any decision-making process and not overlooked with yoo much focus on bureaucracy, red-tape and politics!