Leora Cruddas CBE, Chief Executive Officer of CST, said: "CST supports the ambitions of the Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Review. We particularly welcome the proposal for one National SEND system. It is important that a strengthened system of SEND is built on a social and affirmative model of disability for children with SEND and builds parental confidence.”
A single national model: We are pleased to see an acknowledgement that, right now, there are 152 different SEND systems. With the principle of one system in mind, we welcome the proposed move to a single, unified assessment system underpinned by the same processes and assessment.
A reformed and integrated role for alternative provision: Alternative provision serves a fundamentally important and unique purpose in our education system. We are pleased to see a focus on alternative provision in the Green Paper. And we support the pilot which is testing the value of embedding multi-disciplinary teams of specialists in alternative provision, but we believe this proposal should be brought forward for all providers.
Funding stability for alternative provision: We support the proposal to give alternative provision schools the funding stability, but the detail of this will be important.
Funding of SEND and the notional thresholds: We are pleased that government will consider whether £6,000 per pupil, per year remains the right threshold beyond which schools can expect to draw down additional high needs funding. This has long been problematic. If we are to implement the ambitions in the Green Paper for earlier identification and support, it is clear that this notional threshold needs to be higher.
Code of Practice: We welcome the commitment to review the Code of Practice. This review should move the ‘mental model’ of SEND from ‘additional and different’ (a medical model of disability) to the creation of inclusive environments (a social and affirmative model). This would help to bring about the cultural change we want to see.
Parental engagement, co-production and parent forums: Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector’s annual report says that the role of the parent–carer forum featured prominently in the most successful areas. It is important that we recognise that co-production needs to be balanced with parity of resource and align with best practice.
Health services: We are pleased to see the commitment to commission analysis to better understand the support that children and young people with SEND need from the health workforce so that there is a clear focus on SEND in health workforce planning. And it is right that there should be statutory guidance for the new Integrated Care Boards so that they are clear about how they should discharge their statutory responsibilities for SEND. However, this must urgently translate into real change on the ground.
Mental health services: We welcome the focus on mental health and wellbeing and the commitment to work in partnership with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England and NHS Improvement. We also welcome the NHS-funded Mental Health Support Teams which are in the process of being rolled out with an estimated 35% of the school population expected by 2023. However, this it insufficient to meet the current crisis in mental health and we would urge the government to bring forward plans to fund Mental Health Support Teams in every area.
The local inclusion plan: We welcome the proposal for a local inclusion plan which sets out the provision and services that should be commissioned in line with the proposed new national standards and based on the results of the joint needs assessment. However, we are not convinced that this is enough to address the issues of sufficiency of provision for SEND and alternative provision which requires a more strategic regional approach and is dependent on adequate funding.
Governance and intervention: We are pleased to see that that the DfE, in its role as the regulator, will enter into new funding agreements with local authorities to provide greater accountability and transparency in how high needs budgets are spent to ensure that value for money is being achieved.
