I hope you are all well and enjoying the early sunshine – let’s hope it lasts.

In this update I will bring you all of the SEND news from the last few months. Government Ministers have mentioned SEND on numerous occasions but very little action has taken place so we are still not clear about their direction of travel for SEND students going forward.

Support for children and young people with special educational needs – Public Accounts Committee – 15th January

In its report on support for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN), the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) issues an urgent call for Government to take action to improve a system which is failing the families who need it, and putting almost half of all councils in England in danger of effective bankruptcy within 15 months.

The report has 7 conclusions and recommendations for each.

The conclusions are:

• The SEN system is inconsistent, inequitable and not delivering in line with expectations, which inevitably undermines parents’ confidence in it
• Without fully understanding why demand for support has increased, the Department’s ability to provide value for money is undermined.
• The Department has not made clear what it means by inclusive education, a core strand of its approach, or how it will be achieved
• Accessing health expertise presents a significant barrier to identifying and supporting SEN needs
• Departmental witnesses could not provide any potential solution to the critical and immediate financial challenges facing many local authorities due to persistent and significant SEN-related overspends
• In the longer term, the SEN system remains unviable with piecemeal interventions, such as Safety Valve, doing nothing to provide a financially sustainable system
• The Department’s ability to reform the system is hindered by a lack of data, targets and a clear, costed plan.

Identifying and supporting young people at risk of NEET – 28th January

This guidance sets out how to use a risk of NEET indicator (RONI) approach to identify at-risk young people, support participation and post-16 transition, and prevent NEET.

This guidance provides a benchmark of good practice on how to proactively identify young people at risk of being not in education, employment or training (NEET) using risk factors and data. It also clarifies each partner’s role and how to collaborate effectively on this shared priority.

TWO IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS FOR SCHOOL GOVERNORS AND TRUSTEES

SEN and disability duties: guidance for school governing boards – 30th January

This is new guidance for school governing boards on the board’s role and responsibilities supporting pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities.

There is a comprehensive checklist of duties for Governing Boards and Trustees.

Equality Act 2010 and disabled pupils: A guide for governors and trustees

The Council for Disabled Children has published a guide for school governors, academy trustees and others with responsibility for schools’ duties in the Equality Act. The guide is designed to support them in understanding how well their school is meeting their duties to disabled pupils.

In-school support units – 30th January

Exploratory research aiming to understand the models and uses of in-school support units (ISU) by mainstream secondary schools in England.

Reading and writing boost to drive high and rising standards – Press Release – 5th February

Thousands of pupils across England are set to benefit from a £2 million investment to drive high and rising standards in reading and writing, building on the Education Secretary’s plan for a new era of school standards. 

Building on the success of phonics, teachers will receive additional training to help children progress from the early stages of phonics in reception and year 1 through to reading fluently by the time they leave primary school. This will be delivered through the English Hubs programme, a school-to-school improvement programme to drive up standards. 

In secondary school, teachers will be offered new training and resources this year to help them support readers at all levels, and next year the department will commission further training that will be focused specifically on struggling readers in secondary school who are at risk of falling behind.   

The training for secondary staff can be found here.

 Pupil Premium – Updated 18th March

This guidance contains information on pupil premium funding, how school leaders can use it effectively and pupil premium strategy statements. It has been updated with information on the per pupil rates and payment dates information for the 2025 to 2026 financial year.

• Pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past 6 years
  • Primary £1,515 Secondary £1,075
• Pupils previously looked after by a local authority or other state care
  • Primary and Secondary £2,630
• Children who are looked after by the local authority
  • Primary and Secondary £2,630
• Service Pupil Premium
  • £350 per eligible pupil

Improving the curriculum and assessment system – Updated 18th March

The government have published an Interim Report following the initial review carried out by Prof. Becky Francis. The press release can be found here.

The interim review finds the current system is not delivering for every child, as it sets out its next phase of work which will focus on four key areas.

• Ensuring high standards for all – exploring how curriculum and assessment can be more inclusive and equitable, to ensure excellence for all.
• Addressing subject-specific challenges, and ensuring curriculum is consistently achieving depth and breadth – including an in-depth analysis of individual subjects to ensure appropriate depth and mastery of knowledge, and that subjects are cutting edge.
• Responding to social and technological change – examining how education can better prepare students to grasp the opportunities of the future, for example heightened digital skills and media literacy to address trends in digital information and the rise of AI, and scientific and cultural knowledge to meet the challenges of climate change.
• Ensuring pathways beyond GCSE work for all – examining the current pathways to ensure they work for all young people in supporting successful routes to further study or employment, especially those from less privileged backgrounds.

You can read about this report in more detail in Schools Week

Early career teacher entitlement (ECTE) support – Updated 22^nd April

This collection of guidance on information on the ECTE, the 2-year programme of training and support for early career teachers (ECTs) has been updated with a number of changes.

£740 million allocated for 10,000 new places for pupils with SEND – Press release – 27th March

The DfE have announced new SEND places to create more inclusive classrooms in mainstream schools, delivering on Plan for Change to break down barriers to opportunity. £740 million is being invested by the government to deliver adaptations, expand specialist units in mainstream as well as create new places in special schools – enabling more children to succeed at a school close to their homes and families. 

Developing a competency framework for effective assistive technology training – 8th May

This document examines the skills and knowledge needed by staff in special schools and colleges to use digital assistive technology effectively.

Working together to safeguard children – Updated 8th May

This statutory guidance on multi-agency working to help, support and protect children has been updated with:

• an illustrated guide
• an animated video
• details of a toolkit for children, young people and their families, and practitioners working with them

Education Select Committee Solving the SEND Crisis – Oral Evidence

Five sittings of the Education Select Committee have taken place and heard oral evidence from a number of key stakeholders.

Recent Reports

Ten principals for the new SEND system – Confederation of School Trusts

This document sets out 10 principles for a new SEND system, based on previous research by CST and consultation with member trusts.

There have been attempts to reform the approach. However, we believe there are fundamental flaws that mean iterative changes are not a sensible option. We need a new approach, and a new concept of what a good outcome looks like for all involved. That includes seeing the SEND system as one that ensures high quality specialist provision but intrinsically involves mainstream schools.

Identifying SEND – Final Report on SEND and contact with CAMHS – Education Policy Institute and Nuffield Foundation

A new report by the Education Policy Institute, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, highlights the inequalities and the blind spots that exist in SEND support across schools in England. The report identifies the structural challenges within the system where factors such as the fragmentation of the school system, prolonged school absences, language barriers and living in disadvantaged areas make it difficult for pupils’ needs to be assessed consistently.

Relationship between mental ill health and absence in students aged 13 to 16 – 11^th May

This research highlights the extent to which students’ poor mental health contributes to school absenteeism.

DfE response to the Public Accounts Committee report on SEND

The response can be found in the first report of this document. The DfE agreed with all the recommendations from the PAC report and issued their response to timeframes for implementing change.

• PAC recommendation 1a: Over the next 12 months, the Department should work with others including local authorities and the Ministry of Justice to:
  • better understand the reasons for differences in identifying and supporting SEN needs across local areas and schools.
  • routinely identify and share good practice from better performing areas.
• PAC recommendation 1b: Over the next 12 months, the Department should work with others including local authorities and the Ministry of Justice to:
  • improve local authority decision-making by analysing tribunal decisions.
• PAC recommendation 2: Within the next six months, the Department must work with the DHSC to better understand the reasons for increasing and changed demand for SEN support, and then set out how it will provide support more efficiently, such as through group support, identifying needs earlier and ensuring special schools reflect value for money
• PAC recommendation 3: The Department should, within the next six months, set out the provision which children with SEN support should expect. Alongside this, they should set out what inclusive education means and looks like, and the level of resourcing both to ensure the support for children with SEN and the maintenance of educational provision for other children in the same setting. The Department should also set out how inclusive education will be achieved including through earlier identification of SEN, and improved teacher training and continuous development, and how schools will be held to account. SEN performance data should incorporate factors other than academic attainment.
• PAC recommendation 4: Within six months, DHSC should set out how ICBs will consider SEN alongside wider priorities; how its longer-term workforce plans will address current and forecast SEN skill shortfalls; and its processes, plans and targets for reducing related waiting lists.
• PAC recommendation 5: Given the risks to local authorities’ finances, central government must urgently involve local authorities in conversations to develop a fair and appropriate solution for when the statutory override ends in March 2026, clearly setting out these plans as a matter of urgency and no later than March 2025.
• PAC recommendation 6: Moving on from its ‘Safety Valve’ programme, the Department must provide specific support and guidance so all local authorities can effectively manage their SEN-related spending sustainably in the longer term. To ensure investment allocation decisions maximise value for money, demand forecasting is vital. This joint work by the Department and local authorities should include differentiating between the number of places to be provided in mainstream and specialist state settings. It should also ensure that any spending on independent schools and transport costs reflects value for money. The Department should work with local authorities to identify ways in which more accountable provision could be developed offering better value for money.
• PAC recommendation 7: The Department should urgently improve its data, and the use this information to develop a new fully costed plan for improving the SEN system, with concrete actions, and clear interdependencies, alongside metrics to measure outcomes.

Training

Banter or Bullying? A free online CPD course for staff – Anti-Bullying Alliance

This course will give you a good understanding of the difference between banter and bullying. It will help to prepare you to take a whole-school anti-bullying approach to preventing the misuse of banter, identify bullying and harmful behaviours when they might be disguised as banter, and equip children and young people with the skills to navigate the line of acceptability between banter and intentional unkind behaviour.

Sensory Processing: What it is and why it matters – E-Learning Course

This e-learning introduces sensory processing: what it is and why it matters and is intended to be used by a wide variety of practitioners especially those working directly with Disabled Children and Young People and those with Special Educational Needs.

Bitesize learning modules to support TAs to deliver inclusive PE

An online course to support Teaching Assistants in school sports has been released on the Activity Alliance Learning Hub and made free as part of the Inclusion 2024 programme. This short course is designed to improve your confidence in supporting the delivery of inclusive PE and to help you create outstanding experiences for every pupil regardless of their abilities.

Online SEND CPD Units – Whole School SEND

This series of online Continuing Professional Development (CPD) units explore some of the most commonly observed barriers to learning in classrooms and other learning environments, regardless of age, label or area of need.

The units are developed in partnership with leading specialists from the sector to provide clear guidance on adaptations to teaching to help meet the needs of all learners.