Transcript Achieving Inclusion

Making sense of the new
statutory framework for
special educational needs
What will it look like and will
it work?
14 March 2013
Implications for education
professionals
1. Getting up to speed
2. What a new ‘architecture’ for SEN policy,
practice and provision will look like
3. School level issues: professional
development (training); being on the front
line; inclusive support
4. Looking forward to 2014
1. Getting up to speed
Two years on!
Ideological change
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Inclusive education policy
Broader education policy (e.g. curriculum
and assessment) and the concept of
autonomous schools
Parents as choice makers and ‘in control’
‘Front-line’ services
Economic change
A radical overhaul
‘Our proposed reforms respond to the
frustrations of children and young people and
the professionals who work with them. We
want to put in place a radically different
system to support better life outcomes for
young people; give parents confidence by
giving them more control; and transfer power
to professionals on the front line and to local
communities.’
Support and Aspiration (DfE, 2011, p.4, para 4)
Pupils with SEN: England
(2012)
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1,618,340 (School age, all schools)
19.8% incidence (8,178,200)
95, 825 attending special schools (maintained
& non-maintained) – most common needs:
13,495 attending Pupil Referral Units (with
and without special needs)
73,205 attending independent schools
2011 Headline proposals
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A new approach to identifying SEN
Single assessment process and ‘Education, Health
and Care Plan’
A local offer of all services available
Parents to have the option of a personal budget by
2014
Giving parents a real choice of school
Greater independence to the assessment of
children's needs
2. New architecture
Progress and Next Steps
May 2012 > December 2012
Steps to a new system
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Legislation introduced into Parliament early in 2013
(now!)
Draft Code of Practice (guidance for schools,
professionals, parents, other stakeholders) published
for consultation in early 2013
Revisions and refinements throughout 2013
Royal Assent (new Children and Families Act) in
Spring 2014
Planned ‘lead in period’ to support a smooth
transition before a new statutory framework is
implemented in September 2014.
Key components
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Integrated service provision
Introduction of a ‘co-created’ local offer
Education and Health Care Plans (0-25)
Personal budgets
School requirements
Parental preference
Dispute resolution
A new Code of Practice
A new Code of Practice
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Outlining statutory guidance to parents,
schools, local authorities and others
Incorporating statutory guidance on inclusive
schooling
Intended to be streamlined (but covering
ages 0-25) and less bureaucratic than the
current version
Coming into force in 2014 following a ‘lead
in period’ and a consultation on the draft.
Focus of reforms
Most aspects of policy reform are targeted at the
2.8% of the school population with statements of
SEN (226,125 pupils) rather than the 17.0% of
pupils with SEN but without statements (1,392,
215 pupils) – reflected in SEN Pathfinders
A two sides of A4 factsheet outlines two years of
work on the new single school-based SEN
‘category’
‘Too early to draw conclusions’
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Against the four objectives for the evaluation, which
seek to assess whether the Pathfinders:
make the current system more transparent, less
adversarial and less bureaucratic
increase choice and control and improve outcomes
introduce greater independence into the assessment
process by the voluntary sector
demonstrate value for money
SQW September 2012 (Evaluation, Interim
Findings)
‘Issues arising’ in the SQQ
evaluation (interim findings)
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Lack of capacity in the health service to support
testing of multi-agency working (clarity)
Uncertainty around role of VCS (clarity)
Limited development of the local offer to date
(slow progress)
Limited testing of personal budgets (slow
progress)
Partial consideration of accountability and
resourcing (slow progress)
Scale and pace of the recruitment of families raises
issue about scalability and replicability in the
longer-term
Non-Pathfinder areas may benefit from lessons learnt
but will still need to undertake considerable
development work
Getting back on track
 Accelerated Pathfinder activity
Pathfinder dissemination
Synchronising development work with
legislation (Extended Pathfinders end
in September 2014 when we might
anticipate new legislation to be in
place)
3. School practice
Professional development
Implications of working on the front line
Inclusive support
Professional development
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Better ITE (school, special school and PRU placements)
SENCO training + other mandatory training (?)
Whole school approaches to achieving access, participation and
achievement (involving lead SENCOs; Achievement for All)
Online resources (Areas of Need ‘Advanced’; Complex
Needs/SLD/PMLD)
Scholarships (teaching assistants and teachers)
Specialist leaders (National College), school leaders
(headteachers)
Teaching schools (SEND remit), networked schools etc.
Open market sources of CPD at a variety of levels (e.g. Autism
Education Trust CPD programme)
Schools will increasingly determine what they need
Who is on the front line?
To transfer power to professionals on the front line
and to communities we will: strip away unnecessary
bureaucracy so that professionals can innovate and
use their judgement; establish a clearer system so
that professionals from different services and the
voluntary and community sector can work
together; and give parents and communities much
more influence over local services.
Support and Aspiration (2011, p.5, para 7)
Support services
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Cinderella is not invited to the ball even though she
is wanted (Ellis et al, 2012; NUT 2012)
Struggling to manage budget cuts at a time when
they are needed (Gross, 2011; NUT 2012) (valued
‘front line services’?)
Need to trade services in a system that is ‘opened
up’ to include independent providers (a service may
have been privatised), special schools (including
academies and free schools)
Need to work in competition with other services a
school may wish to buy, for example educational
psychology and advisory services including those run
by voluntary and community sector organisations
A framework for outreach,
in-reach and support
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In addition to any frameworks already in use it might
be worth reviewing and adapting Quality Standards
for SEN Support and Outreach Services (DCSF,
2008)
The Quality Standards cover 16 dimensions of
support and outreach organised under 2 headings:
o outcomes standards
o service management and delivery standards.
The standards are designed to be used as suggested
markers against which services provided can be
evaluated
When using the Standards a school
(mainstream) may want to consider
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sufficient access to services
service contribution to improved outcomes
the nature of support, whether they think is
sufficient
effective in classroom contexts
disseminating advice to teachers and teaching
assistants
self-evaluation feedback cycle
capacity building balanced against work overload
and the over delegation of responsibilities.
4. Looking forward
From the perspective of a school or
related setting
September 2014 [1]
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Expect to be working with a new slimmed down SEN
or SEND Code of Practice that contains essential
advice the professionals need and reflects changes
to the law, including statutory advice on inclusive
schooling
Expect to be using a single assessment framework
and Education and Health Care Plans (not
Statements)
Expect to play a role in the use of personal budgets
and direct payments
Expect to be working with a clear ‘local offer’ that
schools are part of and will be using to access
services and support
September 2014 [2]
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Expect to be working with more parents and
children/young people as ‘decision-makers’ (e.g.
with regard to choosing the ‘right’ school)
Expect to be using a new single school category of
SEN (Who’s in/out ????)
Expect to be developing more effective ways of
working with children and young people experiencing
behavioural, emotional, social and mental health
difficulties
Expect to be using effective interventions and
approaches that ‘work for you’ (matching provision
to needs)
September 2014 [3]
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Expect to innovate (teaching and curriculum
provision) but also to help pupils attain and
achieve
Expect to be taking a lead in providing, facilitating
and choosing training in a more open market
Expect to play a key role in choosing external
advice
Expect to know how funding models operate
and how funds are used
Expect to have to build, rebuild and sustain SEN
support networks with other schools and
organisations - without relying on local authorities
Many thanks
Christopher Robertson
School of Education
University of Birmingham
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0121 414 4832