The Current Challenges in The SEND System

What, in your view, are the most pressing challenges currently facing the special educational needs space? 

In just two years, the proportion of boards identifying SEND support as their top challenge has surged from 22% to 37% and looks set to be even more closely trailing or beside budget as a top challenge for schools and trusts this year – Indicating the need for the reform the DfE are consulting on being particularly urgent. Not surprisingly access to funding (74%) is the top issue re SEND and calls for funding reform are key to improvements.  Governance is affected in many ways here: 

• One in balancing stretched budgets (exacerbated by unfunded pay increases),  

• Two, in assuring themselves re outcomes for children in what is nationally widely accepted as a challenging and under resourced area with an accountability system that drives the wrong culture and behaviour around additional needs, and  

• Three, what can’t be underestimated is the knock-on impact upon the governance role in employer responsibility and stakeholder engagement... technical terms presented in reality through increasing parental complaints and increased workload and stress created for both families and school staff (and boards) in navigating this. 

 2. Governance in Focus

What role do school and trust governing boards play in supporting and overseeing provision for pupils with additional need? 

1. Boards ensure that the school or trust has an inclusive vision and ethos, that relevant policies are in place and operating effectively by monitoring their implementation through reviewing data, asking questions in meetings, reviewing pupil, parent and staff survey responses and what they see during school visits.
2. In terms of compliance elements, Boards reassure themselves the necessary SEND information is published on the school website.
3. In terms of their role around financial probity, governors and trustees should oversee the direction of adequate adequate resources (financial and staffing) for the provision for pupils with SEND (in the challenging fiscal time we know this isn't easy right now).
4. Ensure a suitably qualified or experienced special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) has been appointed and has the time, space and resources to do the necessary strategic planning and operational actions. 
5. Appoint a SEND link governor/trustee or a sub-committee with specific oversight of SEND to do some of the more detailed monitoring and examination of systems, processes, data, or budgets as needed. 

 
How can governors and trustees balance the need for strong educational outcomes with the legal and moral duty to meet the needs of all learners, including those with additional need?

The challenge with existing and historic accountability metrics is that they can in some cases drive the wrong culture - for instance the national drive to increase attendance fails to acknowledge for those with high populations of children with additional needs the frequent in-school-time health appointments that are needed.  The drive for high standards of attainment can make ‘inclusive’ schools look like lesser performers on the superficial surface of cohort results.  Challenging behaviours are seen as a school’s failure to take decisive action, and as disruptive to other children’s learning leading to increases in fixed term suspensions or exclusions which we know are detrimental in the longer term for the most vulnerable children in our sector.  The board’s role in balancing this can only be done with confidence, support and alignment, or a sense of everyone sharing the same vision and goal, and being brave enough to stick to it, and advocate for the approaches they choose with the belief it is in the best interests of the children and young people they serve in their specific contexts.  Our top tips for bords include: 

• Refer back to your ethos and vision.  

• Focus on progress as well as attainment data.  

• Request that data is appropriately filtered and narratives provided e.g. when assessing attainment data, separate pupils with SEND and those without and then review the gap and ask what is being done to narrow it.  
• Understand the setting’s legal duties towards pupils with SEND and ensure (visits/asking for the right information/data) that these are being met and not contravened e.g. off rolling.  

How can governing boards ensure that inclusion is not just a policy, but a lived experience for pupils? 

• Boards have responsibility for setting the culture and strategic direction of a school or trust so they can make it central to their setting’s ethos and vision and resulting SDP (and any policies and procedures), ensuring it’s communicated far and wide (to the whole school community) but also that it features in staff induction and ongoing training.  

• In their stakeholder engagement role; Boards can take steps to ensure parents and pupils aware of the school’s intentions so they can help hold the school to account too.  

• Boards much appoint a SEND link role or committee to Interrogate data to ensure this is happening e.g. how do pupils with SEND feature in suspension and exclusion data? IN addition to making use of pupil and parent surveys to ensure that it is their lived experience.  
• If not on the SLT, boards can check that the SENCO is able to influence school/trust strategy and ensure that all decisions are considered in the context of what the impact will be for pupils with SEND.  

What are you hearing from school leaders and governors about the day-to-day challenges of delivering SEN provision? 

Boards can find it tricky to hold senior leaders to account for the outcomes of children with SEND because its widely accepted the system is under resourced and ‘broken’, however, we also hear of brilliant practice happening despite the challenges so need to spread the word of what can still be done and is being by the many, while we wait for the fundamental reform which should help further. 

NGA AGS 2024 

1. Funding – access to adequate funding remains the top challenge for 74% of governing boards, highlighting the urgency for reform (up from 66% the previous year).
2. Local authority support – 58% of respondents cited dwindling resources and increased strain on local authorities as a major obstacle. 
3. EHC plans – obtaining Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans remains a significant hurdle for 55% of respondents. 
4. Staffing – recruiting and retaining qualified support staff is a pressing issue, particularly for special schools. (and staff bemoan challenging confrontation and inappropriate or intimidating interactions with parents adding to stress and workload)  
5. There was also some regional disparity in respect of respondents’ top challenges overall, with the East of England more likely to select supporting pupils with special educational needs (42%) compared to the East Midlands (29%), with all other regions falling in between.
6. Reflecting broader recruitment challenges, appointing support staff was cited as one of their top three challenges in relation to SEND (32%).
7. Respondents also voiced concerns that trying to meet the needs of some high needs pupils in mainstream settings can result in resource and staff capacity being diverted away from the majority of pupils. 

 6. Building Capacity in Governance

What support or training is needed to ensure governors and trustees are well-equipped to understand and challenge inclusive provision effectively? 

NGA and others provide specific training and advice and guidance to boards, and those specifically leading their board re SEND. We help Boards to understand their legal responsibilities and how these are met and explore the data and signs there are to look for to reassure themselves or when. If and how if they need to challenge school leaders. 

Finally, what’s your core message to governing boards right now, when it comes to supporting children and young people with special educational needs? 

Just because there is much that needs to be done to reform the system as it stands, you can still ensure that inclusion is at that centre of everything your setting does from the overarching vision and ethos through to the experience of pupils.  The role in balancing the well-being and workload of staff can be enhanced through effective, proactive parental engagement.  Support schools and their staff to make the time needed so meaningful and impactful conversations can happen early and engage with your stakeholders as a board. Find out how parents, families and communities are feeling, and let them know what impact those conversations have whether it changes practice or not, and if not, why not – effective governance at local level with parental representation and good engagement strategies reduce complaints, workload and stress levels measurably, and more importantly enable pupils with SEND to be and feel as though they are part of the school. 

Although special provision may sometimes be necessary, every effort should be made to allow them to access everything their peers without SEND can.  

Emma is speaking on this topic at the Schools & Academies Show London on May 15th in the SEND Conference on the following session-  

10:00-11:00 | What Do We Need to Do to Address the Challenges in The SEND System?  

• What are the current issues impacting the SEND system and what are the immediate steps the sector can take to alleviate them?   

• Identifying and overcoming the barriers to ensure provision is truly inclusive and accessible for all learners 

• How can educational settings work closely with external stakeholders, services and agencies to tackle sector-wide challenges? 
• Highlighting and utilising the success and positive outcomes we are seeing in the space 

Speakers: 

• Heather Sandy, Executive Director of Children’s Services, Lincolnshire County Council   
• Emma Balchin, Chief Executive, National Governance Association  

• Annamarie Hassall, Chief Executive Officer, National Association for Special Educational Needs (nasen)  

• Dame Christine Lenehan, Strategic Advisor to the Government   

• Vijita Patel, Principal, Swiss Cottage School Development & Research Centre  
• Chair: Ginny Bootman, Special Educational Needs Coordinator and Author, Evolve Church of England Academy Trust