House of Commons - Education and Skills

Select Committee on Education and Skills Minutes of Evidence

Memorandum submitted by the Department for Education and Skills

SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

All children and young people have the right to a good education, with opportunities to realise their talents and learn the skills they will need for adult life—and this includes the one-in-six children with special educational needs and disabilities. The Government wants to give every child or young person the opportunity to fulfil their potential and to support their families in helping them to make the most of their education.

Three key principles underpin all the Government's policies for children and young people with SEN and disabilities, and for their families:

— Personalisation—services tailored to individual needs.

— Inclusion—access for all children and young people to a broad and relevant education, a full range of activities and maximum engagement with their peers and their local community.

— Partnership—agencies working together effectively with children and families to provide coordinated services organised around their needs.

In turning these principles into practice for children and young people with SEN, the Government's objective is that children and young people with SEN have the same opportunities as their peers to realise their potential.

1. The Children's Green Paper Every Child Matters sets out radical proposals for helping all children and young people to achieve the five outcomes identified in consultation as crucial to their well-being, in childhood and in later life:

— being healthy;

— staying safe;

— enjoying and achieving;

— making a positive contribution to society; and

— achieving economic well being.

2. The Government's ambition is to improve these outcomes for all children and to narrow the gaps between those who do well and those who do not. The five outcomes define the purpose of local planning and services for children and form the basis for measuring progress locally and nationally. The Department has developed an outcomes framework (Annex A) which breaks the five outcomes down into specific, meaningful aims; associates each outcome with measures of progress and links it to relevant criteria and standards in the national inspection framework. The Department is working with experts and stakeholders to identify more clearly what these outcomes mean for disabled children and young people and for those with SEN.

3. Children with SEN and disabilities and their families often need support from a range of different services if they are to overcome barriers to learning and participation. Too often those services are not responsive enough to their needs and not well coordinated. This works against improving outcomes. The Children Act 2004 and the associated guidance produced by the Department have introduced a number of important reforms to children's services directed towards personalising services for children with SEN and disabilities and their families and widening access and to a broader range of services through partnerships:

— The creation of Directors of Children's Services and Lead Council Members for children will bring together education and social services and provide better accountability for local authorities' work to improve outcomes for children.

— A Common Assessment Framework will help professionals to better identify children's needs earlier and new information sharing arrangements will help with multi-agency working and the provision of early support to children and families.

— Lead professionals will coordinate action where children and families require support from a range of different services.

— Children's Trust arrangements will pool budgets and commission services.

— Sure Start Children's Centres and Extended Schools will extend the range of services to children and families and bring them together in single locations, enabling children and young people with SEN and disabilities and their families to have better access to the support they need, when they need it and where they need it.

4. The Every Child Matters change programme and the Department's Five Year Strategy for Children and Learners share the twin aims of improving children's well being and raising standards of achievement since a child who thrives is more likely to learn and a child who learns is likely to thrive and realise their potential through lifelong learning. The 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper sets out proposals to ensure that every young person masters functional English and maths before they leave education as an integral part of new general (GCSE) Diplomas and specialised Diplomas and to ensure a range of courses and qualifications to meet a range of needs. The Green Paper, Youth Matters, proposes a wide range of measures to give all young people access to places to go and things to do and high quality advice and guidance on education, employment, and training.

5. The SEN strategy Removing Barriers to Achievement, published in 2004, sets out the Government's long term vision for improving outcomes for children and young people with SEN and a 10 year programme of sustained action and review to "mainstream" SEN across all its policies and programmes. And the National Service Framework for Children sets national outcome standards for health and social services and the interface with education, including a standard for disabled children.

6. Taken together, these recent developments provide a strong policy context for improving provision for children with SEN and disabilities. The forthcoming Schools White Paper will include additional measures which will benefit children and young people with SEN, and their families. We will issue the Committee with a supplementary memorandum setting out these measures, once the White Paper is published.[1] In the meantime, this memorandum covers the specific issues raised by the Select Committee and:

— explains the statutory frameworks that underpin educational provision for children and young people with SEN and disabilities (section 2);

— describes how support is provided to help these children and young people make progress with their learning (section 2);

— outlines some of the continuing challenges (section 3);

— sets out the Government's policies for tackling these challenges, and the significant additional resources it is making available to improve SEN provision nationwide (section 3); and

— draws conclusions and answers some of the recent questions raised about SEN policy (section 4).

SECTION 2: THE CURRENT POSITION

A. THE STATUTORY FRAMEWORKS

What are special educational needs?

7. The statutory definition of special educational needs is broad and a significant number of children will have SEN at some point in their school lives. Under the Education Act 1996 a child has SEN[2] if they:

— have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age; or,

— have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local authority;

— are under compulsory school age and fall within the above definitions or would do so if special educational provision were not made for them.

8. Special educational provision means:

— for children of two or over, educational provision which is additional to or different from, the educational provision made generally for children of their age in schools maintained by the local authority, other than special schools; or

— for children under two, educational provision of any kind.

9. Children with SEN have a range of needs such as physical or sensory difficulties, difficulties in thinking and understanding, difficulties with speech and language, behavioural and emotional difficulties or difficulties in the way they relate to others. Many children will have SEN of some kind at some time during their education and having SEN can affect children in different ways; for example, having SEN could mean that a child has difficulties with:

— All of the work in school.

— Reading, writing and number work or in understanding information.

— Expressing themselves or understanding what others are saying.

— Making friends or relating to adults.

— Behaving properly in school.

— Organising themselves.

10. Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 a child has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities. Disabled pupils often have SEN, for example some children with physical or sensory impairments require additional or different provision to access the curriculum. But this is not always the case. Children with severe asthma, arthritis or diabetes, for example, may not have SEN and may not need additional or different provision to enable them to access the curriculum and make progress in their learning. But these children will have rights under the Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005.

The 1996 Education Act and the SEN Code of Practice

11. The statutory framework for SEN is designed to ensure that children with SEN are identified, have their needs assessed, and receive support to help them make progress in their learning.

12. Under the Education Act 1996, maintained schools' governing bodies have a number of duties towards children with SEN (see Annex B). They must do their best to see that children with SEN get the support they need and maintained mainstream schools must appoint a person responsible for coordinating provision for children with SEN (usually known as the SEN Coordinator, or SENCO).

13. Local authorities have important and extensive duties to identify, assess and make provision for children with SEN and to keep their arrangements for doing so under review (see Annex B).

14. Schools, early education settings, LAs and others must have regard to the SEN Code of Practice, which gives guidance on carrying out their statutory duties under the 1996 Act. The Code recommends a graduated approach to school based support with two levels of intervention—School Action and School Action Plus. Under School Action, the SENCO and the child's teachers decide, with the child and their parents, what action to take to help the child make adequate progress in their learning. The child's progress is monitored and reviewed with their parents and if the child does not make adequate progress following interventions made under School Action, the school seeks help from external services; those services may provide additional advice and support to the school under School Action Plus.

15. If a child does not make adequate progress with the support provided at School Action Plus, the LA may propose a statutory SEN assessment, again involving the child's parents but also obtaining specialist reports from an education psychologist, health and social care professionals and others. If an LA carries out a statutory assessment and feels that the child's needs cannot be met from within the resources available to the school, they must issue a statement of SEN. A similar system of intervention applies in early education settings at Early Years Action and Early Years Action Plus.

16. A statement sets out in detail the child's SEN and the special educational provision to be made for them. Once a statement is made the LA has a duty to arrange the special educational provision specified in it.

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001

17. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 built upon the 1996 Act. It strengthened parents' rights to seek a mainstream place for their child and preserved their right to ask for a special school. It also extended the scope of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to cover education from September 2002.

18. From that date it has been unlawful for schools to treat disabled pupils less favourably, without justification, than their non-disabled peers for a reason related to their disability. Schools must take reasonable steps to ensure that disabled pupils are not put at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled pupils. The duty covers all areas of school life—school admissions, exclusions, and education and other services provided by a school for its pupils, including after school clubs and school trips.

19. In addition to the discrimination duties, the Act placed new duties on LAs and schools to plan strategically to progressively increase access to schools for disabled pupils over time. This covers access to the curriculum; physical improvements to premises and facilities and information in a range of alternative formats. The first plans were published in April 2003 and run for three years, after which they will be reviewed, revised and published afresh for a further three years.

20. The SEN and disability frameworks are designed to work together to improve access to education for children with SEN and disabilities. The SEN framework makes additional or different provision to meet individual pupils' special educational needs while the disability framework provides protection from discrimination on the grounds of disability and promotes planning to widen access to education for disabled pupils over time. Schools and LAs are not required, as part of the disability duties, to provide auxiliary aids and services for individual pupils since these are covered by the SEN framework.

21. From 2006 LAs and schools will have new duties under the Disability Act 2005 to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people, including disabled children and young people. The new duties will provide an impetus for schools and LAs to ensure that their planning and activities "in the round" improve opportunities for disabled people, including learners and staff.

B. PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS

22. Parents have a unique knowledge of their child and a personal and emotional investment in their child's education. A fundamental principle of Government policy is that schools and LAs should work in partnership with parents in meeting children's needs. The SEN Code of Practice makes clear that parents have a right to be advised when their child's school begins to make special educational provision for them and should be actively involved in discussions about provision and setting targets for their learning. It also sets out the rights they have to information and access to a means of resolving disagreements with LAs and schools.

23. A range of broader policy developments supports partnership with parents of children with SEN and disabilities. The Sure Start Programme, while not specifically for children with SEN and disabilities, has drawn on approaches that have been particularly effective with such children and their families, including speech and language programmes to improve communication skills and Portage Home Teaching Programmes. The Early Years Support Programme has developed practical tools for parents and professionals including a Family Service Plan and an audit tool for LAs to use to improve their services. But more importantly it has demonstrated how to build relationships of trust with parents, right from the start.

24. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) 2001 amended Part IV of the 1996 Act to place a duty on LAs to establish Parent Partnership Services. Parent Partnership Services provide a range of activities including:

— information and advice for parents on the "SEN system";

— access to Independent Parental Supporters;

— learning activities for parents, for example, on behaviour management;

— support for local parent/carer groups; and

— support for families of children at risk of exclusion, families from the black and minority ethnic communities, and young people making the transition to adult services.

25. The Act also required LAs to make arrangements for resolving disagreements between parents and schools and parents and LAs. These arrangements can be used in addition to appeals to the SEN and Disability Tribunal and do not affect parents' rights to make such appeals.

26. In addition to these activities, many Parent Partnership Services and other local groups are working with LAs to encourage parents to become partners in policy making at a strategic level. Children's Trusts will be expected to involve parents as partners in the development of services for children and families and some are doing this very effectively already. There are also many examples of SEN Parent Partnership Services playing this vital role.

27. The forthcoming Schools White Paper will set out a range of measures which will strengthen the role of parents. These developments will benefit children with SEN and disabilities significantly and will build on the effective practice that is already in place. These will be set out in our supplementary memorandum, but will include:

— promoting parental choice, for example by increasing the support available to parents and by increasing the number of good school places;

— giving parents the opportunity and support to drive change in the education system; and

28. SEN is a difficult and emotive area and it is not surprising that disagreements can arise as to the nature of a child's difficulties and the appropriate ways of addressing them. The SEN system is set up to encourage and facilitate every effort to resolve these disagreements before they escalate. But in order to strengthen the rights of parents, the SEN and Disability Tribunal was established so that parents could challenge, through a body independent of LAs and central government, the decisions of their LA. Parents can appeal to the Tribunal if their LA:

— refuses to carry out an assessment, or refuses to reassess if the LA has not made a new assessment for at least six months;

— refuses to issue a statement, or decides not to change the statement after reassessing the child;

— decides not to maintain the statement; or

— if they are unhappy with the description of the child's SEN, the description of the help they need, or the school named in the statement.

29. Parents of disabled children who believe that their child has been discriminated against can appeal to the Tribunal and through local admissions and exclusions appeals panels. The Disability Rights Commission has produced a Code of Practice for Schools explaining the new discrimination duties and runs a helpline for parents, schools and LAs.

30. Tribunal Orders are binding. They cannot award financial compensation to parents but they do order LAs to provide educational remedies.

31. Details of the numbers and types of appeals and the outcomes are given below:

	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00	00-01	01-02	02-03	03-04
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Against refusal to assess	27.4	30.3	31	31.4	31.8	37.4	40.4	39.6
Against refusal to make a statement	14	12.7	10.7	10.7	8.4	8	7.9	7.2
Against refusal to re-assess	1.9	2.2	2.2	2.3	1.9	2.4	1.4	1.8
Against refusal to change name of school	2	1.5	1.8	1.5	2.7	1.6	1.5	1.4
Against decision to cease to maintain statement	4	2.7	3.7	2.5	1.8	2.1	2	2.1
Against failure to name a school	0.3	0.5	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.1	0.1	0.1
Against contents of the statement—parts 2 & 3	14.9	14.1	14.7	15.2	14.2	13.3	13.1	12.2
Against contents of the statement—parts 2, 3 & 4	23.1	23.9	22.8	24.5	23.9	24	21.9	25
Against contents of the statement—part 4	12.4	12.1	12.9	11.5	14.8	11.2	11.2	10.6
Total appeals registered	2,051	2,191	2,412	2,463	2,728	3,048	3,532	3,354

32. The volume of appeals to the Tribunal is one measure of the level of parental satisfaction. There were 3,354 appeals in 2003-04 compared with 1.4 million children with SEN—less than a quarter of 1%. Some 1,609 of those were against the contents of statements, compared with a total of 247,000 children with statements—just over one half of 1%. While the number of appeals registered increased each year until 2002-03, the 2003-04 was almost 200 appeals down on the previous year. These data indicate that, within existing capacity and resources, for the great majority of families the system is operating effectively to meet their children's needs. Furthermore, the Government has increased funding for schools significantly in recent years and local authorities are spending more on provision for children with SEN. When parents do appeal, the Tribunal is highly effective in responding to their concerns—of the 1,197 SEN appeals decided in 2003-04, 78% were partly or fully upheld.

33. Furthermore, it is important to note that about 45% of appeals are withdrawn before a hearing, which suggests that the Tribunal process also helps promote intensive engagement of parents in discussion with LAs to resolve issues and establish provision for individual children.

C. FUNDING FOR SEN

34. All children, including those with SEN, benefit from the significant increase in education funding since 1997-98; real terms funding will have increased by an estimated average of £1,000 per pupil by 2005-06 (from £2,940 to £4,110). By 2007-08 recurrent funding will have increased by about £1,300 per pupil (or 45%) in real terms since 1997-98.

35. According to information collected from local authorities, their planned spending on SEN nationally in 2004-05 was around £3.8 billion and spending of about £4.1 billion is planned for 2005-06 (an increase of 7.8%)—some 13% of all education spending. The figure of £4.1 billion includes about £1.4 billion for maintained special schools, £2.0 billion for mainstream schools, £481 million for placements at independent and non-maintained special schools and £264 million for LA duties such as Educational Psychologists, administration and monitoring, parent partnership and child protection.

36. Between 1997-98 and 2003-04 the Government allocated a total of £360 million through specific grants to support SEN. As part of the Government's drive to streamline funding for schools, the separate grant for SEN, worth £81 million per annum, ended in March 2004 and was added into a new School Development Grant. The School Development Grant is allocated to schools and LAs to spend on improving teaching and learning according to their own needs and priorities.

37. Funding for schools is a shared responsibility between central government and LAs. The majority of funding is provided by central government, with LAs providing the rest through the council tax. LAs decide how much to spend on education in their area and how to distribute that between schools and central education services.

38. To provide greater stability and predictability of funding for schools the Government is introducing new school funding arrangements from April 2006 which include:

— a new ring-fenced Dedicated School Grant from DfES to each local authority for school funding and other services for pupils provided by authorities like special education needs.

— Three year budgets for schools, geared to pupil numbers, and guaranteed minimum increases in per pupil funding each year for all schools.

— A new Single Standards Grant, streamlining current standards related funding for schools currently available through the Standards Fund and School Standards Grant.

39. The Government believes that schools are best placed to make decisions about support arrangements for pupils experiencing barriers to their learning. It is encouraging the delegation of more SEN resources to schools to enable head teachers and SENCOs to address the individual needs of pupils more quickly and without the need to "demonstrate need" to their LA before resources are made available. But the Department has always made clear that this must result in a better deal for children and not a reduced entitlement.

40. It is vital that parents have confidence that their child's school can meet their needs. There are safeguards in place. For example, schools have a legal duty to use their best endeavours to make suitable provision available for all pupils with SEN. LAs are required to publish details of their arrangements for SEN including a statement of what they expect schools to provide from their budgets for children with SEN who do not have statements and what they expect to provide themselves. For children with statements LAs must ensure that the provision specified in the statement is delivered.

41. The Department has strongly encouraged LAs to work in partnership with schools and parents to ensure that respective responsibilities are clear and that there are appropriate accountability frameworks in place. In May 2004 new guidance to local authorities on The Management of SEN Expenditure made this clear.

3 Ev 46-51

D. CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND WHERE THEY ARE TAUGHT

Children with SEN

42. The Department publishes data collected from schools, through its Pupil Level Annual Schools Census, on the number of pupils with SEN. Latest figures (January 2005) from the Census show that some 1.45 million children at school have SEN (17.8% of the school population). 242,600 have a statement of SEN (2.9%) and 1.2 million are at School Action or School Action Plus (14.9%) receiving provision made from within the resources available to their schools. The picture has changed in recent years; the number of children with statements rose between 1997 and 2003 but fell by 8,000 in the following two years. The number of children who have SEN but do not have statements has also fluctuated over recent years but in 2005 it is at broadly the same level as in 1997.

43. There are considerable variations between LAs and the percentage of pupils identified as having SEN ranges from 10%-30%. The percentage of pupils with statements of SEN varies by a factor of almost five to one—from 1%-4.8%.

44. Children have a wide range of needs and many children have more than one type of need. Data has been collected in England on the primary types of need of children with statements and at School Action Plus of the SEN Code of Practice since 2004. Latest figures (January 2005) show that the most prevalent types of need of those with statements and at School Action Plus are:

— moderate learning difficulty (30% of children at School Action Plus and 25% of those with statements;

— behaviour, emotional and social difficulties (26% and 14%);

— specific learning difficulty (17% and 9%);

— speech, language and communication difficulties (13% and 11%); and

— autistic spectrum disorders (2% and 12%).

45. Since data collection on type of need is relatively new, it needs to be interpreted cautiously. The Department is currently reviewing and refining the guidance given to schools on assigning primary and secondary types of need when they make their data returns.

How decisions are made about where children with SEN are taught

46. Pupils without statements are covered by the normal arrangements for admissions and their parents' preferences should be considered under schools' usual admissions criteria. Pupils with statements are covered by different arrangements under section 324 onwards and Schedule 27 to the Education Act 1996. Parents of pupils with statements may express a preference for the school in the maintained sector—mainstream or special, denominational or non-denominational—they wish their child to attend. The LA, which maintains the child's statement must comply with the parent's preference and name the school in the statement, unless:

— the school is unsuitable to the child's age, ability, aptitude, or special educational needs;

— the child's attendance at the school would be incompatible with the efficient education of the other children in the school; or

— the child's attendance would be incompatible with the efficient use of resources.

47. Before a school is named in a child's statement, the LA must consult the parents' preferred school and consider any representations made by the school against the admission of the child. Provided the LA is satisfied with regard to the criteria above, it may proceed to finalise the statement. Once a school is named in a statement the governing body is under a duty to admit the child.

48. Parents can also make representations to a local education authority for a non-maintained or independent school and the authority must consider their request with regard to the general principle that pupils must be educated in accordance with parents' wishes so far as this is compatible with the provision of efficient instruction and training, the avoidance of unreasonable public expenditure, and the need to arrange suitable special educational provision.

49. The SEN and Disability Act 2001 strengthened parents' rights to seek a mainstream school place for their child but preserved their right to seek a place at a special school. There is no block on parents expressing a preference for any maintained school, special or mainstream, and the decision as to which school the child attends is made by the LA according to the same criteria.

Where children with special educational needs are taught

50. Children and young people with SEN are taught in a range of settings. Below summarises the terminology commonly used for these different settings—including in the charts in this section.

Definitions of settings attended by children and young people with SEN

Registered early years education setting

Early years education is education provision for children between 3-years-old and compulsory school age in a funded early education Ofsted-registered establishment.

Non-maintained special schools

Non-maintained special schools are non-profit-making independent schools run by charitable trusts and approved by the Secretary of State as a special school under Section 342 of the Education Act 1996, as amended by the Schools Standards and Framework Act 1998. They may receive grants from the Department for capital work and equipment but funding is primarily from fees charged to local education authorities and parents for pupils placed there.

Independent special schools and other independent schools

An independent school is one which is neither maintained by a local education authority nor is in receipt of grants from the Department and funding is primarily from fees charged to local education authorities and parents for pupils placed there. While there is no legal category, independent special schools are approved under Section 347(1) of the Education Act 1996 for the education of pupils within the terms of their approval. LAs must obtain individual approval from the Secretary of State to place pupils with statements in any other independent school.

Pupil referral units

A pupil referral unit (PRU) is set up under the Education Act 1993 to make provision for pupils who are out of school for reasons such as exclusion or illness. Pupils who are dually registered in a PRU and a school should be recorded under their type of school.

Educated other than in school

Section 319 of the Education Act 1996 empowers an authority to provide education for children with special educational needs "other than in school". This may include education in centres run by social services or at home. Children would normally be on another school register. Under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996, the parent of every child of compulsory school age must ensure that she/he receives full-time education suitable to her/his age, ability and aptitude either by regular attendance at school or by means other than in school.

Awaiting provision

Pupils may not be in school for a range of reasons, including:

— the pupil has just moved into the local authority area;

— the pupil has been permanently excluded and the LA is seeking a suitable alternative placement; or

— the pupil is awaiting admission to a school.

Maintained special school

A school maintained by a local authority which is specially organised to make special educational provision for pupils with special educational needs. There are two categories of LA-maintained special school—community special and foundation special.

Maintained mainstream school

There are three types of LA-maintained mainstream school:

— Community schools;

— Foundation schools; and

— Voluntary schools, comprising voluntary aided schools and voluntary controlled schools.

51. From data collected from local authorities in January 2005, around 60% of children and young people with statements of SEN were taught in mainstream schools and resourced provision[4] (of that 60% some 8% were in resourced provision, units or special classes in mainstream schools). Some 34% were in maintained special schools, 5% were in non-maintained and independent schools and 0.9% were in Pupil Referral Units.

52. The balance of provision across maintained special, mainstream and resourced provision has been very stable over the past four years that data on the latter has been collected, even though the number of statements has fallen.

53. The picture for children for whom statements had been newly made in 2004 shows that some 66% named mainstream schools, 18% named local authority maintained special schools, 2.4% named non-maintained and independent schools. Overall, there has been a slight (less than 1%) rise in the proportion of pupils with new statements placed in special schools.

54. There are variations between local authorities in the provision made for children with statements.

Mainstream schools Resourced provision, units and special classes in mainstream schools Maintained special schools Non-maintained and independant special schools

% % % %

ENGLAND (average) 51.9 7.7 32.8 4.6

In individual authorities
Minimum
18.9
0.0
0.0
0.4

Median 51.8 6.5 32.0 4.2

Maximum 73.0 42.8 60.0 19.2

Source: SEN2 survey, January 2005.

Children in EY settings, hospital schools and PRUs, those out of school and/or awaiting provision not included.

55. The number of maintained special schools has reduced slightly from 1,171 in 1997 to 1,049 in 2005. The number of non-maintained special schools has risen from a low of 61 in 1999 to 73 in 2005. During the same period the number of independent schools approved specifically by the Department as suitable for the admission of pupils with statements has fallen from 99 to 93, while the number of independent schools registered with, but not approved by, the Department as catering wholly or mainly for children with statements has increased from 69 to 148. Although the total number of children at school with statements of SEN has fallen in the past two years from 250,500 in 2003 to 242,600 in 2005, the proportion of children with statements placed in maintained special schools has remained broadly constant at around 34% and in addition some 20,000 children are currently taught in resourced provision.

How decisions about the pattern of local special educational provision are made

56. Local authorities have a duty to secure sufficient schools for children in their area and in doing so must have particular regard to the need for special educational provision. The Government sets expectations as to the quality of this provision, as does Ofsted. But how these expectations are met is a matter for local decision, and for this reason, Government plays no role in relation to LA school reorganisations or in respect of decisions to close schools.

57. When a LA decides to take forward a special school reorganisation or closure, it must prepare and submit to a local School Organisation Committee for approval a School Organisation Plan setting out how it will ensure sufficient provision for pupils within the area. In doing so the LA must listen to what parents want. Where a local authority proposes to close a school it must consult on its proposals, including with parents; where there are objections and local agreement is not possible, an independent adjudicator makes the final decision.

Reorganising local provision to meet changing needs

58. There is evidence to suggest that the population of pupils with SEN is changing: advances in medicine are allowing children with complex health needs to survive well beyond school age; more children are being diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders; and there is a growing number of children with severe behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. Set against this the screening of newborn children for visual and hearing impairment has allowed the relevant professionals to intervene earlier with these children which in turn has reduced the impact of these disabilities. All forms of provision—special schools, mainstream schools and additionally resourced provision or units attached to mainstream schools—have an important role to play in meeting children's needs.

59. It is important that there is a flexible range of provision in place and that LAs can reorganise their schools to respond most effectively to the wide and evolving range of needs. LA special school reorganisations are not therefore about closing schools but about providing better facilities for children with a more complex range of SEN in new and modern buildings, and reshaping overall SEN provision in ways that are more tailored to the changing pattern of needs. HMCI's annual report for 2003-04 notes that maintained special schools are gradually changing how they are organised, sometimes amalgamating into fewer but bigger schools, widening the range of disabilities individual schools serve, or relocating on to the sites of mainstream schools.

Approaches to the teaching children with different types of SEN

60. The SEN Code of Practice 2001 summarises categories of SEN into four broad areas of need:

— communication and interaction;

— cognition and learning;

— behavioural, emotional and social development; and

— sensory and/or physical needs.

61. But the Code of Practice recognises that children will have needs and requirements which may fall into at least one of the four areas and that many children will have a number of inter-related needs.

62. Children's SEN range from mild and temporary learning difficulties in one particular area of the curriculum to severe, complex and permanent impairments that will always affect learning across the curriculum. There is a continuum of needs that requires a continuum of special educational provision.

63. Children and young people have special educational needs if there are barriers to learning, and if they are unable to access the curriculum and make adequate progress without additional to or different from provision to that normally available in maintained mainstream schools in the local area.

64. The key test for taking SEN action is whether a child is making adequate progress. The measure of progress will be different for different children. It will depend on the child's starting point and on their particular needs. Progress for different children with SEN could range from progress that closes the attainment gap between the child and their peers or prevents the attainment gap growing wider to progress which demonstrates an improvement in self-help, social or personal skills.

65. Decisions about the provision necessary for children with different types of SEN are made locally by schools and LAs in line with the statutory framework, including the advice in the SEN Code of Practice and the SEN Toolkit. The Toolkit, which drew on research conducted by the University of Newcastle, identified four broad strands of action to meet children's SEN:

— assessment, planning and review;

— grouping for teaching purposes;

— additional human resources; and

— curriculum and teaching methods.

66. SEN provision could therefore take the form of further assessment, additional or different curriculum materials or a different way of teaching, or sometimes (but not always) additional adult support.

67. Teachers, in discussion with children and parents, decide which actions and combinations of actions are appropriate for each child taking account of their learning difficulties, their different learning styles and the school and class context. All teachers are required as part of the General Teaching Requirements of the National Curriculum, to differentiate their approach to meet the needs of individual children, to set suitable learning challenges and to help children overcome barriers to learning and assessment. The National Curriculum allows considerable flexibility for teachers in organising teaching to meet the different needs of learners.

68. The SEN Code of Practice emphasises the importance of consulting and involving children with SEN in decisions that affect them, including in relation to setting targets for their learning and reviewing their progress, in reviewing the provision made in their statement, and in making and keeping up to date transition plans. Involving children in decisions about their own learning is now a key feature of the drive towards personalised learning for all children (described in section 4).

69. Research published by the Department in February 2004, Teaching Strategies and Approaches for Pupils with Special Educational Needs: A Scoping Study, found a large degree of overlap between effective approaches for children with different types of SEN. There was no single model of learning that informed and justified one method of teaching for each type of SEN; rather, the teaching approaches and strategies effective with children with SEN were broadly similar to those that were effective in teaching all children. The research identified different access strategies for specific kinds of disability, such as visual and hearing impairments, but found the underlying teaching and learning approach was the same.

70. Data about the numbers of pupils in the country with different types of special educational need (SEN) as part of the Pupil Level Annual Schools Census (PLASC) is linked to the children's attainment. In time it will be possible to track cohorts of children with types of SEN with similar starting points and see how much progress they make over time. The longitudinal data can then be used to study trends in progress and thus help with planning and help with monitoring the outcomes of interventions for pupils with different types of SEN.

E. HOW CHILDREN WITH SEN ARE ACHIEVING

Attainment of pupils with SEN

71. A wide range of pupils is identified as having SEN. Children with special educational needs may often make less or slower progress than pupils without SEN. Pupils with SEN are represented across the attainment spectrum, but the %ages at the expected levels are significantly lower than for those without SEN.

72. Around 25% of children at Key Stages 1—3 are low attaining and of those almost two thirds have SEN; 13% have statements. Some 33% of children attaining below level 3 at the end of Key Stage 2 (age 11) have statements. Only 10% of pupils at or above age related expectations in Key Stage tests have SEN, of which almost none have statements. However, the high numbers of children in primary schools identified as having SEN (some 18% of the total population) could also suggest that in some cases these children may be regarded as having SEN but in fact may simply be low attaining.

73. The charts below compare the split of pupils achieving any grade at GCSE and equivalent, compared with the split of pupils achieving 5 or more A*-C grades. The charts show that while the share of pupils with SEN achieving any grade at GCSE was 14%, the share with SEN achieving 5 or more A*-C grades was only 4%. This result at GCSE and equivalent reflects similar results at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 of the National Curriculum.

74. Another way of comparing attainment is to compare pass rates for those with and without SEN, as indicated in the table below. It is clear that at KS2, KS3 and GCSE and equivalent, pupils with SEN fare significantly less well, particularly when focusing on higher grades.

Achievement rates (% of all pupils entered for test or exam) No identified SEN School Action School Action Plus

SEN with a statement

Key Stage 2
(level 4+) English
Maths
Science
89%
85%
93% 44%
42%
68% 26%
30%
56%
15%
17%
32%

Key Stage 3
(level 5+)
English
Maths
Science
81%
83%
76% 33%
28%
29% 23%
30%
23%
11%
15%
14%

GCSE/equivalent Any pass
5 A*-C
98%
60% 93%
15% 82%
11% 78%
6%

75. The data show some indication of improvements in the attainment of children and young people with SEN over time. But comparisons on a consistent basis are not possible, so this data should be treated with caution.

76. Some children and young people with SEN may never achieve higher levels of attainment. But there are many children with SEN who can and do make progress and improve attainment year on year—for example those working above level 1 but below level 2; those working on P scales[5] below level 1, and children with SEN achieving level 3 at KS2.

77. Because of this, the Government believes it is important to focus on and recognise the progress made by all pupils and to recognise their wider achievements. To support this, the Department is promoting the use of sophisticated value-added methodology in Performance Tables, the School Profile, the Pupil Achievement Tracker (PAT) and Ofsted's PANDA. This contextual value-added information takes account of a range of pupil factors such as SEN and deprivation, in addition to pupils' prior attainment and, in secondary schools, school level factors. The PANDA reports issued to primary and secondary schools this autumn contain these new contextual value added measures, and also show value added scores separately for subgroups of pupils such as those with Special Educational Needs, and those with below-average prior attainment.

78. For the School Achievement and Attainment tables, secondary school indicators (Key Stage 2-4) will be piloted in 2005 so that they can be in the published secondary Tables in 2006 and primary school indicators will be piloted in 2006 so they can be in the published primary Tables in 2007. Better use of data on achievement by schools and LAs is the key to raising expectations, setting appropriate targets, raising attainment and enabling children to enjoy and achieve. This is a key Government priority (see section 3). The Department is working closely with Ofsted to streamline the provision of data analysis to schools by merging the Performance and Assessment reports—the PANDA—with the Pupil Achievement Tracker. An interactive website (RAISEonline) is being developed with data already loaded, giving schools, LAs, School Improvement Partners (SIPs) and inspectors a common set of analyses as well as providing schools with a tool for reviewing their performance data in greater depth as part of their self-evaluation and target setting. The aim is for this to be available from summer 2006.

Inclusion and attainment

79. In 2003 research undertaken for DfES by the Universities of Newcastle and Manchester on the issue of Inclusion and Achievement found no evidence of a relationship between inclusion and attainment at local authority level although there appeared to be a very small negative correlation between inclusion and pupil attainment at individual pupil level (i.e. those with and without SEN). The possibility that this may be a causal relationship cannot be ruled out but seems unlikely because:

— there is a considerable variation in school-level performance, so other school-level factors appear to have more significance;

— highly inclusive schools manage inclusion in broadly similar ways but have widely differing attainment levels;

— more inclusive schools tend to serve more deprived communities which generally have lower attainment levels; and

— inclusivity is far less significant than other factors such as Free School Meals, month of birth, gender and mother tongue.

80. There was some evidence of the positive effects that inclusion can have on the wider achievements of all pupils, such as social skills and understanding (though it can also increase the risk of isolation and low self-esteem). The model of provision that the researchers found effective in including all children, and which emerged from the case studies, was one involving flexible grouping of pupils, customisation of provision to individual circumstances, careful individual monitoring and school-wide strategies for raising attainment which clearly link back to the strands of action set out in the SEN Code of Practice.

SECTION 3: GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES

A. CHALLENGES

81. SEN is one of the most challenging aspects of LAs' responsibilities. This has been acknowledged in recent reports from the Audit Commission and Ofsted, which note that despite a robust statutory framework and improvements in practice and provision in recent years there remains a number of continuing challenges to overcome in order to further improve outcomes for children with SEN and disabilities.

Audit Commission—Special Educational Needs—a mainstream issue

82. The Audit Commission's report Special Educational Needs—a mainstream issue (2002) identified these challenges as:

— Too many children waiting too long to have their needs met.

— Parents lacking confidence in the system, leading to pressure for statements.

— Some children who could be taught in a mainstream school being turned away.

— Teachers feeling ill equipped to meet the wide range of needs in today's classrooms.

— Special schools feeling uncertain of their role.

— Unacceptable variations in provision between different parts of the country.

Ofsted—Special educational needs and disability—towards inclusive schools

83. More recently the Ofsted report Special educational needs and disability—towards inclusive schools (October 2004) highlighted a growing awareness of the benefits of inclusive practice and some improvements in practice in schools. But it also found:

— for many schools, inclusion was a significant challenge;

— expectations of achievement were often ill-defined or pitched too low so that progress in learning was slower than it should be for a significant number of pupils;

— use of data on pupil outcomes was limited and schools under-used the potential for adapting the curriculum and teaching methods to give pupils suitable opportunities to improve key skills;

— few schools evaluated systematically their provision for pupils with SEN for effectiveness and value for money;

— effective collaboration between mainstream and special schools was the exception rather than the rule; and

— under 50% of schools visited had disability access plans.

Moving forward

84. The Government recognises these issues and challenges and that many of them can only be addressed by sustained, long-term action. This is why it developed Removing Barriers to Achievement (2004), its SEN strategy.

85. The strategy provides a clear national vision and a long-term programme of action and review. It was developed after wide consultation with pupils, parents, teachers and other staff, local authorities, the health services and voluntary sector on what they saw as the key priorities. The strategy has been welcomed widely. It reflects the contribution of the Department's wider policies and programmes to improving outcomes for children with SEN and disabilities and sets out the Government's priorities for action in four key areas:

— Early identification and intervention.

— Removing barriers to learning.

— Raising expectations and achievement.

— Delivering improvements in partnership.

The remainder of this section outlines action being taken under each of these areas.

B. EARLY IDENTIFICATION AND INTERVENTION

Early years

86. The strategy promotes a shift towards earlier identification and intervention, by strengthening support for SEN in early years settings and in schools, where some difficulties may not be picked up until a child has started school and begun to engage in learning. Since the Strategy was published:

— the effective approaches to working with babies and very young disabled children and their families established by the Early Years Support Programme are being mainstreamed and have been embedded in the national outcome standards for children's services in the National Service Framework for Children;

where necessary

Choice for Parents, the best start for children

Removing Barriers to Achievement

— developed parents' information leaflets;

— implemented workforce development contracts with specialist voluntary sector groups;

— established good practice projects in four Children's Trusts and three SEN Regional Partnerships;

— developed an award for best inclusive early years practice;

— developed a Childcare Approval Scheme for home-based care;

— extended Portage services to more local authority areas;

— funded LAs to ensure provision of inclusion/SEN training for early years staff, including childminders and SENCOs; and

— produced SENCO training materials for all early years settings and local authorities.

— a feasibility study for establishing a National Early Intervention Centre of Excellence to raise awareness of effective approaches and promote improvements in practice has been carried out.

87. The Government is encouraging local authorities to extend access to SEN advice and support the development of the skills and awareness of staff in early years settings. This builds on a number of improvements to provision for children with SEN in the early years in recent years:

— All early years settings in the private, voluntary and independent sector required to have a SENCO responsible for that setting's SEN policy.

— LAs employ Area SENCOs to support and train early years settings on SEN/inclusion at a ratio of 1:20 settings.

National Standards for under 8s Day Care and Childminding

Improving SEN advice and support to early years settings

In one London Borough a centre for pre-school children with SEN and disabilities and their families has led to more effective early intervention and a significant reduction in the need to statement children below reception age in order to secure appropriate support.

A joint agency Disability Strategy Group which includes senior members of staff from some of the 26 multi-agency services co-located at the Centre identified barriers to effective multi-agency family friendly working in practice and is taking action to overcome them. Their programme has developed new multi-agency referral criteria and panel processes to ensure families of young children with more complex needs and disabilities are offered a keyworker, multi-agency co-ordinated support, and a Family Service Plan. A multi-agency Internet accessible database has been established and joint assessment processes are being developed.

In recent years, Pre-School SEN Services and Primary Care Trust therapy services, working from the Centre, together with the local Autistic Trust, have established the National Autistic Society Early Bird Programme for families of children newly diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. They have also developed new centre class-based groups for children with complex language disorders, whereby the parents and their child attend together. Partnership initiatives have linked Portage, Speech and Language Therapy and Early Support, offering early intervention for children with severe social and communication difficulties.

The authority now has a clear panel referral process and criteria for all pre-school children with SEN and disabilities. Approximately 175 new children are followed up each year; support is not dependent on waiting for statutory assessment processes and no children below reception age require a statement. A pre-school audit has helped the authority to plan the pattern of provision and places that will be required at school age. All Early Support families are offered a key worker, multi-agency meetings, Family Service Plans and multi-agency information.

Early intervention in schools

88. The development of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) under Every Child Matters will provide a tool for schools and other services to identify children's needs at an earlier stage and will link up professionals from different services. The CAF is currently being trialled in a number of local authorities. The evaluation of the trial will focus on the relationship of the CAF to more specialist assessments such as the SEN statutory assessment.

89. Delegating funding for SEN to schools can help to boost earlier intervention for children with SEN so that support can be provided, wherever appropriate, without the need for a statutory assessment or a statement. A number of LAs have worked with their schools and parents to develop their approach and secure the confidence of parents that their children's needs will be met, where appropriate without statutory assessment.

Parent partnerships

In the North West, one local authority's Parent Partnership Service (PPS) has made a significant contribution to removing barriers to learning for children with SEN. It provides an extensive range of services for parents, including information and advice on SEN matters, support in preparing for and attending meetings, help with writing letters and filling in forms; liaising with their child's school; signposting other services; and liaising with local mediation services. The PPS recruits and trains Independent Parental Supporters, and maintains an up-to-date register.

Direct support to parents has been successful in ensuring positive outcomes for individual children and their families. For example, a family of a four-year-old boy with cerebral palsy were struggling to come to terms with his disability and reluctant to send him to school. The PPS has supported the parents to improve the child's attendance at school by enabling them to work constructively as active partners in his education, while full physical access was provided to all areas of school. In another case, a secondary pupil with Asperger's Syndrome and ADHD was permanently excluded from secondary school because of his behaviour until the PPS worked with his mother and local authority staff to identify a new school. The child now follows a balanced curriculum involving academic, social and vocational activities and spends increasing time in GCSE classes. The positive impact of this work is reflected in the number of appeals to the SEN and Disability Tribunal, which have reduced from 8.42 per 10,000 in 2000-01 to 3.03 per 10,000 in 2003-04.

Partnership with parents in policy making

In the south, one local authority has set up a Parents' SEN Forum to promote and sustain dialogue with parents of children with SEN. The forum enables the authority to listen to and take account of parental views as they develop SEN policy and provision and to provide parents with information on a wide range of issues associated with SEN.

The Parent Partnership holds the forum two to three times a year, focusing on issues suggested by parents. Each Forum, chaired by the Parent Partnership Co-ordinator, consists of a short presentation by speakers on the chosen theme and includes representation from schools, health services, social care, and education support staff. Parents are invited to contribute their views to policies as they are being developed. The Director of Education & Children's Services attends. Parents are also able to discuss individual concerns privately. Questions may be submitted in written form or voiced at the meeting. A Punjabi/Urdu speaker is available for translation and parents are asked before hand if they have other particular needs which require support. Issues raised by parents are followed up by the local authority officers concerned and are fed back either individually or at the next forum. Each forum brings parents up to date on how their views have been taken into account.

Feedback from parents shows they value the forum, enjoy meeting other parents, appreciate the availability of service local authority officers and recognise that issues they raise are being addressed. For example, as a result of issues raised at the Forum the local authority has implemented changes in the way speech and language therapy is provided in schools and provision for children on the autistic spectrum.

Building parental confidence in SEN provision in schools

In one local authority in the North of England funding for provision at School Action Plus has been delegated to schools for a few years. The Authority's SEN Strategy envisaged this process would continue and that, by April 2005, a small contingency would be retained, to be allocated on advice from its Provision Agreement Panel (PAP). The Panel was set up to help the Authority consider requests from schools for statutory assessments. It comprises representatives from schools, education officers and support agencies and meets every three weeks. It can recommend funding for early intervention, to enhance School Action Plus provision. The needs of children are considered against published criteria and allocated to one of five bands for additional funding support in order to secure greater consistency of decision making.

As schools' capacity to meet children's needs earlier has increased, the number of new statements has reduced from 110 in 2002 to 30 in 2004. One secondary and one primary school with a disproportionate number of pupils with complex difficulties have been provided with advanced funding to enable them to address the needs of such pupils at an early stage. The scheme has a number of benefits:

— the capacity of mainstream schools to meet a wider range of needs has improved, leading to a small reduction in parents seeking special school places (numbers attending special schools reduced from 350 in 2004 to 329 in 2005);

— a language support service has been established, enabling specialist support to be delivered across all mainstream schools;

— education, social care and health now have a joint funding protocol to support the needs of children and young people requiring physical adaptation of their school buildings, residential placement outside the authority or specialised facilities; and

— the number of appeals to SENDIST has reduced from six in 2002-03 to three in 2003-04 (1.03 per 10,000 school population)—significantly lower than the national and the averages of the Authority's statistical neighbour.

90. The Department is taking action to cut unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy on SEN by helping schools and local authorities, schools and early years settings to focus on the essentials and make better use of ICT, enabling teaching staff to spend more time working directly with children with SEN to improve their learning, for example:

— promoting alternative approaches to Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for effective target setting, planning and monitoring of outcomes through the National Strategies, the SEN Regional Partnerships, and the team of DfES SEN Advisers;

— working with a number of local authorities and SEN Regional Partnerships to streamline the processes for annual reviews of children's statements so that schools have fewer tasks to do. The SEN Regional Partnerships will disseminate the results of this work in 2006; and

— improving coordination of SEN provision at school level. Sessions for SENCOs to identify effective and innovative practice and potential solutions to practical issues are being held in partnership with the National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN). NASEN will publish articles in their journals highlighting the ideas to emerge from these sessions and the case studies gathered will inform the Secondary National Strategy's SEN Management Guide for School Leadership Teams, to be published in February 2006.

91. Local authorities are also being encouraged to develop their own schemes for reducing bureaucracy, to build on existing practice.

Reducing bureaucracy

In one local authority SENCOs from clusters of schools worked together with the local authority on the distribution of SEN resources between schools.

The authority worked with its schools to look for ways of reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and critically at the imposition of any "new tasks" on schools. A jointly developed financial system allows schools and clusters of schools to map their spending, analyse outcomes for pupils, and review the use of funds. An annual report is provided to all schools in a cluster showing the exact amount of targeted funding available in each school. The financial system also enables LA officers to track spending patterns and potential over or under spending.

The use of provision mapping enables schools, clusters and support services to track how resources are used, link them to pupil outcomes (currently attainment and sustainability of placement) and evaluate whether the organisation of staff can be improved to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in the use of resources. The Audit Commission found that schools reported "an improvement in the LA's effectiveness in monitoring the progress of pupils with SEN" and in "the clarity of the LEA's rationale for the deployment of SEN funding". Links between outcomes and SEN investment have led to a stronger joint approach between local school improvement and SEN support services.

There has been no significant increase in numbers of statutory assessments or appeals to the SEN and Disability Tribunal and no increase in statements or numbers placed in special schools.

C. REMOVING BARRIERS TO LEARNING

A continuum of provision to meet a spectrum of needs

92. Removing Barriers to Achievement reflects the Government's policy of including children with SEN and disabilities in mainstream schools where this is what parents want and it is compatible with the efficient education of other children whilst preserving parents' rights to seek a special school place. Central to the Government's policy is a drive to build the capacity of mainstream schools to meet children's SEN and maximise the best use of specialist provision so that inclusive practice is developed throughout local communities of schools.

93. The Government has made clear that special schools have a vital and new role educating children with the most severe and complex needs and working much more closely with mainstream schools to share expertise and extend the range of opportunities for learning for all children in all settings. Special schools have already been brought within the Department's mainstream leadership and diversity programmes; some 30 special schools have been awarded specialist school status and 12 special schools have been designated as Trailblazers to provide SEN expertise on outreach to mainstream schools.

94. The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme offers a real opportunity to develop new and better provision for children with SEN and disabilities and extend the range of choices open to parents. From 2004-05 the programme will radically transform the learning environment for secondary school pupils. The programme is currently worth over £2 billion a year in the current spending review period (2005-08); of that, some £300 million is estimated to be spent on provision for pupils with special needs and disabilities in the first three waves of the programme. It is being extended to primary schools. BSF builds on a period in which capital allocations for schools have risen from £1.1 billion in 1997-98 to £5.5 billion in 2004-05. The Schools Access Initiative has made over £600 million available since 1997-98 to help schools improve access for disabled pupils.

95. There is a simplistic but mistaken view that LA reorganisations involving special school closures inevitably mean a loss of specialist support and expertise and fewer good quality choices for parents. In practice, over the past 20 years, LAs have reconfigured their special schools to meet changing needs, developed specialist provision within or attached to mainstream schools and co-located special and mainstream schools. A key priority for the Government in taking forward the SEN strategy during this Parliamentary term will be to promote the development of a flexible continuum of provision to meet the wide spectrum of special educational needs in today's classrooms and extend choice for parents. This will build on local developments, make the most of unprecedented capital investment in schools through BSF, and include a range of options:

— school collaboratives—federations and other partnership arrangements;

— co-location of mainstream and special schools;

— specially resourced provision in mainstream or special schools;

— specialist units for different types of need;

— extended schools;

— dual placements;

— outreach from special to mainstream schools;

— better use of Pupil Referral Units;

— stronger links between other services, such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, and schools; and

— action to reduce residential placements by supporting children locally or regionally.

96. These options are characterised by an approach that combines elements of mainstream and special education—a "third way"—to enhance specialist provision across mainstream and special schools and provide opportunities for pupils and staff from both to learn and work together. The Department is carrying out a study to identify the factors that need to be in place for the successful development of "third way" provision. The results of the study will shape work at a national level to promote such provision locally and regionally and extend choice for parents. We will provide a supplementary note to the Committee on this.

Communities of schools

One local authority in the East of England is developing a common brief for all its special schools to ensure consistency and quality in SEN specialist provision across the county. The aim is for children to be educated in their locality and have the opportunity to participate in mainstream activities as a result of special and mainstream schools working together in clusters. Special schools will be full partners in the multi-agency assessment, planning and review of pupils' and families' needs; they will participate in the development of outreach services to mainstream schools with other support services and will provide bases to support a multi-service response to complex needs.

A funding scheme is being devised to ensure that the needs of the most complex pupils can be met in-county. The funding will reflect the increasing complex needs of pupils in special schools and provide consistency so that schools can commit to new developments and provide training. The Authority is consulting with parents, school staff and others on their proposals.

The funding scheme has been welcomed by head teachers and it has been possible to target funding to ensure the provision for pupils with very complex needs. An audit of premises has been positively received by the council, with a commitment to bring all area special schools up to the standard of the two new area special schools. Special schools are actively seeking schools to cluster with joint training and two-way flow of pupils is happening. Examples of good practice include support for ASD pupils in mainstream schools by a special school.

Close collaboration and planning with the local Primary Care Trusts in particular is already having a positive knock-on effect on relationships between agencies and effective joint working.

Building local capacity

One London local authority has used resources to build provision within the authority to improve outcomes for all children and reduce reliance on out of authority placements.

In 1999-2000, 116 pupils were educated in independent schools out of the local area. In a number of cases the educational and social outcomes for the pupil were of concern to the authority and many students found it hard to return to the local area. The authority felt the need for young people to be included in their home area and supported local schools in meeting the needs of students with more complex needs.

Many of these pupils had been educated in residential schools for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD). The authority's secondary EBD school was strengthened with speech and language therapy and experienced, qualified specific learning difficulties teachers. The school's KS3 provision was expanded. KS4 was made smaller, and a course for disaffected learners aged 14-16 was set up at the local community college. The school also assisted KS4 students in accessing higher levels of work experience, college and project work.

The authority opened a primary EBD resource to offer outreach support for mainstream schools as well as full time placements and a resource for deaf students attached to a mainstream secondary school, to complement the primary resource. A secondary resource for VI students was also established. The support teams for sensory impairment were strengthened. More generally, the authority has established a purchased mainstream speech and language service as well as physiotherapy and occupational therapy intervention. A comprehensive training programme for teachers and non-teaching staff has been set up and is well subscribed.

As a result of its policy, the number of independent placements has reduced from 116 to 28; more pupils are included successfully in local mainstream schools, and local special schools now meet the needs of students with more complex needs.

School based resourced provision

At Kingsley College Able Autism Base (Worcestershire) students with an autism spectrum disorder participate as fully as possible in the life of a mainstream school, whilst having their individual and specific needs understood and met by staff with knowledge and experience in the field of autism. The local authority had found that an increasing number of students with Asperger's Sydrome were unable to access full-time mainstream schooling despite their academic ability, even with full-time teaching assistant support. It developed the base to overcome these difficulties. The base is situated in the Technology Block of Kingsley College, a 13-18 years high school in Redditch with a suite of four rooms: reception area, two large classrooms and an office with kitchen. One room is set up as a group working area and has bays for individual workstations and computers. Another has a leisure area as well as a teaching/individual working area. Kingsley was the first high school Base in Worcestershire. It opened in September 1999 with three students and was at full capacity by January 2001 with students in all year groups. It is staffed by a teacher, three full time teaching assistants and two part time teaching assistants. Two branches of the Access and Inclusion team of the local authority refer students for places.

Students have access to the National Curriculum at a level suited to their individual needs and extra lessons in the Base which address their particular needs, such as social skills. They have individually negotiated timetables and join mainstream classes, with or without support, or are taught in the Base. They attend the mainstream assemblies for their appropriate year group, but register as a vertical form in the Base. Children are able to use the Base at break and lunchtimes or they make use of the many college clubs and sporting facilities.

Students have found school life much easier being part of a group, rather than being a student with ASD on their own in a school. There are both sympathetic and supportive mainstream students and staff in the host school and the right environment and facilities in the Base. The location of the Base on the site of the mainstream school promotes greater inclusion.

Special schools of the 21st Century—outreach and beyond

Beaumont Hill Technology College in Darlington, a special school for children aged 2-19 is at the heart of developments to create a community of schools. The school is being rebuilt on a site alongside local mainstream schools and all schools will share facilities and expertise. The plans are for an education village offering a Children's Centre and full service extended provision, including access to a wide range of services for children and families.

An Advanced Skills Teacher supports inclusion for two days a week, one day working with pupils with statements in mainstream schools, and one day working as part of the local authority's Learning Support Team and as an advisory and support teacher. To support the Authority's wider inclusion drive, the school has developed provision for children with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties and autistic spectrum disorders. This has led to a significant reduction in out-of-authority placements and enabled children to stay in their local communities.

SPECIALIST PROVISION—IMPROVING LOCAL PLANNING

97. A national audit of specialist provision for children with the most severe and complex needs is underway. The audit will identify where the gaps are and enable the Department to support LAs in improving regional planning and provision to meet those needs.

National audit of specialist provision—findings to date

The study is due to be completed in December 2005. It will outline the major gaps in support, services and provision to have emerged through the audit and make recommendations as to how these might best be addressed. Options will also be presented with regard to the potential shape and form of the Regional Centres of Excellence proposed in the Government's strategy for SEN.

Although the focus group phase is yet to be completed and the analysis of overall findings is still at an early stage, evidence to date suggests that "gaps" are not at the level of specialist techniques or resources needed by groups of children with low incidence needs. While specialist training and a skilled workforce is needed, the priority is to improve the coordination and joint planning necessary in all local authority areas, in order to ensure that the needs of some of our more challenging young people can be properly addressed.

The main problem in providing for children with severe/complex low incidence needs seems to result from inflexibility in the ways in which provision and services are organised. Greater flexibility is needed, both in terms of the capacity of local mainstream and special schools, and in service access criteria, to ensure that children are better served.

Implementation of the Every Child Matters change programme and the SEN strategy are seen as key to addressing these key issues.

In particular, developments and improvements are needed in respect of:

— short break/respite and social/leisure opportunities; insufficient respite and social isolation can place significant burdens on families, who are already having to cope with a range of challenges themselves;

— support, provision and opportunities at the secondary and FE stages; some secondary mainstream schools, as they are currently organised are seen as particularly inaccessible for some children;

— proactive joint planning; more collaborative work is needed between local authorities, Learning and Skills Councils and the voluntary/independent sector in order to coordinate local improvements in post 16 provision and to develop a wider range of specialist foster placements/short break opportunities, with proper training, support and backup from relevant agencies; and

— therapy services and Child & Adolescent Mental Health services. However, focus group discussions so far suggest that this is less about staffing/capacity and more about changes in the ways in which services have traditionally been delivered.

A number of examples of positive practice are being identified through the audit and will be highlighted in the final report. We will provide a supplementary note to the Committee on the Audit when the work has been completed.

98. Following the recent Ofsted report Inclusion, the impact of LEA support and outreach services (July 2005) the Department will also be consulting on minimum standards for SEN advisory and support services to promote greater consistency in their quality, availability and cost effectiveness, however they are provided. The report provided positive information about the impact of current provision on supporting teaching staff in enabling children with SEN to make progress and/or access to the curriculum. It concluded that support and outreach services promoted inclusion and improved the life chances of many vulnerable pupils. Support service staff were particularly valued where they brought knowledge and skills usually unavailable in a mainstream school and were most effective when they demonstrated effective strategies for others to observe. These services can provide important information and a thorough understanding of particular special needs or disabilities, making a major contribution to pupils' progress. Support services can also form a key element in the development of a flexible continuum of provision for children with SEN.

99. Ofsted is currently carrying out a survey on choice and flexibility of provision for learners with learning difficulties and disabilities and the impact on achievement and enjoyment. It is expected to report in the summer 2006 and will provide further information to help local authorities in their planning.

Improving access to schools for disabled children

100. Schools have important duties under the Disability Discrimination Acts but these are not always well recognised. As a result disabled children may not be able to play their full part in the life of their school and community. The Department is working in partnership with the Disability Rights Commission and the Council for Disabled Children on practical tools to help schools and local authorities improve the quality of their accessibility plans and strategies. Work is also well underway to develop a DVD resource and accompanying material to help schools make reasonable adjustments to their policies and practice to remove the barriers to learning and participation that can prevent disabled children from achieving their potential. These resources will help schools to develop a whole school approach to promoting equality of opportunity for disabled people and fulfil their duties under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005.

101. Some children and young people need support with their health needs in school and early years settings and a significant number have complex health needs. Without appropriate support these children will not be able to attend school regularly and make the most of their education. The Department has also worked with the Council for Disabled Children, Mencap, the Royal College of Nursing and others to develop a resource for local authorities and schools on developing policies and protocols for managing complex health needs in schools and early years settings. The resource is based on good practice and contains a wealth of practical ideas. It will complement the joint DfES/Department of Health guidance on Managing Medicines in Schools and Early Years Settings (2005).

Supporting children with difficulties in behavioural, emotional and social development

102. Parents and teachers are understandably concerned to improve behaviour in schools so that all children can learn. It is important to note that Ofsted report that behaviour is satisfactory or better in over 90% of schools and that most children with SEN do not present severe challenging behaviour. In any school, however, there may be individual pupils whose behaviour reflects serious social and emotional problems rather than disaffection. The SEN Code of Practice emphasises preventative work, to ensure that children's special educational needs are identified as quickly as possible and that early action is taken to meet those needs. It also advises a range of interventions for schools to use, in supporting pupils who are hyperactive and lack concentration and have BESD.

103. The Department has made additional resources available to schools in disadvantaged areas through the Excellence in Cities and the Behaviour Improvement Programme. These have been used to establish in-school learning support units, to appoint learning mentors to provide support for individual children and to establish Behaviour and Education Support Teams (BESTs) to co-ordinate the work of a range of education, health and social care professionals for pupils with serious and complex problems. These are multi-agency teams bringing together a complementary mix of professionals from the fields of health, social care and education to promote emotional well-being, positive behaviour and school attendance, by identifying and supporting those with, or at risk of developing emotional and behavioural problems. There are now about 1,500 learning support units, mainly in secondary schools, about 12,000 learning mentors in schools and about 140 BESTs. The Department is also helping all schools to develop good practice in behaviour management through training materials and consultancy provided by the national strategies and more specialised training for school staff with a leadership role in managing behaviour and attendance.

104. In June 2005 the Government established a Practitioners' Group on School Behaviour and Discipline, comprising 13 head teachers and teachers, chaired by Sir Alan Steer. The Group's remit was to provide advice on how further to improve standards of pupil behaviour, including how to embed good practice more widely across schools and whether new powers for heads are needed to help enforce school discipline. Its report, to be published shortly, will go to a Ministerial Stakeholder Group on Behaviour and Attendance chaired by the Minister for schools and 14-19 learners. We will let the Committee have a copy of the Group's report as soon as it is published. The Department will consider the Group's recommendations carefully and take forward any appropriate action on pupils with Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties in conjunction with the wider programme set out in Removing Barriers to Achievement. Commitments have already been made to:

— Clarify the role of PRUs, special schools and alternative provision in meeting the needs of pupils with BESD and promoting greater partnership working to avoid the need for permanent exclusions.

— Improve the quality of provision made for young people with BESD in all types of setting.

— Promote greater use of curriculum flexibilities to keep young people with significant BESD engaged in learning and working towards qualifications.

— Explore the scope for developing intensive, short-term interventions working in partnership with CAMHs, particularly for those children at risk of exclusion as well as ensuring longer-term support for those children with enduring needs.

Since Removing Barriers to Achievement was published we have:

— Increased the participation of special schools in the Specialist Schools Programme (SSP), including schools catering for pupils with BESD. This should help to drive up standards across the sector and lead to greater collaborative working with the mainstream sector.

— Encouraged special schools, PRUs and mainstream schools to work in collaboration with a view to ensuring managed moves between the sectors for pupils with BESD thereby reducing the need for permanent exclusions.

— Run a competition specifically targeted at institutions working with children with severe BESD to provide creative and innovative solutions for using staff in BESD settings to:

— improve access to the curriculum for children with BESD and mental health difficulties; and

— improve links between schools and CAMHs.

— It will complement BESD/CAMHs related work already underway or in the pipeline, including new development work funded via the CAMHs grant on services for young people with complex needs.

— Included senior staff in BESD special schools and PRUs in the National Programme for Specialist Leaders in Behaviour and Attendance. New support materials and courses for this will be available next year. This should provide more effective leadership for the sector which in turn should strengthen the running of BESD schools and the quality of teaching and learning they provide.

We are now looking at how we can support further weak and failing special schools for pupils with BESD. We will make a further announcement on this in the forthcoming Schools White Paper.

D. RAISING EXPECTATIONS AND ACHIEVEMENT

The starting point: Ofsted's assessment of SEN provision across the school system

In his annual report for 2003-04 Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools notes that the provision for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) is good or better in most nursery and primary schools and very good in almost a third; most have a commitment to inclusion and providing equality of opportunity and in many there is close liaison between teachers, teaching assistants, SEN Coordinators and external specialists to ensure pupils receive the right support from the start. However, provision for pupils with SEN and disabilities is not evaluated consistently against the progress they make.

Most secondary schools have a clear commitment to meeting SEN, which is reflected in sound practical arrangements and adequate resourcing. But in general there is too little systematic evaluation of the link between provision and achievement and schools do not always appreciate the extent of progress that is possible for pupils with SEN.

Most special schools provide good quality education. In three quarters of special schools pupils achieve well in relation to their abilities and difficulties. The quality of teaching is good or better in most schools but assessment is still not being used well enough. Schools for pupils with emotional, behavioural and social difficulties continue to be less effective than other special schools.

At local authority level HMCI finds that provision for SEN has improved in significantly more of the LAs inspected than in those in which it has declined and that at best, strategies to support SEN are an integral part of LAs' overall programmes for school improvement and inclusion. Procedures to meet statutory requirements in respect of SEN are at least satisfactory in all but two authorities and in a number of LAs criteria for referral and making statutory assessments are clear and well understood. But the quality of statements is good in only a minority.

The picture is of an education system that is improving in its provision for children with SEN, though there are some areas where further improvement is necessary.

School self-evaluation, accountability and performance

105. Ofsted reports have shown that if children with SEN are to reach their potential, schools need to set expectations of what they can achieve pitched at an appropriate and suitably challenging level. To help schools to do this we have extended the information provided to schools in the Pupil Achievement Tracker to include data on pupils working below the level of the National Curriculum tests so that schools can identify those children who are not progressing. Data on the progress made by those pupils working below level 1 of the National Curriculum (the P Scales) is also being collected nationally from 2005.

106. As part of the New Relationship with Schools, all schools will carry out an annual self-evaluation and publish a single plan setting out their priorities for improvement in which they will need to show how all their pupils are achieving. This process will highlight any gaps in achievement between different groups of children, which will then be discussed with a locally appointed School Improvement Partner, who will provide support and challenge to schools in raising achievement and closing those gaps. Shorter, more focused Ofsted inspections will evaluate how well schools cater for children with SEN and disabilities and joint area reviews will pick up how well local children's services support improvements in the Every Child Matters outcomes. Information on schools' priorities and provision will be given in their school profiles. Information about SEN provision will be signposted.

Making better use of data

Each year, in one local authority in the North West, the Inclusion and School Improvement Service (ISIS) analyses individual pupil and school level SEN information in order to evaluate value added progress in relation to the additional SEN interventions made by both schools and external services. Additional intervention, support and challenge to schools are then targeted more appropriately.

Through an annual review of school performance a range of professionals (assessment advisers, SEN Advisers, school advisers, SEN support teachers, SEN, English and Mathematics consultants, locality managers and statutory assessment managers) analyse and evaluate the performance of children with SEN in the core subjects to consider the impact of interventions and additional SEN provision on pupil outcomes. The analysis is based on Fischer Family Trust (FFT) data (teacher assessment and test results), and qualitative evidence gathered from support teachers working with SEN pupils in schools.

The level of monitoring, intervention, challenge and support schools receive for SEN is based on the outcomes of this process. Where there is consensus based on secure evidence of underperformance of SEN pupils, the issue is explored with the school's head teacher and focused SEN monitoring is provided, based on the school self-evaluation process, which uses the Ofsted and Every Child Matters frameworks.

The local authority's approach has had a positive impact. Schools have raised their expectations about the progress of SEN pupils can make from one key stage to the next, and are focusing on the use of appropriate assessment for learning, eg P Scales, PIVATS, NC levels. Schools, in partnership with the local authority, are identifying the additional strategies and interventions that are most effective in raising SEN pupil attainment, learning outcomes and well being. The local authority is building up a profile of how pupils with different types of SEN progress across all key stages and across all localities and has a secure evidence base from which to target additional support and intervention to schools and match this to children's needs.

Supporting children with SEN through the national strategies

107. Practical teaching and learning resources to raise the achievement of children with SEN are being provided through the primary and secondary national strategies. Through the Primary National Strategy independent research commissioned by the Department has identified the 20 most effective reading approaches to literacy teaching so that schools could consider the most appropriate way to teach low attaining children and with Moderate Learning Difficulties to read. Further research has provided an overview of the effectiveness of early intervention schemes for children with mathematical difficulties and enabled schools to identify the most appropriate way to teach numeracy skills. In addition, a range of materials has been issued to schools on:

— Speaking, Listening, Learning: working with children who have special educational needs.

— Learning and teaching for children in the primary years.

— The effective management of teaching assistants to improve standards in literacy and mathematics.

— Leading on Inclusion, which covers school self-evaluation, understanding and using data, and guidance on how to plan for effective provision for children with additional needs.

— Wave 3 materials aimed at pupils with SEN—Supporting children with gaps in their mathematical understanding.

— Management for primary SENCOs.

108. Through the Secondary National Strategy documents have been issued on maximising progress of children at Key Stage 3 of the National Curriculum in relation to using data for target setting; approaches to teaching and learning in the mainstream classroom; and, managing the learning process for pupils with SEN. An SEN Management Guide for secondary schools is scheduled for publication in spring 2006.

109. Other relevant work is also underway. Jim Rose has been appointed to conduct a review of the teaching of early reading that encompasses consideration of the range of teaching practices needed to support children who face significant difficulties with literacy. The findings of the review are due early in 2006. The Every Child a Reader programme, in which the Department and the Primary National Strategy are working in partnership with the KPMG Foundation and the Institute of Education, was launched at the end of July 2005. It aims to cut dramatically the numbers of those who cannot read and has a two-fold aspiration: to deploy Reading Recovery teachers in intensive personalised teaching to help over 5,000 boys and girls learn to read in the initial three years of the programme; and to explore the potential for Reading Recovery teachers to support tailored literacy teaching more broadly within a school, ensuring an impact beyond those receiving intensive one-to-one support.

110. More generally, the move to personalised learning referred to in Removing Barriers to Achievement signals a commitment to ensuring that everything possible is done to tailor learning to the individual needs of children with SEN so that they get the most out of their education.

Improving staff skills—teacher training

111. The standards for Qualified Teacher Status require trainees to be aware of their responsibilities under the SEN Code of Practice and know where to seek advice to support pupils with SEN. In addition, the standards require trainees to differentiate their teaching to meet the needs of pupils, including those with special educational needs. Trainees can undertake a placement in a special school as part of their school practice during their training, although some practice in a mainstream setting is required to ensure that there is coverage of as wide a range of experiences as possible. In order to complete the induction period satisfactorily, a newly qualified teacher (NQT) must demonstrate that they plan effectively to meet the needs of pupils in their classes with special educational needs and contribute to the preparation, implementation, monitoring and review of plans for individual children. Part of a newly qualified teacher's induction can take place in a special school.

112. Removing Barriers to Achievement gave a commitment to improve staff skills. To take that commitment forward, the Department has commissioned the Teacher Development Agency to:

— develop optional, specialist SEN and disabilities modules within Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programmes;

— develop, implement and evaluate a small-scale programme for 4-week placements in special schools within ITT courses;

— produce guidance and exemplar materials to improve the knowledge, understanding and skills of NQTs for teaching pupils with SEN and disabilities;

— design an electronic portal to support networking of tutors involved in SEN and disabilities;

— develop resources to ensure greater consistency when assessing trainee and newly qualified teachers against those QTS and Induction Standards with particular relevance to inclusion and teaching pupils with SEN and disabilities;

— strengthen links between mainstream and special schools via LEA Induction Co-ordinators, to increase NQTs' experience of pupils with a range of needs; and

— develop a specialist SEN and Disabilities Post-Graduate Certificate and/or Diploma pilot programme, specifically designed to meet the professional development needs of teachers in mainstream schools.

113. Initial development work is scheduled to be completed by March 2006 and pilots for the modules, placements and programmes are due to start in September 2006. The impact of these projects will be carefully monitored to evaluate how successful they have been in raising the confidence and skills of trainees and serving teachers. We can then determine what action the TDA may usefully take to offer further support to teachers of pupils with SEN and disabilities.

114. In addition the TDA is developing a Teacher Training Resource Bank (TTRB)—a web-based resource covering a wide range of topics relevant to teacher training and of interest to trainee teachers and teacher trainers. The TTRB will be used to disseminate high quality materials on a range of special educational needs.

115. The focus in the Every Child Matters change programme on the provision of integrated services places a premium on staff from different disciplines and services, including teachers, working more closely together, often in co-located services, to ensure that children, young people and families are given access to the complementary skills of a wide range of people. The integration of planning, commissioning and organising services locally is being supported nationally by a Children's Workforce Unit within the Department. The Unit has published a Pay and Workforce Strategy and practical guidance on multi-agency working. It is also developing a Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for those working with children, young people and families and will build on that to create a climbing frame of qualifications to support coherent and flexible career pathways within and across children's services and help members of the children's workforce gain additional skills and specialisms where needed. This work will take account of the need to develop the skills in the children's workforce to meet the needs of children with SEN.

Supporting successful transitions from school to adult life

116. Making the transition from school to further education, training and employment can be difficult for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities, with new funding arrangements, different routes of progression and the transfer to adult services to be negotiated. The quality of transition planning varies and the range of opportunities open to young people can be narrower than at school. The Department is working with its partners across Government to improve the quality of transition planning and to ensure that all young people with SEN and disabilities benefit from person centred planning that meets their individual needs and high quality advice and guidance. A Transition Working Group involving a range of Government departments and other agencies, including voluntary sector organisations, has advised on this and the work is being taken forward as part of a broader programme of action to implement the report of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit's report Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People (January 2005). This year the Department has funded work to develop person centred planning for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities in a number of local authorities. This builds on the work of local Learning Disability Partnership Boards and complements the focus on transition in Children's Trust pathfinders.

117. The Department is also working to expand educational, training and employment opportunities for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities. The 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper sets out proposals to build on the strengths of the current system, including GCSEs and A levels, ensuring that every young person masters functional English and maths before they leave education, putting achievement in English and maths at the heart of new general (GCSE) Diplomas and specialised Diplomas. The specialised diplomas in 14 broad sector areas, developed by Sector Skills Councils, will replace around 3,500 separate qualifications.

118. The LSC is currently undertaking a strategic review of its funding and planning of provision for learners with LDD across the post-16 sector, including those with SEN in schools. The review is due to report to LSC national council in September 2005. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the Learning and Skills Council are currently working together to establish a Foundation Learning Tier (FLT) aimed at learners of all ages from 14 upwards who are working at Entry and level 1—to establish an inclusive and coherent curriculum offer at these levels with provision supported by units and qualifications at Entry level and level 1 in the Framework for Achievement (FfA) currently under development and in time set to replace the National Qualifications Framework. Entry level will be extended beyond its current parameters to include pre-Entry provision in order to ensure that the needs of learners working at this level can also be met through the FLT. Trials will be conducted from September 2006, with full implementation planned from September 2007. These developments will complement the Entry to Employment (E2E) work based learning programme, established across England in August 2003 to support young people in overcoming barriers that restrict their progress to apprenticeships, further education or employment.

E. DELIVERING IMPROVEMENTS IN PARTNERSHIP

Promoting consistency of provision

119. Many local authorities have made great progress in providing effectively for children with SEN in recent years but there are still variations in the availability and quality of planning and provision for children with SEN and disabilities. The Department is promoting more consistent practice through a team of national SEN advisers. The Advisers are providing support and challenge to LAs on key SEN issues, including strategic planning and management of provision for children with SEN and the use of statements. They are identifying and sharing good practice and tackling underperformance. Together with the Department's network of SEN Regional Partnerships, they are disseminating effective practice nationally and helping to lever up standards of provision across the country. The SEN Regional Partnerships bring together education, social care and health services and the voluntary sector and provide a network for sharing effective practice and exploring shared solutions to common problems.

Regional cooperation in transition planning

Transition planning should coordinate the contribution of a number of different professionals and agencies so as to support a young person with SEN in making the transition from school to adulthood. But making this happen effectively in practice is a challenge for local authorities.

Many of the SEN Regional Partnerships are working together to resolve practical issues and provide practical tools for local authorities to use in improving the quality of transition planning.

The East of England Partnership undertook a comprehensive mapping exercise of existing practice across all agencies in the region and followed this with good practice guidance; they developed a directory of transition services for young people with SEN leaving school and protocols for transition planning, both of which have been taken up by local authorities across the country.

The North East Partnership has produced a CD Rom, Transplan, containing guidance for schools and partner agencies on successful transition planning with an emphasis on involving young people and parents and carers effectively; the CD Rom contains sample forms and leaflets that can be tailored for local use. It has been used by local authorities across the country.

The work of these Regional Partnerships influenced the development of National Outcome Standards in the Children's National Service Framework and illustrate the contribution that cooperative working between local authorities within the SEN Regional Partnerships makes to promoting greater consistency in provision nationally.

Joining up services around the needs of children and families

120. We know that many children with SEN and disabilities require support from a range of agencies to enable them to access education, make progress in their learning, and make the transition to adult life. Better outcomes for these children depend on getting schools and other services to work together to remove the barriers to learning and participation they can face.

121. Children's Trust arrangements being developed through the Every Child Matters programme will be the vehicles for whole system change across children's services working in the context of local authorities' broader Local Strategic Partnerships. It is anticipated that most areas will have children's trusts by 2006 and that all areas will have them by 2008. Trust arrangements will:

— enable and encourage professionals to work together in integrated services built around the needs of children, young people and families and to a single Children and Young People's Plan;

— be supported by common processes designed to support joint working such as the Common Assessment Framework;

— bring agencies and their resources together, for example, by pooling budgets to deliver a commissioning strategy that is directed towards establishing services that meet local needs; and

— create strong inter-agency governance arrangements in which shared ownership is coupled with clear accountability through a Director of Children's Services and a Lead Council Member for Children.

122. Children's trust pathfinders were announced in 2003; many are focusing on disabled children as a specific client group. The Council for Disabled Children is working with the Pathfinder Children's Trusts to support them in developing new ways of working and to capture the learning from their work. The project is looking at what real difference the Trusts can make to the lives of disabled children and their families. Best practice from the pathfinders will be disseminated widely in 2006 and the Department is planning a workshop early next year to consider what the five Every Child Matters outcomes mean for disabled children and children with SEN to help local authorities assess their progress.

Improving multi-agency working through Children's Trust arrangements

In West Sussex there were previously three agencies with responsibility for children with disabilities and SEN. These agencies worked together where possible and there were some pockets of multi-agency working, but no inherent structure existed for resolving disagreements or multi-agency commissioning.

Although there were some examples of excellent multi-agency working, there was a lack of formalised decision-making, and good practice was not easily replicated over all the cases considered by each agency; nor was monitoring of provision conducted on a multi-agency basis.

Although three individual agencies remain they now operate within the structure of a Children's Trust. Where agreement was previously difficult to reach, the Trust has provided a forum for the three agencies to meet and discuss individual cases; it has also met the need for formalised accountability through a "Children's Multi-Agency Support Panel".

Excellent co-operation now exists between professionals and the impetus to greater co-operation has come from a Lead at the highest level: the Children's Multi-Agency Support Panel has a Revolving Chair, with a 6-month tenure that is swapped between the different agencies. The Panel is currently chaired by the Director of Education and the Arts, who has a high profile, and a real "can do" attitude.

Not everything is smooth sailing. Deciding which children should be included in a pooled budget has been problematic. There have been difficulties with establishing a coherent "one voice" for the five Primary Care Trusts who all operate in West Sussex. Developing financial structures is complex, and there is still work to do on protocols and criteria.

But many cases have been resolved through joint funding agreements, and in all cases resolution has been reached and negotiations have been pleasant, understanding and sensitive to the constraints on different services. The early structures of a joint budget are already in existence, targeting those children who are identified by the Child Disability Teams, and an early start has already been made on plans for a locally commissioned joint unit.

123. Schools play a central role in helping children to achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes. By 2010 all children, young people and their families will have access to a range of extended services in and around schools including a core offer of:

— high-quality affordable childcare available from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm all year round;

— a varied menu of activities including sport, music and community activity;

— community access to sports, arts and ICT facilities, including adult learning;

— support for parents; and

— swift and easy referral to a range of specialised support services such as behaviour support and family support, health and social care.

124. Many schools are already offering extended services either directly themselves or in partnership with other schools or other providers and agencies.

Millfields Community School in Hackney caters for 600 children. It became a full service extended school in September 2003.

The school already had in place a wide range of additional provision including a breakfast club, Saturday school, play centre and many after school clubs from 7.00 am-8.30 pm throughout the year. It has built on this with new developments including cre"che facilities and lifelong / family learning opportunities to help the local community in raising aspirations and making significant improvements in their lives.

The types of services provided at the school include:

— A Breakfast Club open at 7.00 am.

— Play centre provision open until 6.00 pm for all pupils including Foundation and Nursery pupils.

— Inclusion of pupils with autism and physical disabilities in the special needs resource base plus respite care for families and residential visits for pupils.

— A 10-week family learning course for families with children with autistic spectrum disorders.

— A Community Nursery and Community Toy Library.

— An Adult Learning Suite dedicated to lifelong learning—offering English as another language, ICT, literacy and numeracy classes for parents and local community groups.

— Family Learning courses in literacy, numeracy, and accelerated learning.

— An extensive programme of after school clubs that includes specialist teaching in Sports, Music and Modern Foreign Languages.

— A Saturday school from 10.00 am-3.00 pm for 100 Key Stage 2 pupils throughout the school year providing an accelerated learning curriculum and catering more recently for pupils from other schools in the local cluster arrangement.

The school works closely with a wide range of other institutions including a local day care nursery, the community college, sports facilitators, Learn Direct and health services.

The impact of new services has been significant. Local parents are keen to take on new courses at the Adult Learning Suite and short taster courses for Family Learning Weekends. A multi-sports facility is almost complete and links have been made with local sports providers to enhance what is on offer to pupils during and beyond the school day and provide a much needed community sports facility in the evenings and holidays. A school nurse is available in school one day each week and as the cre"che takes off, health and social care services will be better targeted to meet specific needs.

Elm Court is an inner city special school for around 100 students aged 9-16 years with varied learning, medical and associated emotional and behavioural needs, offering a wide range of educational opportunities in a caring, disciplined environment.

The school offers students a range of academic, creative, sporting and social activities and endeavours to provide each student with a broad, balanced, high-quality education which meets their individual needs. It is set in pleasant surroundings on a shared site with the Norwood Secondary Centre, Michael Tippet Lancaster Centre 16-19, the Behaviour Education Support Team and Community Groups. The school is housed in a single-storey building, allowing easy access to all areas in the school.

The local authority has included the school within their Secondary Schools development plan and consulted on plans to rebuild Elm Court as a Special School on this site alongside a new Community School. This will enable the provision of specialist service within the community with strong curriculum linkage and outreach advisory services to mainstream colleagues. The development will provide a full service extended school which can meet the community's needs and:

— provide students with a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum, with equality of opportunity for all learners and a range of high-quality learning experiences within and beyond the formal curriculum;

— ensure that students develop essential literacy and numeracy skills;

— generate creativity;

— inspire and motivate students;

— offer a differentiated curriculum which meets the individual learning needs of students and enables them to progress; and

— help prepare students for adult life

Elm Court's learning community encourages a "can do" culture encouraging students to achieve their full potential. The curriculum is tailored to meet the needs of each student, taking account of their emotional, medical, physical, complex language needs and learning difficulties. A diverse programme is offered that goes beyond the classroom and incorporates study support, after and in school clubs, out of school activities, educational visits, residential experiences and other learning opportunities dependent on the needs of individual students. These include speech and language therapy, educational therapy, child guidance, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, emotional and behavioural support systems. The school received a School Achievement Award for excellence in 2001, was recently congratulated for its excellent value added results in achievement from Key Stage 3 to GCSE and was in the top 5% of schools in the UK 2003.

125. The Department is supporting the development of the core offer in all schools with start up funding of £840 million over the period 2003-08. The majority of this funding will go through LAs but £250 million will go direct to schools over the period 2006-08 as part of their School Standards Grant.

SECTION 4: LOOKING FORWARD

A. ISSUES

126. In recent months public debate has focused on a few specific issues. The Government's response to those issues (below) reflects its policy approach to improving outcomes for children with SEN and disabilities, and the significant progress that is already being made.

Is a major review of special educational needs policy needed?

127. The Government recognises the challenges to be faced in improving outcomes for children with SEN. But it does not believe that a major review of policy on SEN would be appropriate at present. The Audit Commission and Ofsted have recently carried out such reviews, and a working group established by the DfES has reviewed the role of special schools. Taken together, these reviews paint a clear picture of the issues that need to be tackled in improving provision for children with SEN.

128. Tackling those issues is at the heart of the Government's SEN strategy Removing Barriers to Achievement, which sets out a clear forward direction for action to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEN. The strategy was widely welcomed at the time of publication in February 2004 and progress on implementing it is summarised in Section 3 of this memorandum.

129. The Government believes that what is needed now is change on the ground. Any new review would simply delay progress in making this happen. Practical action is being taken, and substantial extra resources are being provided, to improve the capacity of the education service and its partners to meet the needs of children with SEN. This memorandum highlights how the Government's reforms are targeted on improving outcomes for children with SEN and disabled children and how they will address issues raised by Ofsted and the Audit Commission in their reports. Ofsted is currently carrying out a survey on choice and flexibility of provision for learners with learning difficulties and disabilities and the impact on achievement and enjoyment, which is expected in the summer 2006. Furthermore, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools has been asked to review progress on implementing the strategy. In the light of his findings we will consider what further action may be needed.

Should there be a moratorium on special school closures?

130. There have been calls for a moratorium on special school closures to allow for an extensive review of all existing special provision. The Government does not believe this is necessary or desirable. In its view, much of the recent debate has portrayed an inaccurate picture of the factors that have prompted the majority of special school reorganisations over a number of years (explored in depth in section 2 of this memorandum).

131. A moratorium would impose a planning blight on local authorities and prevent them from taking action to tackle special schools that are failing their pupils. A moratorium would also prevent local authorities from redeveloping their special educational needs provision to provide improved buildings and facilities for SEN as the existing schools estate becomes out of date and needs to be renewed. We do not believe this would be in the interests of children with SEN.

132. Furthermore, calls for a moratorium are based on a misunderstanding of, or on occasions, misinformation about, existing policy and practice. It is not Government policy to close special schools. The policy is to promote a continuum of provision to meet a wide range of SEN so that individual children's needs may be appropriately met in a range of settings. LA reorganisations of special schools have not led to a reduction in the proportion of pupils with statements placed in such schools. Although the total number of children at school with statements of SEN has fallen in the past two years from 250,500 in 2003 to 242,600 in 2005, the proportion of children with statements placed in maintained special schools has remained broadly constant at around 34% and in addition some 20,000 children are currently taught in resourced provision.

133. The recent reviews of SEN policy and provision carried out by Ofsted and the Audit Commission have endorsed the Government's policy on special schools, which is that they should cater for the small but growing population of children with the most severe and complex needs, and provide outreach support to mainstream schools to support inclusion. A targeted review of the role of special schools was carried out in 2003 which resulted in the Report of the Special Schools Working Group; the majority of the report's recommendations were subsequently embodied in the Department's SEN Strategy including the recommendation for an audit of specialist provision for low incidence needs that the Department is currently undertaking.

134. The Government has made clear that special schools have an important continuing role to play within the overall pattern of provision. Ofsted data shows that over three-quarters of the special schools in Ofsted's survey had links with local mainstream schools and the management of linked or shared provision was often good. We welcome this as it shows providers responding in flexible ways to the needs of children with SEN.

135. To take this further, we introduced incentives to enable the sector to develop better links with mainstream schools by creating a new SEN strand in the Specialist Schools Programme. The forthcoming Schools White Paper will set out significant proposals for more special schools to take on specialist status within this successful programme.

Should we replace the system of assessments and statements?

136. Most children with SEN have their needs met by their school, following guidance in the SEN Code of Practice. Children with the most severe and complex needs under the present arrangements will have those needs assessed carefully, and where necessary set out in statements of SEN along with appropriate special educational provision.

Andrew's story (as told by his mother)

Andrew attended his local mainstream primary school from the age of four. Problems were quickly apparent—in particular lack of concentration. By the age of seven he still could not read very well and I raised concerns with the school. At the age of eight Andrew was diagnosed by a clinical psychologist and a paediatrician as having ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome. The local authority provided a statement of SEN and advice was given to the school by the Autism Outreach team. Funding for children with statements was two-fold with an expectation that the school would spend some of their own budget and the local authority directly financing some extra support. The arrangements with the school did not work smoothly but the support given from the local authority Autism Outreach team was critical to my sanity!

Things improved markedly when Andrew moved school. Planning with the local authority and the school started early. The local authority provided 20 hours' learning support assistant time and the school funded provision for the other lesson times and very importantly break periods. The Autism Outreach team provided training for all staff who were likely to have significant contact with Andrew and compiled a booklet especially for Andrew about the school's routines and rules. He had two support assistants that spent half the week each with him. Andrew did not stand out as his SEN provision was organised differently than in his previous school and enabled the support assistant to work with other children with Special Needs in that class; they did not sit with Andrew all the time but it was understood that if he became agitated then they would attempt to diffuse the situation and would on occasions take him to the Curriculum Support base. Because Andrew could not cope with high levels of disruption in the classroom, arrangements were sometimes made for him to attend the beginning of the lesson to pick up the work from the teacher and then spend the rest of the time with his support assistant in the Curriculum Support base completing the work that had been set under the direction of the teacher. The school phoned me every week and always managed to say something encouraging. I had termly meetings with school staff and the Autism Outreach team. Andrew was encouraged to attend the curriculum support base during break periods and was allowed to have two of his friends who did not have SEN with him. By the end of year nine Andrew did not require such high levels of support; he used the Curriculum Support base during breaks and the support assistants talked with me and Andrew weekly to ensure that problems were not building up.

Andrew left his secondary school this summer—he gained double A* in science, A in maths, B in Geography , double C in English, and Cs in Graphics and R.E. and a D in ICT. He is now attending a local 6th Form College studying A level Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Design and is planning to attend Leicester University.

Neither Andrew nor I wished him to be educated outside mainstream schools. The local authority specialist team, school staff and the family listened to each other and worked together problem solving, seeing Andrew as a student with extra issues that needed to be addressed.

137. The Government recognises that the current system is not working perfectly. The statutory processes for assessments and statements can be time consuming and costly and sometimes stressful for parents and difficult to manage for LAs. But the current system has brought great benefits. When considered in the context of what was in place beforehand, it is clear just how much progress has been made, and just how difficult it would be to identify a better alternative.

138. Until relatively recently access to special educational provision was not a systematic process, did not involve a multi-disciplinary assessment of individual needs and did not protect parental rights. Prior to 1944 most provision was in the charitable sector. The Education Act 1944 extended the range of needs for which local education authorities had to make specific educational provision for 11 categories of pupils. Children with profound or severe learning difficulties were considered ineducable, so local authorities were not required to provide such children with education.

139. The Education (Handicapped Children) Act 1970 made LEAs responsible for educating educationally sub-normal (severe) pupils, now described as severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties (SLD and PMLD). Access to special educational provision between 1944 and 1981 was dependent on local authority policies with parents having no rights to disagree. Most children were assessed by educational psychologists but some were identified by health professionals.

140. The 1978 Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People ("the Warnock Report") suggested that children should not be categorised into different sorts of learning difficulties but should be recognised as having "special educational needs" if they had a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of that age; it recommended the classification from 1944 and 1970 Acts be removed and that local authorities should look at individual needs and the provision required to meet them.

141. The 1981 Education Act reflected the Warnock Report and defined SEN and set out processes for identification and multi-disciplinary assessment, including statements. However no time limits for assessments or making statements were set, there was a lack of clarity about what were special educational needs and no clarity around the respective roles and responsibilities of schools and local education authorities. The Act did give parental rights of appeal in respect of the statement, as a two-stage process; firstly to a local panel whose decisions were not binding on the local education authority and then to the Secretary of State with parents having to wait anything up to two years for a decision.

142. The 1993 Education Act and the subsequent 1994 SEN Code and the establishment of the SEN Tribunal produced a clearer framework for SEN provision, speeded up the assessment and statementing process and gave parents a more effective system through which to challenge local authority decisions. While some parental representatives criticise aspects of the statementing system, many parents greatly value the assessment and statementing process for the role it gives them in deciding the provision for their children and the guarantee it gives them that provision will be made.

143. The SEN and Disability Act 2001 further enhanced parental rights by making parent partnership and dispute resolution services statutory, and making a presumption of mainstream education for pupils with SEN unless this was against their parents' wishes or the efficient education of other children (and there were no reasonable steps that could be taken to prevent the incompatibility); it also preserved parents' rights to seek a special school place. The subsequent Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 2001 reflected these changes and made explicit the central role of parents as well as the necessity for seeking the views of the child.

144. The Government has considered whether wholesale change to the present system of assessments and statements would lead to improved outcomes for children with SEN but has concluded that it would not. There will always be a need to reconcile children's needs with appropriate provision; where those needs are severe and complex there will inevitably be a need for a significant assessment process in which parents, teachers and other professionals should be engaged in a systematic way and decisions can be made about appropriate provision. There should also be a means available by which parents who are dissatisfied with the outcome of that process can appeal to an independent tribunal. In the Government's view, a better alternative to replace the existing system has not been proposed—which is why the Government's focus is on improving the functioning of the system and promoting greater success with earlier identification and intervention.

145. Action is needed to build the capacity of schools, early years settings, local authorities and their partners to identify and meet children's needs earlier and in a more coordinated way, so that parents can have greater confidence that their children will get the support they need, wherever they are taught and wherever appropriate without the need for a statutory assessment. Parents have a key role to play in this, working with LAs and other agencies. This practical approach to improving outcomes is being taken forward through the SEN strategy and through the Government's wider policies for children.

B. NEXT STEPS

146. There has been good progress in improving provision for children with SEN since the work of Baroness Warnock's committee of enquiry in the late 1970s. The latest HMCI report provides evidence of this.

147. The statutory framework has provided assurance to parents that their children's needs will be identified and provision made for them. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 strengthened that framework by providing parents with access to SEN information, advice and support and a means of resolving disputes with their local authority and extending the Disability Discrimination Act to education, including broadening the remit of the independent SEN and Disability Tribunal to hear disability discrimination claims.

148. The Every Child Matters change programme now establishes a broader national framework for:

— improving outcomes for all children;

— narrowing the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers;

— supporting parents, carers and families; and

— earlier, more effective intervention.

149. The 150 local change programmes being taken forward within this national framework will ensure that services focus more clearly on the needs of individual children and their families. Each local change programme provides a real opportunity to improve support for children and young people with SEN and disabilities and their families. New integrated inspections involving education and social care will assess the extent to which authorities are improving outcomes for children in practice, and how well they cooperating with others to achieve this.

150. Funding for SEN has increased significantly in recent years. Ofsted report that management of SEN has improved at local level and that a wider range of provision is being developed as authorities build their SEN and inclusion strategies and reconfigure their schools to cater for changing needs.

151. But more needs to be done. The Government's priorities, set out in section 4, demonstrate its commitment to building on these positive developments to improve outcomes for all children with SEN and disabilities and to meet the challenges identified by Ofsted and the Audit Commission. The case studies illustrate how the approaches championed in those priorities are already working effectively in practice.

152. The next phase of reform, already underway, focuses on bringing about change throughout the system in line with the three key principles, set out at the beginning of this memorandum: personalisation, inclusion, and partnership.

153. Personalisation is about putting children and families at the heart of making services, including education, more responsive to their individual needs. In schools, for example, it means:

— assessment for learning—recognising that every child has a different knowledge base, skills and aptitudes, learning style and needs;

— deploying a range of effective teaching and learning strategies—using Information and Communications Technology, whole class and individual teaching;

— a broad and flexible curriculum—using the curriculum in an imaginative way to engage all learners, working with other schools and colleges to extend choice and providing a range of activities beyond the classroom;

— using the school workforce creatively to support high quality teaching and learning—making the most of the benefits of workforce remodelling, including the increased planning, preparation and assessment time for teachers, to develop lessons and activities that met individual needs; and

154. Personalisation means deploying all the resources available for learning—teachers, teaching assistants, children themselves and their peers, technology, buildings and time—more flexibly. This is already happening in many schools.

ICT and outreach in personalised learning

Wilson Stuart Special School in Birmingham is working together to support children with SEN with a particular focus on the use of ICT to improve learning and teaching.

The school gained Beacon School status, with ICT being recognised as its area of expertise. Many of the staff work with and advise other schools and this outreach role is recognised by the local authority, which provides funding to support this. ICT has a key role to play in enabling children with SEN to access the curriculum and the physical environment and helping schools to tailor their approaches to individual needs. Wilson Stuart has carefully built up partnerships with a network of local schools and its specialist staff ensure that the needs of individual children with SEN placed in local mainstream schools are fully supported with appropriate ICT. The school has developed comprehensive in-service training packages on the use of ICT which it shares with the schools in its network, often following this up with professional development meetings to discuss the technology and the teaching strategies underpinning it. Information and support materials have also been made available to network schools online.

The arrangement maximises the potential of ICT I to personalise learning. Teachers in the local network of mainstream schools have found that using technology such as keyboards with extra-large keys, tracker balls and key guards with individual children with SEN has enabled them to quickly identify other children who would benefit from using that technology, including children who do not have SEN.

As the arrangements have become established, schools supported by Wilson Stuart are now using that expertise they have gained to support other networks of schools.

155. Personalised learning for all children will require all schools to focus on educational inclusion and ask themselves how well they are meeting the needs of different groups of children, including those with SEN and disabilities. School self-evaluation and much better use of data provide the key; the involvement of a School Improvement Partner as part of the New Relationship with Schools will highlight gaps in achievement and prompt a discussion about what will be done to bring about improvements. The new duty to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people will provide a framework for improving opportunities for disabled children, many of whom will have SEN.

Assessment for learning

Seven Kings High School is a mixed comprehensive situated in the London Borough of Redbridge. There are 1,420 students on roll of whom 75% could be classified as EAL. The school has resourced provision for students with physical disabilities. The school has Leading Edge status and is a specialist school (Technology). Pupil achievement levels are high at all Key Stages.

The head teacher Sir Alan Steer says that the personalised learning journey started at Seven Kings some 15 years ago with the introduction of a teaching and learning policy built on the principle that the needs of children must determine the work of the school. Believing that every student could achieve success, mandatory guidelines were established for formative pupil interviews and assessment, the teaching of literacy and the management of the learning classroom.

Seven Kings is now one of the highest achieving schools in the country and nearly all students gain at least five GCSE passes. Alan is a strong supporter of the personalised learning agenda and sees Assessment for Learning (AfL) as being the most significant element. Since 2002 Seven Kings has been working as an AfL research school. Alan believes that participation has revolutionised teaching and learning at his school and has been a powerful motivational force for students and teachers: "The delightful thing about AfL is that it is accessible to all schools and to all teachers and is focused on the classroom." Resources are not the issue, conservatism may be".

Personalised learning gives students a voice in their learning and is basic to AfL. Students give constant feedback to teachers on how they are learning, enabling the teachers to focus on any difficulties. The school has high aspirations for all students and teachers, but now believes that through personalised learning both parties have the knowledge, skills and motivation to turn expectations into reality. The school defines the key features of AfL:

— ideas and practices are easily accessible to teachers and relate to their experiences in the classroom and pupils are taught in their normal setting and within the normal subject;

— it is not resource driven;

— it does not create any false division between teaching and learning. The two interrelate as they should, each supporting the other;

— it involves children in a way that is meaningful and which relates to the prime function of the school experience—learning and achievement; and

— achievement and inclusion are central to the AfL philosophy; all pupils gain from better teaching, but those with greater difficulty in learning gain most.

156. An inclusive system depends on partnerships. Increasingly, schools are working together in clusters, federations and in broader collaborations to share ideas and experience and pupils. Collaboration with other schools brings access to different expertise and skills, to new and different resources and facilities. It fosters a spirit of self-help and self-evaluation. In this context, collaboration between mainstream and special schools is particularly important in building local communities of schools that can support children with SEN and provide opportunities for all children to enjoy a range of inclusive experiences.

157. Partnerships between all agencies are vital to removing the barriers that can prevent some children with SEN and disabilities from making the most of their education and taking a full part in the life of their school and their local community. The Every Child Matters change programme will forge partnerships between education, social care, health and the voluntary sector to ensure that the needs of individual children and families are identified as early as possible and that services are coordinated around those needs. The development of Children's Centres and Extended Schools will bring personalised services together in one place and the Building Schools for the Future Programme offers a golden opportunity to reconfigure and renew local provision, including through campus developments, co-locations and resourced provision. This will significantly improve facilities, broaden access to education for children with SEN and disabilities and extend choice for parents.

158. Local authorities will play a vital part in these reforms as commissioners of services, responding to the views of parents, children and young people in securing services that best meet their needs and as facilitators of collaboration between services and among schools and other institutions. They have a key role in ensuring that parents from all backgrounds can be involved in this, not just in relation to schools but in the development of 14-19 provision, where authorities will work with local Learning and Skills Partnerships to ensure that all young people can benefit from the national entitlement set out in the recent 14-19 White Paper.

20 October 2005

Annex A

THE EVERY CHILD MATTERS OUTCOMES FRAMEWORK

The Outcomes Framework breaks down each of the five outcomes into five further specific aims, and associates with each aim the contribution that parents, carers and families can make.

Be healthy:

— physically healthy;

— mentally and emotionally healthy;

— sexually healthy;

— living healthy lifestyles; and

— choosing not to take illegal drugs.

Parents, carers and families promote healthy lifestyles.

Stay safe:

— accidental injury and death;

— maltreatment, neglect, violence and sexual exploitation;

— bullying and discrimination;

— crime and antisocial behaviour in and out of school; and

— have security, stability and are cared for.

Parents, carers and families provide safe homes and stability.

Enjoy and achieve:

— young children are ready for school;

— school-age children attend and enjoy school;

— children achieve stretching national educational standards at primary school;

— children and young people achieve personal and social development and enjoy recreation; and

— children and young people achieve stretching national educational standards at secondary school.

Parents, carers and families support learning.

Make a positive contribution:

— engage in decision making and support the community and environment;

— engage in law-abiding and positive behaviour in and out of school;

— develop positive relationships and choose not to bully and discriminate;

— develop self-confidence and successfully deal with significant life changes and challenges; and

— develop enterprising behaviour.

Parents, carers and families promote positive behaviour.

Achieve economic well-being:

— young people engage in further education, employment or training on leaving school;

— young people are ready for employment;

— children and young people live in decent homes and sustainable communities;

— children and young people have access to transport and material goods; and

— children and young people live in households free from low income.

Parents, carers and families are supported to be economically active.

Annex B

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS: STATUTORY DUTIES

SCHOOLS

The governing body of a community, voluntary or foundation school must:

— do its best to ensure that the necessary provision is made for any pupil who has special educational needs;

— ensure that, where the "responsible person"—the head teacher or the appropriate governor—has been informed by the LEA that a pupil has special educational needs, those needs are made known to all who are likely to teach them;

— ensure that teachers in the school are aware of the importance of identifying, and providing for, those pupils who have special educational needs;

— consult the LEA and the governing bodies of other schools, when it seems to be necessary or desirable in the interests of co-ordinated special educational provision in the area as a whole;

— ensure that a pupil with special educational needs joins in the activities of the school together with pupils who do not have special educational needs, so far as is reasonably practical and compatible with the child receiving the special educational provision their learning needs call for and the efficient education of the pupils with whom they are educated and the efficient use of resources;

(Section 317, Education Act 1996)

— publish information about its SEN provision and policies;

(The Education (Special Educational Needs) (Information) (England) Regulations 1999).

The governing body of a maintained school and early years setting in receipt of government funding for early education must

— have regard to the SEN Code of Practice when carrying out its duties toward all pupils with special educational needs (Section 313, Education Act 1996); and

— ensure that parents are notified of a decision by the school that SEN provision is being made for their child (Section 317A, Education Act 1996).

LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Local authorities must

— keep their arrangements for SEN provision under review (Section 315 Education Act 1996);

— identify children with SEN for whom they feel it may be necessary to make a statement of SEN (Section 321 Education Act 1996);

— consider a parent's request for a statutory assessment of their child's SEN (Section 329 Education Act 1996);

— consider a school's request for a statutory assessment of a child with SEN (Section 330 Education Act 1996);

— conduct a statutory assessment of a child for whom they think it may, or will, be necessary for them to make a statement of SEN (Section 323 Education Act 1996);

— arrange the special educational provision in a child's statement (Section 324 Education Act 1996);

— review children's statements annually (Section 328 Education Act 1996);

— publish their policies on SEN including information about how they are:

— promoting high standards of education for children with SEN;

— encouraging children with SEN to participate fully in their school and community and to take part in decisions about their education;

— encouraging schools in their area to share their practice in providing for children with SEN;

— working with other statutory and voluntary bodies to provide support for children with SEN.

— publish their general arrangements, including any plans setting out objectives, targets and timescales covering local arrangements for:

— identifying children with SEN;

— monitoring the admission of children with SEN (whether or not those children have a statement) to maintained schools in their area;

— organising the assessment, making and maintaining of children's SEN including any local protocols for so doing;

— providing support to schools with regard to making provision for children with SEN;

— auditing, planning, monitoring and reviewing provision for children with SEN (generally and in relation to individual pupils);

— supporting pupils with SEN through School Action and School Action Plus;

— securing training, advice and support for staff working in SEN;

— reviewing and updating the policy and development plans on a regular basis; and

— explaining that element of provision for children with SEN (but without statements) which the LEA expects normally to be met from maintained schools' budget shares and that element of such provision that the authority expects normally to be met from funds which it holds centrally.

(The Special Educational Needs (Provision of Information by Local Education Authorities) (England) Regulations 2001).

1 Ev 45-50 Back

2 Children are not defined as having SEN simply because their first language is not English, though some such children may also have SEN. Back

3 Ev 46-51 Back

4 Resourced provision is where places are reserved at a mainstream school for pupils with a specific type of SEN, taught mainly within mainstream classes, who would require a base and some specialist facilities around the schools. A related concept is that of the SEN unit within a mainstream school, where the children are taught wholly or mainly within separate classes catering to particular types of need. Back

5 The P scales are a set of optional indicators for recording the achievements of children with SEN working towards level one in the national curriculum programmes of study. Back