House of Commons - Education Committee

Behaviour and Discipline in Schools - Education Committee Contents

Memorandum submitted by Special Educational Consortium

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 There are some key themes which SEC wishes to explore in its submission on school behaviour policies and the way they can best support and encourage the positive behaviour and engagement of disabled children and children with SEN:

— Behaviour difficulties are closely linked to a failure of a child to access education and make progress. Schools sometimes struggle to help disabled children and children with SEN access their education, and where this happens it can lead to disabled children and children with SEN being caught up in disciplinary procedures unnecessarily.

— Behaviour difficulties are often caused by underlying conditions, including mental health problems, underlying disabilities, and problems outside of school. Schools should look at the underlying causes of behaviour, as well as having appropriate disciplinary routes.

— It may be perceived that a disabled child is simply being naughty or deliberately disruptive when in fact this behaviour arises as a consequence of their disability or alternatively as a consequence of a lack of reasonable adjustments made to accommodate their disability. Schools need to understand the rights of disabled children and are legally required to make reasonable adjustments to their behaviour and discipline policies where a disabled child is concerned

— The SEN framework does, and was always intended to, address the needs of children with significant behaviour problems that cannot be solved through the standard behaviour and discipline frameworks operated by the school. This means children with some of the most challenging behavioural issues are supported through the SEN system.

2. UNMET LEARNING NEEDS AS A MAJOR FACTOR IN DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOUR

2.1 Behaviour difficulties are closely linked to a failure of a child to access education and make progress. Disabled children and children with SEN are more likely to have unmet needs, which goes some way to explain why they are more likely to be caught up in school's disciplinary procedures. A number of reports have raised questions about the extent to which the exclusion of certain children is a result of their unmet special educational needs[61],[62].

2.2 While not all disruptive or challenging behaviour can be explained by a failure to have educational needs met, it is obvious that a child who is engaged with their education and making good progress is much less likely to be disruptive in class. None of this means that schools should not emphasise the need for good discipline and apply appropriate sanctions where there is a breach of the behaviour policy. Nonetheless, it is the long term interests of both children and schools that teaching policies and practices place an importance on addressing the educational needs of children who display disruptive behaviour. This will have the benefit of both improving behaviour and increasing attainment.

2.3 The findings of a panel of senior teachers[63]—that "learning, teaching and promoting good behaviour are inseparable issues for schools"—was echoed by Sir Alan Steer's review of behaviour which stated that "much poor behaviour has its origins in the inability of the child to access learning".[64] Ofsted has found that "most of the secondary schools in which behaviour is inadequate, teaching and learning are also inadequate".[65] Parents of disabled children and children with SEN support this view: a survey by the National Autistic Society found that 66% of parents say a delay in accessing support had a negative impact on their child's behaviour and 34% say it had a negative impact on their child's mental health.[66] It is also worth noting that the most common reason for exclusion is persistent disruptive behaviour,[67] which is more likely to occur when a child is not engaged or satisfied with their progress at school.

2.4 To help address the underlying causes of disruptive or challenging behaviour, behaviour policies need to emphasise the need for early intervention to asses whether the behaviour is a result of unmet learning needs. This is supported by Ofsted which found that behaviour will be poor where there is too little emphasis in the behaviour management strategies on improving the quality of teaching.[68] Where a child is disabled or has SEN and is becoming disruptive, behaviour policies should stress the importance of reviewing whether those additional needs are being met.

2.5 This is an even more pressing issue where there is an unidentified need, as children may be labelled as having behavioural difficulties when in fact the issue lies further back in the system's failure to meet their educational needs. For example, there is a particularly strong link between children identified as having behavioural difficulties and children who have unidentified speech, language and communication difficulties[69],[70]. Where a child has no identified need, behaviour policies should stress the importance of reviewing whether they have any additional needs where a child is displaying disruptive or challenging behaviour.

Recommendation 1

All school behaviour policies should have a focus on early intervention to address the underlying causes of behaviour, and particularly whether the behaviour is a result of an unidentified SEN.

Recommendation 2

All teachers should be properly trained in SEN, in order to recognise whether behaviour is a result of an unidentified or unmet SEN.

3. BEHAVIOUR POLICIES—MAKING REASONABLE ADJUSTMENTS FOR DISABLED CHILDREN

3.1 It is clear from current evidence that disabled children continue to encounter significant difficulties in the way schools understand and address issues with their behaviour. Disabled children with a statement of SEN (ie disabled children with the most significant needs) continue to be eight times more likely to be excluded from school as their non-disabled peers[71] despite statutory guidance which states that they should only be excluded in "the most exceptional circumstances".[72] Children at School Action Plus—many of whom will be disabled but who may not receive the same level of support as children with a statement—are over 19 times more likely to be excluded than their peers.[73]

3.2 The Equality Act 2010[74] requires schools to ensure disabled children[75] are not treated unfavourably because of a reason arising as a consequence of their disability and to make adjustments to ensure they can access all the benefits of their education. These protections apply equally to policies on behaviour, including blanket discipline policies which do not take account of disabled children's different needs.

3.3 Like all children, disabled children display disruptive or challenging behaviour for a range of different reasons. They may not be accessing their education or making progress, they may have problems with communication, they may have mental health needs, or there may be issues outside of school. In some cases, a child's perceived disruptive or challenging behaviour arises directly as a consequence of their disability or as a consequence of a lack of reasonable adjustments made to accommodate their disability. Whatever the case, if a disabled child is displaying disruptive or challenging behaviour, early intervention is needed to assess whether appropriate reasonable adjustments have been made for them—this duty is anticipatory. The fact that a child has a disability does not mean they should never be disciplined, but rather the behaviour and discipline policies should reflect the need to pay extra attention to the underlying causes of their difficulties to reflect the additional barriers disabled people face in society.

3.4 If a child's disruptive behaviour arises as a consequence of their disability and reasonable adjustments having not been made, the school could be found guilty of disability discrimination if that disabled child is unnecessarily punished or excluded.

Recommendation 3

All schools should be made fully aware of their legal responsibility to make reasonable adjustments for disabled children, including flexibility in behaviour and discipline policies.

Recommendation 4

Schools should focus on early intervention to ensure disabled children receive the adjustments they need at the earliest possible stage, particularly where they are displaying disruptive or challenging behaviour.

Recommendation 5

All staff should receive adequate disability training in order to recognise disabled children, respond to their needs, and understand their duty to make reasonable adjustments to the way they enforce behaviour and discipline policies.

4. EXPLAINING THE LINK BETWEEN SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND SIGNIFICANT BEHAVIOUR DIFFICULTIES

4.1 The SEN framework does, and was always intended to, seek to address these needs of children with significant behaviour problems that cannot be solved through the standard behaviour and discipline frameworks operated by the school. The Warnock report upon which the SEN framework is based states that the system of special educational needs should:

Therefore, where a child has behavioural, emotional, or social difficulties and these are acute enough to become a barrier to learning despite the usual interventions of the school, the child can receive support through the SEN framework.

4.2 There is a clear distinction between routine misbehaviour and children who seriously struggle with their behavioural, emotional, or social development to such an extent that it becomes a barrier to their learning despite the usual interventions of the school. There has been a recent rise in the number of children with behavioural, emotional, or social difficulties identified through the SEN system. One of the reasons for this may be where schools' standard behaviour management and early intervention strategies are not robust enough to differentiate between routine misbehaviour and SEN.

Recommendation 6

The Government should make a commitment to addressing the needs of children with behavioural, emotional, or social difficulties as parts of its plans to boost discipline in schools, and publish a strategy for doing do so.

5. ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF CHILDREN WITH BEHAVIOURAL, EMOTIONAL, AND SOCIAL DIFFICULTIES

5.1 Any attempt to prevent serious cases of disruptive or challenging behaviour in schools must seek to address the needs of children classed as having behavioural, emotional, and social difficulties. Behavioural, emotional, or social difficulties arise as a result of a variety of often interrelated causes, including mental health problems, underlying disabilities, trauma, abuse, bereavement or chaotic home lives. There are also very strong links between significant behaviour difficulties and unmet communication needs.[77] Children with behavioural, emotional, and social difficulties are some of the most challenging for schools to teach and unsurprisingly are by far the most likely group of children to be excluded.[78] The argument about whether children who struggle with their behavioural, emotional, or social difficulties should be described as having special educational needs is less important than addressing the underlying cause of these problems, and often schools will also meet a child's needs through mental health or pastoral support programmes as well.

5.2 Strengthening the ability of the SEN system to meet the needs of this group of children will significantly increase schools' ability to improve their behaviour. Early intervention and additional input from specialist local authority support services is highly valuable, but problems of access for schools remains a problem.[79] There is currently considerable evidence that schools are seeking access to the additional help required from professionals in health and social services earlier than they were able to secure it and that access to child and adolescent mental health services was very variable[80],[81]. Strengthening this support should be a priority. The fact that evidence has shown that between 60-90% of children with significant behaviour difficulties also experience communication difficulties also presents a strong case for particular investment in this area.

5.3 Many children with behavioural difficulties will also have underlying mental health conditions affecting their behaviour. Around one in ten school age children will experience a mental health problem at some point during their schooling.[82] Good schools will have a positive whole-school approach to improving the mental health and well being of all their pupils. For children with less severe mental health and/or behavioural needs, the school will be able to manage these within their usual mental health and well-being practices, such as small group work to promote social and emotional skills or peer support programmes.[83] For children with more significant mental health needs, excellent schools' mental health policies will be closely integrated and complimentary to the SEN provision for children with behavioural, emotional, or social difficulties, the school's pastoral support services, and stress the importance of involving, and signposting to, local specialist services.

Recommendation 7

As part of its strategy to improve behaviour in schools, the Government should evaluate the benefits of significant programmes of early intervention in the areas of mental health and speech language and communication.

6. EXCLUSIONS

6.1 Children who have been permanently excluded are less likely to achieve five good GCSE results or be in employment in later life.[84] There is also a long established link between being excluded from school and becoming involved in crime[85]—for example, research from the prisons inspector in 2004 found that 83% of the young men in custody had been previously excluded from school.[86] There is a clear consensus that exclusion from school results in dramatically poorer outcomes for the child concerned and has significant long-term costs to society. There have been strong arguments made that we should move toward a zero exclusion school system[87],[88].

6.2 High levels of exclusions are both a cause and a result of poor social outcomes for young people with SEN and disabilities. A survey of 22 LEAs found that 87% of exclusions in primary schools and 60% of exclusions in secondary related to pupils with SEN.[89] Disabled children and children with SEN continue to be over eight times more likely to be permanently excluded from school than the rest of the school population.[90]

It is essential that the Government as an urgent priority looks at reducing the number of young people with SEN and disabilities who are excluded from school. These groups of young people are already at a disadvantage in terms of accessing education, and being excluded from school only compounds this fact.

Recommendation 8

Where a disabled child or child with SEN is at risk of exclusion, a review of a pupil's special educational needs should be undertaken before they are referred off-site. This should look at whether reasonable adjustments are required for the disabled child or child with SEN which, if made, could avoid the need to remove the pupil from the school.

7. INFORMAL EXCLUSIONS

7.1 Informal exclusions usually occur when a parent is asked to remove their child from school for a fixed period of time without the child being officially recorded as being excluded. This practice allows schools to exclude children they find difficult without the child having done anything specifically wrong. Informal exclusions are a key sign that the school's standard behaviour management policies is not robust enough.

7.2 Statutory guidance[91] is clear that informal exclusions are unlawful. Nonetheless, recent reports have found that over 50% of local authority officers have particular concerns about the risks posed to children by unofficial exclusions[92] and that informal exclusions continued to be a routine experience for some parents.[93]

Recommendation 9

The Government should look at ways of improving the way parents are informed of their rights and schools of their responsibilities. Parent Partnership Services and the voluntary sector are well placed to inform parents of their rights, and the Government should seek ways of supporting them to hold schools to account.

September 2010

61 National Foundation for Educational Research, Admissions and Exclusions of Pupils with Special Educational Needs DfES Research report RR608, 2005. Back

62 Audit Commission, Special Educational Needs: a mainstream issue, 2002. Back

63 Learning Behaviour. The report of the Practitioners Group on School Behaviour and Discipline, DCSF, 2005. Back

64 Learning Behaviour: lessons learned-A review of behaviour standards, Institute of education, 2009 and practices in our schools. Back

65 The Annual Report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, 2008. Back

66 Batten, A et al, Make school make sense, National Autistic Society, 2007. Back

67 Statistical First Release: Permanent and Fixed Period Exclusions From Schools and Exclusion Appeals in England, 2008-09, Department for Education, 2010. Back

68 Managing challenging behaviour, Ofsted, 2005. Back

69 Gilmour, J, Hill, B, Place, M and Skuse, Social Communication Deficits in Conduct Disorder: a clinical and community survey Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry 45(5):967-978, 2004. Back

70 Toppelberg, C.O. and Shapiro, T, Language Disorders: A 10-year research update review, Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 39: 143-152, 2000. Back

71 Statistical First Release: Permanent and Fixed Period Exclusions From Schools and Exclusion Appeals in England, 2008-09, Department for Education, 2010. Back