Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by The Communication Trust
The Communication Trust is delighted to provide evidence for the Education Committee’s inquiry into School Governors and would be very happy to discuss these issues in more detail.
The Communication Trust is a coalition of 47 voluntary and community organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication. We harness our collective expertise to support the children’s workforce and commissioners to meet the speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) of all children and young people.
SLCN is the most common Special Educational Need (SEN) identified by primary schools (26.5%) and is a feature of many other areas of SEN, such as hearing impairment, learning difficulties and autistic spectrum difficulties. Evidence also shows that in areas of social deprivation 50% of children may enter school with delayed language.
As a coalition of organisations, including several schools, the Trust interacts with school governors on many different levels and is well placed to make an assessment on their purpose, roles and responsibilities. The Trust has considered the Committee’s questions and would like to make the following overarching points:
1. The Department has recognised in the “The Importance of Teaching” that “governing bodies sometimes lack the information or training needed to challenge effectively and support the head teacher and senior leadership of the school to improve.” The Trust believes this is particularly the case for SEN; governors require specialist knowledge to have the confidence and ability in order to make decisions around SEN provision, decisions that will impact on long term outcomes for pupils.
2. The experience of the Trust and its members is that there is a great variability of school governing bodies and their response to SEN issues in general and SLCN in particular. We would therefore like to see governors’ roles to be more clearly defined, especially with regards to their responsibilities for SEN, including SLCN.
3. It is apparent that where a school’s leadership has recognised the importance of SLCN, governors are more actively supportive of the issue; sometimes this leadership can also come from a governor with personal or professional experience of the issue. However, it is too often the case that many schools have almost no knowledge of the issue and no leadership around improving this.
4. The unique importance of SEN is recognised by the Department for Education. In making the changes in July 2012 that gave head teachers in mainstream and alternative provision academies greater freedom over the teachers they employ, the Department stated, “because of their unique and specialist role, SEN Coordinators and designated teachers for looked-after children will still be required to have QTS.” Governors need to be able to support and challenge the unique and specialist role of the SENCO; in order to enable this we believe the SEN link governor role should be mandatory, and should receive approved training.
5. Governors need to understand statutory and regulatory frameworks and relevant developments at both national and local level for SEN provision, and to understand changes that may be introduced in the Children and Families Bill. The Trust would therefore like to see specific SEN governor training that meets a national quality framework. This could be delivered locally by any number or providers, including the VCS, to reflect the “local offer” whilst also delivering the national framework.
6. Knowing that training is available and that there is a named link governor would also give parents confidence that there are clear lines of accountability around SEN, particularly within the proposed changes to SEN provision.
7. The Trust recognises the challenges of recruiting and retaining governors with appropriate skills and experience, suited to the needs of the children and young people in the school and reflecting the community. We believe schools should have the discretion to remove barriers for those people, particularly parents, who would like to serve as governors but are not able to. For example, if there were a parent of a child with SEN who wanted to serve and had a matching skill set but who needed costs of their childcare covered, the school should be able to facilitate that and parents empowered to be able to claim this without being stigmatised.
Background to the Communication Trust
There are many children and young people in the UK who face challenges with communication and who need more particular support from the adults around them. The children’s workforce has a clear and essential role in understanding and supporting children’s communication. It is absolutely vital that they are able to identify early children and young people who are struggling and can effectively provide support for all those with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).
The Communication Trust exists to ensure that the children’s workforce can fulfil this role. We look to make sure that the workforce and the third sector develop the confidence, skills and knowledge they need, so that every child and young person gets the right support from the right people at the right time. The Trust was founded in 2007 by Afasic, BT, Council for Disabled Children and I CAN, who recognised that in order to make a lasting impact for children and young people, particularly those who struggle to communicate, we needed to work collaboratively and collectively. Since 2007, the Trust has brought together nearly 50 organisations, combining the efforts of the not-for-profit sector and working constructively with Government and civil society to make great strides in shaping policy, improving understanding and developing effective solutions.
January 2013