Inquiry aims to find ways to improve SEND provision

^{Image: Education Committee Chair Helen Hayes MP}

The Education Committee has launched a new inquiry focused on finding solutions to the crisis in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision.
 
The cross-party Committee will focus on how to stabilise the system in the short term, and how to achieve long term sustainability with improved outcomes for children and young people. The inquiry will examine every phase of education and development, from the early years through to the age of 25.
 
The Committee will look at how mainstream schools and other educational settings can be more inclusive to children with SEND by providing high quality support, including changes to the curriculum, defining what inclusivity looks like in mainstream settings, and improving support and training for education practitioners.  
 
Another focus will be increasing the capacity of SEND provision, including finding ways to help local councils plan sufficient SEND school places and examining capital investment in this area.
 
With many councils facing a parlous financial state due to the huge deficits accrued by spending millions a year on SEND support, and with the statutory override due to end in 2026, the Committee will consider reforms to the way SEND is funded.
 
MPs will examine the Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan system and look for potential alternatives without reducing the level of support available. They will also look at the effectiveness of multi-agency working across education, health and social care.  
 
With varying quality of provision across the country, the Committee will consider how to make provision more consistent between local authority areas.  We will also look for examples of replicable best practice, as well as seeking evidence on how to make Ofsted’s accountability measures more effective.  
 
The Committee will investigate how SEND support is provided in other countries with better outcomes for children, parents and carers. During the inquiry, MPs will hear directly from young people and families about their experiences with the SEND system as well as professionals delivering SEND support.
 
Education Committee Chair Helen Hayes MP said: “In recent years, report after report has documented the failures of the SEND system to deliver the support children and their families need. Despite the best efforts of professionals in schools and local authorities, across the country, children are being let down. As a Committee we now want to move beyond simply pointing out the problems and focus on finding solutions that are realistic and practical for the Government to implement.
 
“This crisis has many symptoms that bleed into the rest of the education system: from attrition in the teaching workforce to soaring levels of pupil absence. There are also symptoms which blight local councils’ budgets – ever increasing spending on transporting pupils to settings far from where they live, and the chaos of money being poured into tribunals that parents are expected to win. It’s widely accepted that many more councils could face effective bankruptcy if change doesn’t come soon.
 
“There is absolute clarity that as a country we can’t continue with this endless cycle of failure. Turning this ship around will likely take years of careful reform, but the cross-party Education Committee will play our part by making evidence-based recommendations that the government can implement.”