Campaign success: Local authority funding for SEN safeguarded

The NAS has welcomed the Government’s announcement that local authorities will continue to receive funding for SEN services, no matter how many academies they have in their area.

This commitment follows successful campaigning on this issue by the NAS and our colleagues in the Special Educational Consortium (SEC) during the passage of the Academies Act 2010.

This decision has two important implications:

- A local authority should not now cut SEN support services on the basis that a number of academies have opened in that area. Where there are academies in a local authority area, that local authority will now retain the money to keep SEN support services available;

- As they are retaining the money for SEN support services that was previously being delegated to academies, local authorities should provide these services to children in academies.

We know that many local authorities are currently setting their budgets. We would urge these authorities to consider any decision about funding SEN specialist services in light of this new information.

NAS and SEC continue to work with the Department for Education to ensure the wider changes to school funding do not disadvantage disabled children and children with SEN.

In the meantime we welcome the Government’s continued protection of specialist provision for disabled children and children with SEN through these support services.

Share your experiences of SEN provision at academies

The Academies Act 2010 specifies that the existing SEN framework does apply to academies, as the agreement that the school signs with the Secretary of State for Education in order to become an academy (called a “funding agreement”) will say that the academy has to adhere to Part 4 of the Education Act 1996. 

However, with the Government’s drive to increase the number of schools which have academy status, more and more parents are asking about academies and their duty to make provision for children with SEN, and a number of common issues are emerging.

IPSEA, a charity which provides advice to families of children with special educational needs, has launched a survey to find out more about what is happening as schools become academies. The survey has just 8 questions and should only take a few minutes to complete.  IPSEA will use your feedback to produce resources that will help with common issues.

To complete the survey visit www.ipsea.org.uk/news/hot-topics/academies-survey.aspx.aspx

SEN Green Paper Published

The National Autistic Society has welcomed the ambitions set out in Government’s Green Paper Support and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability. 

The Green Paper sets out the Government’s proposals for reforming the education system for children with special educational needs (SEN). The Government wants to hear your views on the plans. See below on how you can have your say.

The National Autistic Society will be looking carefully at the proposals and consulting with its members and others to respond. We will also be launching a mini report on how the SEN system should work for children with autism in the summer. Watch this space for more details.

Below is a summary of some of the key points from the Green Paper.

Early identification and assessment

The Government proposes replacing statements of SEN with ‘Education, Health and Care Plans’, which would be determined through a single assessment.

The Government has said that these plans will provide the same statutory protection to parents as statements and that these plans will be for children with SEN or a disability from birth until the age of 25.

How the assessment for these plans and how the plans themselves are to work will be piloted from September. The National Autistic Society is keen to see how the proposal will work in practice and how the Government will ensure that the same legal protections are in place. The Government have said that replacing statements with the new plans will not happen until 2014.

The paper also talks about ensuring that children with SEN are picked up earlier. We have been calling for an early identification check to ensure that children with autism can be identified at an early stage and so we are keen to work further with Government on this.

Giving Parents Control

The Green Paper stresses the importance of consulting and involved in decisions concerning their child’s needs. It makes the following proposals:

• Local authorities and other services to set out a local offer of all services available
• The option of a ‘Personal Budget’ by 2014 for all families with children with a statement of SEN or a new ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’ to give parents greater choice over the services their child receives. This is to be piloted first
• Parents to be given a clear choice of school, including mainstream, special, academies and free schools.
• Parents to continue to have access to a short break from caring while their child enjoys activities with their peers.
• If local authorities and parents disagree, mediation is tried first, before going to a tribunal.

Learning and achieving

This section has a welcome focus on the importance of improving the support teachers have to ensure that they can identify and appropriately help children with SEN.

The National Autistic Society has been calling for initial teacher training to include autism as well as for schools to be able to access support from specialist autism teachers across clusters of schools.

In line with this, the Green Paper sets out:

• Funding will be available for scholarships and continuing professional development for teachers developing skills in supporting children with SEN
• The Government will help local networks of schools develop teachers with specialist skills and knowledge who can be deployed across local clusters of schools
• The Training and Development Agency will make sure that online materials for teachers on autism are widely available
• Special Schools will be expected to share their expertise and services to support the education and progress and development of pupils in other special and mainstream schools.
• Outstanding special schools will be able to apply to become Teaching Schools, and more teachers will do initial training in special schools

The paper also says that parents and communities are encouraged to establish new special free schools.

Preparing for adulthood

A significant proposal in the Green Paper is the extension of the Education, Health and Care Plans, which are to replace statements for young people up to the age of 25.

The Green Paper also highlights the importance of ensuring that young people with a disability are supported into work and that work experience is made available for them.

Further detail about the Governments plans for improving transition will be published later this year. The Government says that it wants to ensure that by 2015 disabled young people and young people with SEN will have:

• early and well integrated support for and advice on the birth to 25 single assessment process.
• access to better quality vocational and work related learning opportunities to enable young people to progress in their learning post 16.
• good opportunities and support in order to get and keep a job
• a well co-ordained transition from children’s to adult health services

Services Working Together for Families

Joint working across health, social care and education is a strong focus in the Green Paper.

The Government proposes that local authorities play a pivotal role in ensuring the co-ordination in support for children with SEN, both on an individual level and on a strategic planning level.

There are also proposals to fund training for key workers and to review the training for speech and language therapists and educational psychologists.

The Chapter also states that the Government will look at how best to co-ordinate services once the GP consortia are in place and new Health and Wellbeing Boards are given responsibility for planning local services.

Have your say

The Government wants to hear what you think of the proposals. You can respond online at www.education.gov.uk/consultations or emailed to send.greenpaper@education.gsi.gov.uk, or by downloading a response form which should be completed and sent to:

Consultation Unit

Department for Education

Area 1C, Castle View House

East Lane

Runcorn WA7 2GJ

Please also let us know what you think by commenting in the box below or by emailing policy@nas.org.uk

New Education Bill

The new Education Bill is expected to be published on 20th January.

The Government has said that the Bill will:

• provide schools with the freedoms to deliver an excellent education in the way they see fit.
• reform Ofsted and other accountability frameworks to ensure that head teachers are held properly accountable for the core educational goals of attainment and closing the gap between rich and poor.
• introduce a slimmer curriculum giving more space for teachers to decide how to teach.
• introduce a reading test for 6 year olds to make sure that young children are learning and to identify problems early.
• give teachers and head teachers the powers to improve behaviour and tackle bullying.
• expect standards across the education sector to rise through the creation of more Academies and giving more freedom to head teachers and teachers. We will also ensure that money follows pupils, and introduce a ‘pupil premium’ so that more money follows the poorest pupils.

The National Autistic Society will be particularly looking at any sections of the Bill on behaviour and will be arguing that any changes to legislation or policy on behaviour needs to take into account the specific needs of children with autism.

We also believe that the reading test at age 6 needs to be reconsidered and a different test introduced so that special educational needs including autism can be identified at an earlier stage.

We will report on more details of the Bill when it is published.

Let us know in the box below what you think of the expected reforms.

The Importance of Teaching – Education White Paper

As reported earlier on this site, the Government has published its plans for reform of the education system in a “White Paper” called The Importance of Teaching.

More details on reform to the system for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) will be available in the SEN Green Paper expected later this year or early next year.

However, the following proposals in the White Paper also have implications for children with autism:

·        Reforms to teacher training

·        Proposals on discipline, behaviour and bullying

·        Changes to exclusion policies and Independent Appeal Panels

·        Admissions and the role of local authorities

·        Special school academies

Teacher training

As the name of the White Paper suggests, the Government places high importance on getting teacher training right. The White Paper highlights the importance of ensuring teachers know how to support children with SEN and says that more details will be in the forthcoming Green Paper.

The National Autistic Society is campaigning for every teacher to have training in autism. We also believe that teachers should be able to access expertise and advice from autism specialists when they need it.

Discipline, behaviour and bullying

The Government is intending to produce shorter and clearer guidance on the ability of teachers to use force and discipline children outside of school. Teachers will be given greater discretion in these areas.

The National Autistic Society will be working to make sure that the needs of children with autism are looked at carefully in that guidance.

Addressing bullying, and particularly prejudiced based bullying, is to become a Government priority. To address this, Government guidance will be simplified and Ofsted will be asked to report on successful approaches to tackling bullying.

We are pleased that the Government wants to focus on prejudiced based bullying, as we know that children with autism are often targeted by bullies. We will be working with Government on bullying guidance.

Exclusions

We have previously expressed concerns about the Conservative Party’s proposals to get rid of Independent Appeal Panels for exclusions. We welcome the White Paper’s recognition that it is important that these Panels remain independent.

However, we note that the Government intends to take away the power from these panels to reinstate an excluded pupil from a school. We would welcome wider views on this. Please comment below.

We welcome the Government’s plans to pilot a new approach to exclusions where a school is responsible for arranging and funding alternative provision for an excluded child.

27% of children with autism are excluded from school at least once, compared with 4% of other children. It is essential that alternative and appropriate provision is found for children with autism, following exclusion.

Admissions and the role of local authorities

Local authorities and the School Adjudicator will continue to have a role in ensuring the coordination of admissions arrangements and fairness, including for academies. The Government will also simplify the Admissions Code, but will continue to apply the principle of fair admissions for Looked After Children and pupils with a statement of SEN.

The National Autistic Society will be watching reforms to the Admissions Code with interest. We have particular concerns about admissions for those without a Statement.

Local Authorities  will continue to have responsibility for disabled children and those with SEN. However, as funding is increasingly delegated to academies, they will increasingly move to a strategic commissioning and oversight role. They will of course continue to fund provision for pupils with a statement of SEN.

Where a local authority has significant concerns about an Academy or Free School in relation to these issues, it will be able to ask Ofsted to inspect the school.

Special school academies

The academies programme will be expanded to include special schools, with the application process open in January 2011 and the potential for special school academies to open from September 2011. The Green Paper on SEN and Disability will consider the issues raised specifically around special schools academies in more detail.

If you have any comments about these proposals, do comment below.