The Ofsted review of SEN and Disability finally emerged last week. The report was trailed with headline messages about the over-identification of children as having SEN when Ofsted assert that they have simply not been taught well enough.
Ofsted concluded that no one model of educational support – such as special schools, full inclusion in mainstream provision, or specialist units co-located with mainstream settings – systematically worked better than any other. The report also found that there is currently too much focus on providing statements of need and checking pupils are getting extra services.
You can download a copy of the report (also in My Documents)but key findings are as follows:
Overall achievement for disabled children and young people and those who had special educational needs was good or outstanding in 41% of the visited provision.
There is a strong focus on assessment in the review with Ofsted expressing concern about what they saw as inconsistencies in the identification of the needs of young people. It was found that parents saw the current system as requiring them to ‘fight for the rights’ of their children, and they often wanted their child to be formally identified as having special educational needs – and especially to have a statement – as their guarantee of additional support.
The review argued that there was a need for greater knowledge and professional expertise in relation to special educational needs and disabilities in information, advice and guidance services.
The report found that schools rarely considered the impact of exclusions and low attendance on the child’s safety. It was even noted that some of the special schools visited were not always robust in challenging the reasons for absence and paid insufficient attention to what the pupil was missing when she or he was absent from school.
In six special schools, outcomes for all children or young people were still, or until very recently had been, evaluated only in terms of whether they had met the targets on their individual education plan.
A general theme of the review was its focus on outcomes and its criticism that some schools or organisation were concentrating simply on what services were being provided or on processes, without focusing enough on the outcomes for individual children.
The report found that whilst for the children with the most obvious and severe needs, access to appropriate provision from a range of services was relatively quick and carried out at an early age. However, it was found that some children were prevented from having access to specialist education provision unless they had a medical diagnosis, even when their needs were apparent.
Ofsted found that even when SEN assessment was accurate, timely, and identified the appropriate additional support, this did not guarantee that the support would be of good quality. This supports the view that whilst commissioning is important there is still a need to ensure provision is of a high standard.
The report found that where children and young people were identified as having special educational needs at any level, with or without a statement, they generally received some additional support or resources. For example, some were allocated support for their behaviour when, in fact, they had specific communication needs.
It was found that in some non-maintained special schools there were assumptions that provision was good unless challenged through Ofsted inspections and reports from school improvement partners. On a more positive note parents and carers of those who attended special schools often cited good staffing levels and access to a range of professionals from different services as their reasons for seeking placements.
The evaluation of progress made by disabled young people and those with special educational needs within post ̶ 16 provision was limited, and Ofsted’s inspectors saw no consistent system for tracking the outcomes across transition from previous placements.
The report found that “middle-class and articulate parents” were more likely to push for schools to register children as having special needs to make sure they got extra help and tuition. Pupils with special needs or a disability were found to be disproportionately from disadvantaged backgrounds, much more likely to be absent or excluded from school.
Anne-Marie
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