The SEND Green Paper: Benefits and Risks
27 April 2022
The government published its long-anticipated SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) Review Green Paper, Right Support, Right Place, Right Time, on the 29th of March 2022.
What are the headline proposals within the Green Paper?
New legislation for a new set of ‘national SEND standards’ with the aim of creating consistent provision, processes, and systems across the country.
New ‘local SEND partnerships’, to be led by local authorities, bringing together education, health, and care partners to produce a local inclusion plan setting out how each local area will meet national standards.
A new process for naming a school or college place in a child or young person’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). The local authorities will offer parents a ‘tailored list’ of five placements that are appropriate for their child’s needs, from which parents can choose their preference, diverging from the current process where parents are able to request any school.
A new national standardised and digitised template for EHCPs.
Plans to ‘streamline’ the redress process, most predominantly through the introduction of mandatory mediation before families can register a SEND Tribunal appeal.
A new national framework for councils for banding and tariffs of high needs, with the aim of clarifying the level of support expected, and putting the system on a financially sustainable footing in the future
A focus on the importance of identifying children’s needs early and early intervention to put support in place at an early stage, with the aim of keeping children in mainstream settings, avoiding the need for EHCPs.
A new National SEND Delivery Board to hold to account all elements of the system for supporting children and young people with SEND.
A focus on making mainstream schools more inclusive.
An introduction of a new SENCo (Special Educational Needs and Disability Co-ordinator) National Professional Qualification (NPQ) for school SENCos.
More than two years after the launch of the SEND review which aimed to streamline the EHCP process and make mainstream schools more inclusive, this Green Paper first reads as an ambitious, well-intentioned, and idealistic plan which would see;
“the vast majority of children and young people… able to access the support they need to thrive without the need for an EHCP or a specialist or alternative provision place. This is because their needs would be identified promptly, and appropriate support would be put in place at the earliest opportunity before needs can escalate. Those children and young people who require an EHCP or specialist placement would be able to access it with minimal bureaucracy.”
Clearly, these are all legitimate aims, but what is really needed is the detail to bring these into effect, especially set against the backdrop of increasingly scarce resources for Local Authorities. What does excellent teacher training look like for an inclusive mainstream school and crucially, how will this be paid for?
Moreover, a few proposals outlined in the Green Paper will potentially make the current system more ineffectual. The proposal to streamline the appeals process by introducing mandatory mediation may lengthen the appeal process. In reality, parties will have been working together to seek to resolve issues and compulsory mediation may require them to go over old ground.
Furthermore, the proposal to restrict a parent’s choice in naming a school setting within an EHCP is a concerning prospect. At the moment parents can request any school to be named as their preferred placement in the draft plan of an ECHP. The Green Paper now proposes that parents will only be able to choose their preference of school from a pre-determined list of 5 schools that the local authority deems appropriate to meet the child’s needs. A legal issue arises as to how this will be consistent with the statutory requirement to educate in accordance with parental preference and have regard to the views of the child.
However, it's not all doom and gloom, the Green Paper does introduce some welcome proposals that have the potential to enhance both the experience of SEND pupils and make the processes and delivery of SEND provisions more efficient. The proposal to introduce a national EHCP standard template which will be digitised on a database allowing parents, carers, and professionals to upload key information will introduce much-needed consistency as EHCPs are currently formatted differently within each local authority. This also has the potential to reduce delays in obtaining and accessing professional reports.
The focus on identifying children’s needs at the Early Years Foundation Stage is a positive step forward. The paper proposes to identify needs early and ensure the right support is in place so that children can progress. To do this the government proposes to increase specialists and expertise in early years settings by increasing the number of trained and qualified SENCos as well as the number of SEND qualified level III practitioners.
The Green Paper is a large document containing detailed and numerous suggested new policies and this short article merely outlines PHP’s initial reactions to some of the headline proposals. The proposals for changes to the SEND system set forth in the Green Paper are now open for a period of consultation ending on 1 July 2022. Anyone can respond to the paper with their views and we hope that young people and parents of children with SEND, Multi-Academy-Trusts, and teachers will take this chance to share their thoughts and reactions with the Government. This is your chance to make a change. PHP plan to formally respond to the Green Paper after undertaking further in-depth analysis.