Opinion: Listening to families and teachers on SEND reform

I have used many of my weekly columns since being elected to write about our broken Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system, a system that is failing children, caregivers and teachers across the country.

My inbox has always been inundated with parents describing an adversarial system that pits parents, teachers and local authorities against each other. But now it is full of parents concerned and confused about Government plans to fix it. That’s why, last week, I hosted two virtual roundtables, one for parents and carers of children with SEND, and one for teaching professionals, to discuss the Government white paper that is now being consulted on.

Jess in Parliament

Early understanding of the Government’s white paper suggests legal rights and protections will be removed for some children, along with parents’ ability to challenge decisions. We should be focused on ending a system where parents feel unheard and ignored about their child’s needs. It seems, however, we’ll instead have a system where parents will feel required to shout even louder.

These are exactly the concerns I heard on Thursday. Parents believe their children will be shoehorned into mainstream education, which is not set up to handle their complex needs. What they want is certainty that support will be there. But the Government’s additional funding will equate to only half of a primary school teaching assistant’s salary next year. Barely a drop in the ocean.

There is also a gaping omission from the white paper: the lack of clear support for those in home education and those classified as EBSA (Emotional Based School Avoidance), which is a growing challenge that schools regularly raise with me. Parents of children who are out of school because of their mental health were concerned that the reforms will ignore them, with one mother saying they risk “getting lost in the conversation.” The Government believes it will keep more children in educational settings through early screening, but the White Paper fails to address how this will be achieved and how this helps those children already out of education.

Similar concerns were raised by teachers, with many citing a lack of clarity on how staff training will fit in with other work, how staffing numbers will improve, and how certain terms, such as “complex needs”, will be defined. Their daily lives are clogged up with administration, which won’t change under these reforms and will continue to prevent them from implementing the inclusive changes the Government is promising.

As we wait for the legislation to come forward, which will make clear how the Government intends to put these ideas into practice, I will continue to meet with families locally to ensure that my contribution to the Bill has children’s and families’ voices at its centre. If you are a parent or caregiver locally and you missed the roundtable, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via jess.brownfuller.mp@parliament.uk.