Schools in the North East are seeing significant increases in children and young people with profound additional needs, at the same time as significant decreases in overall pupil attendance.
The rapid rise in SEND students is adding to an already large backlog and this need is continuously going unmet, hampering educational outcomes for students.
Often, this unmet need is expressed through disruptive behaviour in mainstream schools, leading to rising rates of permanent exclusions.
In terms of attendance, absence data from the Department for Education revealed that there were a total of 72,339 students who were persistently absent in the region last year.
That equates to 22% of pupils in the North East.
Sorry, we know this isn’t the most positive article introduction we’ve ever given, but sometimes we need to get straight to the nitty gritty and ask:
When is enough, enough?
As The Voice of North East schools, we’ve been on our usual mission to ensure that the wider school community (and beyond) is aware of these current issues, banging the drum with the media and demanding a solution from those in power. As a result, an article from Chris Zarraga, Director of Schools North East, was published in Schools Week on Monday.
Exclusions will not solve the attendance crisis – obviously
In 2021/22, the North East had the highest rates of permanent exclusions, a rate which has increased from the previous year.
Every North East local authority had a permanent exclusion rate above the English rate of 0.08, with Redcar and Cleveland having the highest rate in the country at 0.31.
To solve this crisis we must demand strategic solutions that understand our local context, and that confront the underlying issues that impact so heavily on areas like the North East.
These aren’t ‘new’ issues, either. Our sector is dealing with pre-existing problems, such as attendance, mental health, and recruitment and retention, that have been hugely exacerbated by covid and the cost of living crisis.
Of course, these problems will continue to accelerate until we get proper support.
These issues hit our most disadvantaged communities the hardest, which is sure to add fuel to the fire when looking at the behaviour and complex needs of pupils in both mainstream and AP schools.
An overcrowded system six months ahead of expectations
Feedback from school leaders revealed that, as we reach the halfway point of the Autumn term, the system in the North East is already working at capacity.
Yes, alternative provision (AP) schools are reporting a lack of available school places, a situation that would normally only be reached in the Spring term.
Far too often, AP schools are being treated as specialist provision, being named on education, health, and care plans (EHCPs). AP schools are designed to provide temporary places, to prepare students to return to mainstream settings.
With resources stretched, it is becoming increasingly difficult for AP schools to return students to mainstream schools.
However, lack of places in special schools and inadequate resources and support available to mainstream schools means APs are now being expected to provide permanent places, without the necessary expertise to support referred students.
How can we expect students to thrive, when they’re trapped in environments that simply aren’t made for them?
This is a national problem, often highlighted in efforts by the National Network of Special Schools (NNoSS), but it’s a problem that’s particularly bad in the North East, and one that needs a real, long-term solution before the structure collapses completely.
Between the academic years of 12/13 and 21/22, there was a 145.43% increase in SEN students with an EHCP/Statement being suspended from school in the North East.
While a devastating statistic, it really should come as no surprise when the region is being offered little in the way of a long term, strategic solution.
Good intentions are pointless without a strategic plan
These challenges are only likely to increase, as more children and young people are not able to access the support they need, in the right settings.
The whole special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system urgently needs a strategic plan, to address the increased need since the pandemic, as well as the rising expectations of schools that were developing prior to Covid. At the moment we only have strategic intentions.
Without such a plan, ensuring joined-up thinking across the different sectors that support children and young people, it will become increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to ensure students have real pathways to access the right support at the right time, and crucially in the right settings.
The solution to the developing challenges in the SEND system, such as increased need and rising exclusions, cannot simply be larger specialist settings.
The system should ensure students, where possible, return to mainstream settings and to prevent students needing to be referred to special and AP schools in the first place.
Pupil absence is no longer just a school problem
If we look at absences as a whole, more than 1.5 million pupils missed at least 10 percent of school in the spring and autumn terms of last academic year.
That’s just over one in five students.
This isn’t a problem exclusive to the North East, either. Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, has urged society to take some responsibility for the cause of this crisis, as well as its solution.
Seeing as social anxiety, poor physical health, and mental health challenges are huge contributing factors to school absences, this makes total sense.
We urge the wider community to offer support in their own individual roles to help us get our children back on track and back in schools. This includes parents, the NHS, social care, and, of course, the government.
This week, the Labour party claimed that, by 2025, more than two million children could be regularly missing school if these current rates are maintained.
A horrifying thought that we cannot turn away from.
We need to see a holistic approach with long-term results
Mainstream schools can learn a lot from AP schools, but without a long-term, calculated plan for either, we can expect more and more stress on a system that’s already close to breaking point.
We need a holistic approach that works to halt the rise in exclusions, at the same time as supporting the rise in pupils with complex needs. The answer to a mainstream school’s problem can’t always be found in an AP setting, and the sooner this is understood, the better it will be for the whole education sector.
However, we can’t reach this conclusion on our own. Mainstream schools, as well as specialist and AP schools, require more resources and expertise to allow for early identification of need, and provision of support for that need.
