Yesterday, the DfE released the long awaited SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan. The plan follows up on the initial vision for reform in the SEND Green Paper of March 2022.
DfE Plan Summary
The SEND and AP improvement plan aims to ensure children and young people get the right support, in the right place, at the right time. To achieve this, the DfE has announced investment increases of over 50% compared with 2019 to 2020.
This investment is aimed at expanded training for staff ranging from up to 5,000 early years special educational needs co-ordinators to 400 educational psychologists. The DfE also announced funding for additional specialist school places, and 33 new special free schools. The DfE has set out a ‘roadmap’ to transform the SEND and AP system, to create a national system underpinned by national standards, with financial sustainability.
Voice of the sector
The Schools North East Regional SEND/AP group held a network meeting in December 2021, in response to the SEND review. The regional group is made up of Head Teachers and CEOs working in North East special, AP, and mainstream schools with specialist units. This inclusive network is specific for SEND and AP and aimed to address gaps in educational policy, to ‘Lead not Plead’ with a strong and school-led voice, highlighting the quality of practice in the SEND and AP sector in our region.
The December roundtable found that members felt that the SEND and AP sector were being treated as an afterthought. At that time, regional SEND leaders felt that there was not a ‘system’ in respect of SEND/AP. They voiced that in order for the SEND review to be successful, any ‘system’ that emerged must put more emphasis in recognising school/community context. The roundtable also recommended that the DfE must move away from a ‘onesize-fits-all’ approach, with longer-term and evidence-based thinking to ensure stability in the sector.
In addition to the Regional SEND/AP group, Schools North East also powers NNoSS (The National Network of Special Schools for School Business Professionals). The network provides a voice and community for SBPs in the unique environment of Special and AP Education.
In February 2022, in anticipation of the SEND review, NNoSS held a virtual roundtable with members from across the country to highlight the key challenges facing the sector, from a School Business Professional perspective, and appeal for reform that reflects the true issues facing Special Schools. NNoSS also released data in November, giving a snapshot view of funding and cost challenges within SEND.
Funding & EHCPs
NNoSS members highlighted that Local Authorities across the country take different decisions in funding, often considering budgets rather than delivery of services, creating a postcode lottery in funding and hoped that this issue would be addressed in the review. They also highlighted increased complexity of needs and the sometimes lack of joined- up thinking across different agencies and departments. The line between where education stops and health starts, in respect of both support and funding, is not always clearly defined and the accountability generally falls on the school.
The DfE’s SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan proposes to increase core funding by £3.5bn with almost £1bn of that going towards high needs, and moving to the development and implementation of a system of standardised funding bands and tariffs by 2025. It also proposes to support LAs through delivering better value and safety valve programmes and to make progress in developing new approaches to AP funding. The Plan sets out aims for National Standards which will clarify who is responsible for delivering provision and from which budgets, and this should result in financial responsibility for SEND being shared more fairly across education, health and social care. However, it is noted that LAs will be encouraged to adopt the standard template, rather than mandated.
Staffing:
NNoSS members are acutely aware of the recruitment challenges facing the sector at present, and the importance of ensuring correct structures are in place to attract and retain staff with the right qualifications and experience.
The Plan aims to develop a longer-term approach to ensuring the impact of teaching assistants, starting with a research project to develop the evidence base. It also acknowledges teacher quality as one of the most important in-school determinants of pupil outcomes, and states that apprenticeship providers will be offered professional development to support them to meet the needs of all apprentices.
NNoSS members know how hard it is to staff their settings appropriately. Members would like to see the plans accompanied by reform of job descriptions which are aligned to the unique roles and responsibilities in the specialist sector, and a salary structure to support. Furthermore schools get the opportunity of quality training and CPD for their staff, which is supported by funding.
School Places:
The plan announced new specialist free schools and a data collection exercise on the capacity of specialist schools and specialist units, along with forecasts on the numbers of specialist placements needed. NNoSS members welcome this exercise, seeing the benefit of looking forward to need rather than using purely historic data to predict funding. They welcome the announcement of new schools but also hope to see a plan for investment in existing schools, which need significant capital investment.
Pauline Aitchison, Network Lead at NNoSS and Deputy Director of Schools North East commented:
“It is encouraging to see the first steps of reform in the SEND and AP sector being realised through this Plan. We hope that the government will work with the sector business professionals to develop some of the aims set out in the plan. It would be helpful to know how LAs will be supported to deliver better value. This should not necessarily mean less expenditure – delivering the correct support must be the highest priority in both mainstream and specialist settings. We encourage the government to work with leaders across the sector to develop positive outcomes to SEND and AP funding, using a bottom up approach.”
We look forward to further insights on the plans from key figures such as Leora Cruddas and Benedict Coffin at the NNoSS Conference 2023 in Birmingham this April. Click here to book your place and attend.
To read the briefing of the Schools North East Special/AP roundtable click here.
Read the full DfE plan here.
Interested in finding out more about NNoSS? Read more here.
