Children's commissioner reports on SEND aspirations
By Gemma Raw
Children's Commissioner Rachel De Souza has published a report which aims to put children's voices at the heart of the government's review of the SEND system.
Beyond the labels: a SEND system which works for every child, every time is dedicated to all children growing up in England with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). To compile the report, the Children's Commissioner's Office (CCo) interviewed 55 children and young people with additional needs across a range of education settings. The CCo also analysed the consistency and accessibility of 650 Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).
Four key messages came out of the CCo's work:
Children are ambitious, but do not always have excellent support.
The SEND system should work for all children.
Children want services to work together to provide seamless support.
Children don't always feel understood.
These conclusions have been developed into three key aspirations which the CCo hopes will be taken into account in the Government's SEND review:
All children and young people should get support that reflects their ambitions. That means putting children, their voices and their aspirations at the centre of plans to improve care.
Children should get timely and effective support, locally, with a focus on early intervention. The current system is too focused on diagnostics, which often delays help and can inadvertently increase thresholds.
All children should benefit from consistent, excellent experiences wherever they are in the system. Access to high-quality alternative provision (AP), good employment opportunities and well-funded support will enable them to gain the skills and confidence to succeed.
"The Government’s review of the SEND system gives us the opportunity to realise children’s ambitions more consistently, and in so doing improve the experiences of every child," said Ms de Souza. "The vision in these reform papers has the potential to transform every child’s experience of the education, health, and care system."
What is the SEND Review?
In 2019, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned the SEND Review to understand the challenges faced by children and young people with SEND. In March 2022, a green paper was published, setting out proposals to ensure that every child and young person has their needs identified quickly and met more consistently, with support determined by those needs, not by where they live.
To improve strategic leadership and engagement with the SEND system among social workers, the Council for Disabled Children (CDC) has been piloting the role of Designated Social Care Officer (DSCO) across 30 local authorities. The green paper proposes that the SEND Code of Practice is revised to encourage the adoption of DSCOs and use findings from the CDC work to establish what a high-quality, standardised DSCO role would look like.
The publication of the green paper was followed by a 16-week consultation, involving children and young people themselves, and their parents and carers, as well as those working in education, the voluntary sector and social care jobs. A national SEND and AP improvement plan is expected later this year.
Download the full CCo report here.
