1. The Challenges Facing SEN
Lorraine Petersen
CEO - nasen
SCISS
Wednesday 29th September

2. National statistics
 2.7% of pupils across all schools have a statement
– 54.9% Mainstream
– 38.1% Maintained Special School
– 4.3% Independent School
– 2.0% Non – Maintained Special School
– 0.8% Pupil Referral Units
 18.2% of pupils identified as having SEN (School Action and
School Action Plus) with no statement
 DCSF First Release – National Statistics January 2010

3. Era of Change
 New coalition government
 Impact of Academies Bill
 SEN Review – Ofsted
 Green Paper – DfE
 Closure of Becta, QCDA, National Strategies
 Loss of BSF programme
 Reduction within TDA – HLTA funding
 Every Child Matters – or do they?

4. Funding
 5 billion in last five years of previous
administration
 Reducing Budgets
 Pupil Premium
 Reduction in LA support
 Value for money/cost effective

5. Workforce
 Every teacher is a teacher of children with
special educational needs
 Training and professional development
 Effective use of support staff
 Role of the SENCO
 Leadership & Governors

6. Ofsted Review –
A Statement is not Enough
The key implication of these findings is that any further changes to the system should focus not on
tightening the processes of prescribing entitlement to services but, rather, on:
 improving the quality of assessment
 ensuring that where additional support is provided, it is effective
 improving teaching and pastoral support early on so that additional provision is not needed
later
 developing specialist provision and services strategically so that they are available to
maintained and independent schools, academies and colleges
 simplifying legislation so that the system is clearer for parents, schools and other education
and training providers
 ensuring that schools do not identify pupils as having special educational needs when they
simply need better teaching
 ensuring that accountability for those providing services focuses on the outcomes for the
children and young people concerned.

7. Ofsted Review - Recommendations
Assessment and identification
 Any further changes to improve the system of assessment should focus on quality and
improving outcomes for learners.
 Local areas should consider using the same assessment system across all services for all
children and young people who are likely to need additional support from more than one
service.
 The system of assessment and identification needs to avoid raising parental expectations
unfairly about the level of available funding and range of provision.
 Schools should stop identifying pupils as having special educational needs when they simply
need better teaching and pastoral support.
 When a child or young person is underachieving, the school or setting should begin by
analysing the effectiveness of its generic teaching and systems for support before deciding that
she or he has special educational needs.

8. Ofsted Review - Recommendations
 Access to and quality of provision
 The first priority for all children should be good teaching and learning and good pastoral
support.
 Early years providers, schools and colleges should be able to meet a wider range of additional
needs as a matter of course, and their main funding should reflect local levels of need
accordingly.
 Access to additional services should not always depend on a formal process of assessment or
medical diagnosis.
 Specific rights to additional provision, enshrined in law, should apply only to disabled children
and young people where the Disability Discrimination Act applies.
 Where young people are protected by the Disability Discrimination Act, their rights to additional
provision should not depend, as they do at present, on where they are being educated. In
particular, young people aged between 16 and 19 should have similar entitlements, whether
they are at school or college.
 The Disability Discrimination Act will be superseded by the Equality Act 2010 but the duties
remain.
 .

9. Ofsted Review - Recommendations
Evaluation and accountability
 Evaluation should focus on the outcomes desired for and achieved by children and young people with
additional needs. It should not focus only on whether they have received the services prescribed.
 Schools and other services should give urgent attention to improving the quality of their evaluation of additional
provision. Similar considerations apply to post ̶ 16 providers in relation to young people with complex needs.
 Good evaluation requires systems that track progress securely towards planned outcomes and information that
is used rigorously and regularly to evaluate the impact of interventions.
 School and national performance indicators should include the data that is now collected on the progress and
outcomes of children and young people working below Level 1 of the National Curriculum.
 Schools should not be the only organisations held to account legally for the outcomes of children and young
people with special educational needs and disabilities. All the services involved in any common assessment
should be bound equally by its terms.
 The Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs and its statutory basis should be reviewed to reflect these
recommendations across relevant departments.
 Any further changes to legislation or guidance should not simply add to the current arrangements but, rather,
should simplify them and improve their consistency across different services and for children of different ages
and levels of need.

10. Green paper - Questions
(1) Are the SEN and disability statutory frameworks - including the SEN statementing process -
helping children and young people to get what they need? If not, what changes could help?
(2) How can we identify children's special educational needs earlier, and make sure that they get
the support they need as quickly as possible?
(3) How can we improve the processes for special educational needs and disability - in schools, in
assessments, and across all services - so that professionals can spend more of their time with
children and their families?
(4) How can we ensure all schools and colleges have high expectations for children and young
people with special educational needs and disabilities, and help young people to develop the
skills for employment and their future potential and contribution to society?
(5) How can we improve the choices of schools and services available to parents and improve
opportunities for them to be involved in decisions that affect their family?
(6) How can we improve the transition from school to adult life for young people with special
educational needs and disabilities and the support provided for their families throughout?

11. Role of SENCO
 Senior leadership - status
 Strategic
 Relevant skills, knowledge, understanding and
attributes
 Raising Standards
 School Improvement
 Lead Teaching and Learning

12. SEN & Service Children
 Children’s Education Advisory Service (CEAS)
 Service Children’s Education (SCE)
 Local authorities
– Statements
– 6 weeks
– England and Wales
– On return

13. Pupil Premium
 To support disadvantaged pupils
 Separate specific grant
 Raise attainment of disadvantaged pupils
 Schools decide how spent
 Pupil Premium for Service children

14. Challenges
 Low expectations
 Curriculum
 Parental choice and voice
 Financial constraints
 Professional Development
 Complex Needs

15. Lorraine Petersen
lorrainep@nasen.org.uk
01827 311500