Latest News:Latest News - March 2011
The Special Educational Needs (SEN) Green Paper – Our Thoughts
The government published the much anticipated Special Educational Needs (SEN) green paper today. Elaine Maxwell, sets out her initial thoughts on this paper below.
I believe the main points in the paper are:
- Statements will stay but will be called Education, Health and Care plans
- The tribunal system will remain but it is likely that people will be forced to use mediation as well to see if settlements can be reached without the need for a hearing
- The new plans will cover people from birth to age 25
- Parents may be able to opt for personalised budgets so that have greater control over what their child gets
On the face of it, there’s potentially a lot of good news in the new green paper. Although the headline news has been all about a reduction in the number of children considered to have special needs, in fact the interesting point is that the Government is proposing to reform the statementing system by changing the current statements of special educational needs into Education, Health and Care plans which are designed to cover a child’s or young persons special needs in these three areas from birth to age 25.
This could be extremely useful, particularly as at present we find that many of our clients have needs which cut across all three services yet only education is covered by a statement, and there are significant restrictions on the ability of Tribunals to take into account non-educational aspects. For many children this is simply inadequate and leads to fragmentation of provision, as well as problems getting the right therapies when they are provided by other services such as health and social services.
In addition, there is a proposal that parents who want it, will be able to have a personalised budget so that they will be able to decide for themselves what they need. This is unlikely to cover major costs such as school fees, but could deal with many of the minor irritations which rapidly become major problems. We are also particularly pleased that these plans will cover from birth to 25 – we are currently dealing with a large number of cases where children are finding themselves cast out of the system once they reach the age of 16, with very little thought being given to what should happen next.
It is clear that the Tribunal system will remain, and there seems little reason to suppose that it will be simpler for parents to present their case. This can pose problems for people on low incomes who may not have sufficient funds to get expert reports and expert advice, although the paper talks about the possibility of getting exceptional funding from the legal aid system to assist with these cases. That is extremely optimistic – there is currently that option, but it is almost impossible to get it to work. In addition, the current proposals put forward by the Ministry of Justice to remove education law and special needs tribunals from basic assistance will be extremely damaging to many of our parents. We, along with nearly all of the major special needs charities have opposed these and we hope our views will be taken into account when the Government produces its response some time in May.
But the devil will be in the detail. It looks as though the funding system is going to change and this may well have unforeseen impacts on the type of provision offered. Also, the paper talks about taking out of the special needs process, those children who have failed to progress because of other problems such as school attendance. This could be problematic in some cases, and a large number of school refusers in fact have undiagnosed special needs, so it may be harder to deal with underlying problems. The paper recognises this, but it is not clear what is proposed to ensure that the right help and diagnosis is given. There is also a proposal that some of the assessment process could be contracted out to voluntary groups and community organisations that have no direct financial link with the cost of provision. On the face of it, this could be very helpful, as we are all aware that many recommendations made by authorities have one eye on the budget. However, until we see how it works in practice, we will need to retain an open mind about the implications.
Some of the hype around the proposals is misplaced – for example the Government is keen to stress that parents of children with special needs will be given a right to express a preference for the state-funded school of their choice. They already have this right and it is not clear what extra is proposed. However it is proposed that a number of the initiatives will be trialled first which has to be good for our children. New systems which have not been tested to any extent can be fraught with problems.
We will be working with the major charities in the field to make sure that we put forward workable and sensible proposals to protect the needs of our children. Not least of our concerns will be how far these new proposals can be implemented in any real way against a backdrop of cut backs in public expenditure affecting health and social care as well as education.
You can download a copy of the Special Educational Needs Green Paper here.
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© Maxwell Gillott 2008
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