Are SEN provisions in schools "fit for purpose"? (Rutland & Melton Liberal Democrats)

Rutland & Melton Liberal Democrats <info@rutlandlibdems.org.uk>

Are SEN provisions in schools "fit for purpose"?

December 1, 2008 9:13 AM

It has come to the attention of the Rutland and Melton Lib Dems that children with special educational needs in the South Lincolnshire and/or Rutland areas are being denied statements of special educational needs and that parents are being pressurised into removing children from schools and "home" educating them without any local authority help. This applies, in particular, to children who have autistic symptoms and may not be able to sit quietly in classrooms without extra support. Do you know of any examples? If so, please let us know at info@rutlandlibdems.org.uk

It has been suggested, by a councillor in a different part of the East Midlands, that one reason for the increase in this type of exclusion is because local authorities want to issue fewer statements. They are giving larger budgets to schools for SEN in the hope that they will adopt a policy of inclusion. Unfortunately, whereas schools might accept difficult children with money attached to them, if the money is being given in any case, they would rather not accept children who are in need of large resources and perhaps lower the school's overall performance rate.

One tax payer whose eleven-year-old child started at a Rutland school in September says she was recently forced, on the spot, to agree to her child either being expelled (because he could not be quiet in class without his own assistant) or she had to agree to him only being at school part-time. She signed the forms for part-time education. This child has autistic symptoms and receives DLA but has no statement. He is of at least average ability yet is currently receiving very few if any maths lessons. The parent also believes that this part-time education is one step towards her being pushed into "home educating" full time as happened at primary level in Lincolnshire.

David Laws MP, Lib Dem Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, told us, "It is vital that the education of children with special needs meets these needs, and that children are not simply forced to fit into whatever is the cheapest or most "convenient" form of education. There is a real concern that across the country many children are not getting the statements they need due to funding problems."

Another East Midlands Lib Dem who runs a helpline for the parents of children with dyslexia answers the question above with an emphatic NO and reminds us of how the Commons Education Select Committee came to that conclusion in 2005/6 and no government action has been taken to rectify the situation. She adds that nationally, many LEAs are trying to reduce the numbers of statements they issue. That would be OK if there was adequate provision for support within the 'school based' phases of the SEN system, but often there is not, or resources get diverted to other uses. LEAs and schools do a lot of buck-passing from one to the other, and the people who suffer are the children who are told 'no resources'.

In some cases though it seems "the buck" is just passed back to the parents who are left trying to fight the system, keep their job and educate their children. Are families being traumatised by our educational system?

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