SEND Reform Likely To Take 10 Years

The Labour government must end the “arms race...created for parents” of pupils with SEND and fix the system as a “priority”, multi-academy trust leaders have said.

According to this weeks TES Magaine, the chief executive of Ark Schools Lucy Heller described the current SEND system as “absurd” with parents feeling that they have to “fight” to get support

At SEND Matters we totally agree with Ms Heller that it is ridiculous to have to go to war with a council for your child to go to the right school/go to school etc.

Speaking recently at the Festival of Education, Ms Heller said: “We have to radically reform the special needs structure...And we need to end the effective arms race that we’ve created for parents where they feel to get the support that their child needs, they have to go and sort of fight for it.”

Last year, the former education secretary Gillian Keegan described the SEND system as “lose-lose”, amid widespread dissatisfaction.

On Friday, the Labour Party was elected to form the next government. In the party’s manifesto, Labour said it would “take a community-wide approach, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs”.

SEND reform will take a ‘decade’

Speaking on a different panel at the festival, the chief executive of Ormiston Academies Trust - which has 42 schools across the country - Tom Rees said that there has to be “a level of attention on the SEND system that we haven’t had in 10 years”.

And Mr Rees said that he expects that the SEND reform that is needed will take around a decade.

The MAT CEO also added that the sector needed to become far better at “how we provide targeted and specialist support...The government needs to set about this quite early [and] make it a priority.”