No one reading this article will need any introduction to the crisis - and it is a crisis - currently facing children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Despite the often Herculean efforts of teachers, school leaders and local authorities to meet the needs of students with SEND, too many young people are being let down by a broken system.
The implications of this crisis are far-reaching. I hear from many constituents who have been pushed to breaking point because they cannot get the support they so desperately want for their children.
But as a former councillor, I’ve also seen the impact that SEND spending has on already-squeezed council budgets, not to mention the overall impact on our hard-working school workforce.
The challenges and failures of the current SEND system are well documented. But when it comes to answers, things are less clear. Part of the answer involves looking beyond these shores to countries, such as Canada, that offer some important lessons as to what a successful system might look like here in the UK.
Lessons in SEND support from Canada
As a member of the cross-party Commons Education Select Committee, the committee’s inquiry into the SEND crisis recently took me to Toronto to visit schools, meet with education officials and learn from our Canadian counterparts in government about what’s worked for them.
Here are some of my own reflections and what I picked up as to a way forward for us in the UK.
Integration leads to earlier support
The Canadian system, in Ontario specifically, is a highly integrated one where there is provision to meet special educational needs within all mainstream settings.
Having specialist teachers and resources in every school means that support can be put in place from the moment a child is first assessed, rather than waiting to see if they meet a threshold, as is too often the case for young people here.
Attitudes matter
Integration of pupils with and without special needs in schools is far more inclusive and, from what I observed, has benefits for all.
There is very little anxiety from schools, parents or carers that children who don’t have SEND will be somehow “held back” by having peers with SEND in the same schools and classrooms. Rightly, too, as there is very little evidence to support the notion that educational outcomes will be harmed by mixing children with and without SEND. What is necessary for some turns out to be good for all.
From adversary to collaborator
Here, far too many parents find the SEND system to be adversarial from start to finish, and they describe the process of securing the right SEND support for their child as a fight.
In Canada, I was struck by how the involvement of parents from the start in the individual education plan (their equivalent of our education, health and care plan (EHCP)) process helped to create a more collaborative and constructive relationship between parents and carers, schools and local authorities, avoiding much of the back-and-forth that too often characterises our EHCP process.
Part of this is down to the Canadian focus on inclusion and integration, which allows many SEND needs to be met without the requirement of a bureaucratic process.
Still a role for specialist provision
While there is a much greater emphasis on mainstream inclusion in Canada, there is still an important role for specialist provision where this is needed.
However, rather than being binary, the system we saw was more akin to a progressive model of support. Children with SEND get targeted help in the mainstream class, some pupils spend a portion of their time in a specialist classroom for more intensive support, and full-time specialist provision is provided for children with the highest levels of need.
Improving our SEND system
While I won’t pre-empt the committee’s SEND inquiry recommendations, it’s clear to me that there are valuable lessons here.
The Canadian example shows me that our government’s ambition for inclusive schools for all children of all abilities is right and is achievable. But it will require a reset of the relationships between parents, schools, the NHS, councils and other agencies, as well as a willingness to change long-entrenched processes. And change we must because we can’t hold on to a system that isn’t working well for anyone.
As for the all-important question of funding, the amount spent on each child with SEND in Canada is broadly similar to the UK, so what’s viable there is also possible here.
It’s the approach and the distribution of both support personnel and materials throughout mainstream schools that makes the difference.
For the sake of our children, now is the time to make bold changes that will make a difference to them, and make our society more compassionate, empowering and inclusive.
Dr Darren Paffey is MP for Southampton Itchen and a member of the Commons Education Select Committee
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