More than four in five of school leaders have pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who are not getting their needs met because of a lack of specialist places, a poll shows.
In a survey by the NAHT school leaders’ union, 82 per cent of respondents said they have pupils in their school with specialist provision agreed in their education, health and care plan (EHCP) who aren’t being taught in specialist provision because there are no places available.
Some 98 per cent of headteachers from mainstream schools responding to the survey said they do not have the resources to meet the needs of all the pupils with SEND in their school.
Before the start of the NAHT’s annual conference in Harrogate today, Paul Whiteman, the union’s general secretary, said there was “no higher priority now in education than fixing the SEND crisis”.
“Right now too many schools have children who should be getting specialist support who are being let down by the lack of capacity and availability of places in the specialist sector. Schools are desperately trying to do their best for those pupils, but without access to the specialist help they need their hands are tied,” he said.
‘No higher priority’ than fixing SEND crisis
Mr Whiteman also said that “many special schools are struggling to meet the demand on them for places and are massively oversubscribed”.
The vast majority of heads working in mainstream schools also said that meeting the needs of pupils with SEND is harder than it was last year.
Responding to the survey, heads said that supporting children with complex needs without the required funding is driving them into deficit budgets, and they are finding it “almost impossible” to recruit the staff to support pupils.
“We have children who would benefit from specialist provision, and this should be on their EHCP, but the local authority will not state this until the placement with us ‘fails’ and we can’t meet need and the child is in distress,” one headteacher said.
At the NAHT’s conference, members are due to vote on a motion calling for children who are being taught in mainstream but who need a place in specialist provision to be identified and urgently accommodated.
Mr Whiteman said: “We are not opposed to the government wanting mainstream schools to be inclusive, and school leaders take this duty really seriously. But they need more funding, resources and specialist staffing to be able to support their students appropriately and effectively.
“And this doesn’t remove the fact that there will also always be a need for special school places for pupils with the greatest needs. Capacity in both mainstream and specialist schools must match need.”
The Department for Education has launched an advisory group, led by Tom Rees, chief executive of Ormiston Academies Trust, to advise on how to make mainstream schools more inclusive.
It has also announced £740 million in funding to create new specialist places in mainstream. However, MPs have been warned that this is unlikely to address the main challenges in the SEND support crisis.
The NAHT received 873 responses to its poll from school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The survey was conducted between 23 and 28 April and included both mainstream and special-school leaders.
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