Policy
Not Back at School. By Gillian Doherty Many outside the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) community were shocked by BBC’s Panorama 7th September programme on the fight for education faced by disabled children and their families. But for those within our community this was not news. ‘The tip of the iceberg,’ was a phrase that came up frequently in response to the programme.
Something is badly wrong when parents are forced to resort to complaints and legal action to uphold their children’s rights. More than nine out of ten complaints about Education, Health and Care plans (EHC plans) were upheld by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman last year. More than nine out of ten SENDIST appeals were won by families.
The first half of the Panorama programme focussed on the trauma and distress caused not just by Covid-19 and lockdown, but the withdrawal of vital support. Without this, many Disabled children struggled to access education remotely. Their physical and mental health deteriorated, and they and their families became increasingly isolated.
What they win is the right to an appropriate education for their child. What these families often lose along the way is precious family time, years of education, mental and physical health, savings and relationships.
The second half of the programme investigated some of the obstacles families face in accessing the provision to which their children are legally entitled. Two of the parents featured in the programme were solicitors. Yet even they struggled to navigate the ‘system’. What hope then for everyone else? Families entering the arena to access support for their children face a battle of epic proportions, weighted against them from the outset. What is truly shocking is the widespread, routine unlawfulness they encounter. The SEND system is often presented as the problem. It has been described as ‘a treacle of bureaucracy’ and a ‘postcode lottery’, where only ‘sharp-elbowed parents’ can succeed. In fact, the real problem is lack of accountability, individually, locally and nationally. The absence of strategic national oversight of SEND is particularly staggering. Far from elbowing others out of the way, parents go out of their way to provide information, support and advice to other families. They address imbalances of power, knowledge and resources by making other families aware of their rights and the support available to them. Few of them are paid for this. They do it because they care and because they want Disabled children to succeed.
Local authority reports frequently refer to SEND provision as a ‘burden’ on their resources. It’s an appallingly deficit-laden narrative that undermines equality, inclusion and the right to education. If they lack the funding to meet their statutory duties, then they need to take this up with the Government and evidence their difficulties. Despite endless reviews, reports and inquiries nothing seems to change. There’s a sense that these ‘problems’ are too difficult, intractable and expensive to solve. Complexity has become an excuse for inaction and worse. Last year the Education Select Committee completed its SEND inquiry and published a highly critical report. Instead of acting on its recommendations, the Department for Education embarked on its own SEND review. Then everything went quiet. The process and who is involved in it remains shrouded in mystery. We were assured just a few weeks ago that the review was still happening but that it would be delayed, in order to factor in learning from the Covid-19/lockdown experience. Then this week we were told that it would be delayed until next year due to Department for Education resource being diverted into its Coronavirus response.
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