MPs urge rethink on special needs

Local councils are responsible for assessing what extra help children may need in schools, as well as funding it.

The Education and Skills Committee has repeated calls for this to end, to increase parents' confidence in the operation of the system in England.

Ministers say they will look at how trust in the system can be bolstered.

In 2006 around 1.5 million children, or 19% of all pupils in England's schools, were recorded as having some sort of special educational need (SEN).

"Children with special educational needs and their families deserved better"
Barry Sheerman

And around 3% have an SEN statement, which sets out the extra help to which they are entitled and follows the formal assessment in question.

It is the process of getting this extra help that proves troublesome for many parents, with some taking their cases to special tribunals.

The report said it did not matter how diligent a local authority was in assessing how much help a child might need, dissatisfied families would "conclude the assessment was tainted by the need to restrict costs".

The committee first called on the government to take the responsibility for assessing the needs out of the hands of the local authorities that fund them in a report published in July 2006.

But the government refused, saying this would inevitably result in a new agency to carry out assessments having to be created.

'Disappointed'

However, in its latest report, the committee suggests a range of options, including assessments being commissioned by local authorities or delegating the responsibility to schools.

Committee chairman Barry Sheerman said: "We were very disappointed in the government's response to our original report on SEN, which seemed to demonstrate an unwillingness to consider alternative ways of addressing vital issues on assessment of need and service provision.

"Children with special educational needs and their families deserved better."

He added that evidence to this follow-up inquiry showed that assessment of need could be made more independent without introducing a whole new bureaucratic structure.

"We expect that this time we will receive a more considered response," he said.

The report also calls for much greater transparency in how money for children with special needs is spent.

'Parents' trust'

And it asks the government for an explicit commitment to provide a national framework for special educational needs.

Schools Minister Andrew Adonis said improving the chances for children with special educational needs was one of its priorities, which was why funding had been boosted.

"We agree with the report that ensuring parents have confidence in the SEN system is important.

"We will undertake research, with the tribunals service, to look at the experience of parents through the process and identify how schools, local authorities and the SEN and disability tribunal can increase parental confidence.

"We aim to publish by next summer. In the shorter term, we will also be carefully considering the ideas that the committee has put forward for increasing parents' trust in the system."

The general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, Chris Keates, said changes to the assessment process would be unwise.

The MPs' recommendations were based on anecdote and perceptions about alleged conflict of interest rather than hard evidence, she said.

"The report is littered with misinformation, misconceptions and misunderstandings about special educational needs funding, the operation of children's trusts and the nature of assessment.

"It lacks coherence and rigour and an effective assessment of impact of the proposals."

She said: "The concerns raised by the committee, if evidenced, could be more appropriately addressed by considering local authorities' internal arrangements for SEN."

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
Education and Skills Committee
Department for Children, Schools and Families
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites