Caroline Voaden: We must do more for our SEND children

Back in June, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission delivered a damning report on Torbay’s special educational needs and disability (SEND) services.

The report noted “widespread and/or systemic failings” particularly regarding lengthy wait times for needs assessments and a lack of collaboration between local area partnerships and families. 

Sadly, these issues, while especially poor in Torbay, are not at all rare in our SEND system. The Education Select Committee, which I am a member of, has spent the last eight months conducting an extensive inquiry into SEND services.

On Thursday 18th September, we published our report. Over its 209 pages, the report lays bare the scale of the crisis in our SEND services. Whether it is the lack of educational psychologists or gaps in teacher training, every part of our SEND system is either approaching breaking point or already there. 

It is hard to imagine such a crisis could have been envisaged when the Children and Families Act, which introduced major reforms to the pre-existing system, was passed in 2014. But in the years since, under successive Conservative governments, an absence of funding, ambition, and care has led to a situation where children today are less supported than they were over a decade ago. 

The current government should be applauded for grasping the nettle and promising to explore SEND reforms this autumn. But the detail remains unclear and there is a chance they could include the scrapping of Educational, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) – legally binding documents that are meant to ensure a child or young person with SEND gets the support they need from their local authority. 

I know the potential ditching of EHCPs has prompted a lot of anxiety among parents who view these documents as the only way to secure the support their child's needs. On their future, the Education Select Committee’s report is clear: EHCPs and SEND tribunals should be retained in any reforms to give parents a “backstop of accountability”.

This is something the Liberal Democrats have also been advocating for. When the government first hinted at its SEND plans last summer, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, and our education spokesperson, Munira Wilson, wrote to the Prime Minister setting out 5 principles to help guide any reforms. 

One of these principles, which is particularly relevant to Torbay’s challenges, is more investment in early identification of SEND and shorter waiting lists; another relates to fair funding. For me, funding is the principal reason that outcomes for children are down and trust between parents and local authorities is at an all-time low. 

Council budgets are in no way equipped to keep up with demand, and funding discrepancies across different authorities are exacerbating historic inequalities. 

In Devon, we feel this keenly. As I recently highlighted to the then-Schools Minister recently, a SEND child in Camden gets nearly three times the support the same child in Devon would get. The existing system is completely unfair and is locking children out of opportunities their peers elsewhere receive. 

I am pleased our report recommends establishing a new statutory minimum standard for what schools should offer children with SEND, and calls on the government to review the national funding formula and the outdated High Needs Block and Schools Block funding. 

When we started our inquiry, we knew the SEND system was broken; what we wanted to do was provide a roadmap for fixing it. The above recommendations are just a snapshot of the comprehensive approach we outline to deliver the inclusive education the 2014 reforms aimed for. 

Yes, some of these recommendations will require investment. But the situation is so severe that a piecemeal approach will not do; radical change is needed.