High hopes for high needs

摘要

While we still don't know what the national review into special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is going to say, what we do know is that over the next week more than 1.3 million children and young people with some kind of special educational needs will be returning to school. Some have not been in education for nearly half a year. We also know that pupils with SEND account for just under half of all exclusions - meaning that without the right types of integrated support across the wider 'high needs system' in a local area, reintegration of those pupils could be challenging for pupils, parents and professionals alike. Demand and spending on high needs continues to rise, with numerous authorities wrestling with deficit recovery plans due to the significant challenge of balancing the books. While a continued criticism in a number of local area SEND inspections has been the inability to demonstrate outcomes for children with SEND, there is no national framework for how to do this or recognition that, as a complex highly connected system, the lack of a shared ambition across the high needs system is impacting on the effectiveness of how different organisations work together to achieve a shared goal.