SEND inquiry – the latest solutions from parents and professionals

A new wave of written evidence has been released by the SEND inquiry.

What is the SEND inquiry?

It’s a project by an influential committee of MPs to find great ideas to improve the SEND system.

Because previous reports on SEND have already outlined the problems, this SEND inquiry won’t spend much time on reviewing issues that are already well known. Instead it will explore ways to improve outcomes for children with SEND – hence the name ‘Solving the SEND crisis’.

Who can give evidence?

Anyone and everyone. The call for evidence closes on 6th February 2025 but, so far, the evidence has mainly come from individual parents, schools and professionals, rather than high profile charities or trade unions.

What does the SEND inquiry evidence tell us?

The latest evidence from parents and professionals continues in a similar vein to earlier submissions: Tales of tension in the system. However, there are plenty of interesting suggestions offered by the latest 26 submissions.

Three interesting submissions to the SEND inquiry

A parent spends £44,000 on tribunals

One parent has spent £44,000 on tribunals for her two children (one child in mainstream school and the other in a special school). After 14 years of experience of the system, the parent remains unhappy and outlines that, even after spending that vast amount, the required support is not in place.

Whilst calling for enhanced training for all staff so that lack of understanding does not cause long term impacts, the parent also focuses on the SEND processes:

The parent indicates that this would relieve some of the pressure on parents who currently bear the burden of challenging the system when it doesn’t seem to be working.

Furthermore, parents shouldn’t need to provide the same details to different services as it’s time-consuming and frustrating. Therefore, a single database should connect agencies across education, health and care.

Read their full submission.

One roof for SEND: A radical approach?

A parent, who also works as an NHS manager, calls for radical changes so that teams all work together better. All teams would to be together in one new organisation. The organisation would include:

Importantly, all the workers would use the same building, eat in the same lunch areas and they would park in the same car park.

Having an Integrated SEND Trust would be a way to break down the megalithic institutions of ‘health’, ‘social care’ and ‘education’. It would also consider standardising the pay bands for the different teams so that it was more equitable.

The impact for parents and schools would be that SEND diagnosis, advice and funding would all come from one combined, single organisation. Therefore, when concerns arise, the child accesses a single building where their needs are identified, a support plan is written and that organisation’s budget is used to implement the plan. No referrals; no funding applications; no High Needs Block; less bureaucracy.

The parent would only ever have to contact one service.

The child’s school would only have to deal with one service.

Give special school places without needing an EHCP

A primary school head submits that some children are so obviously in need of a special school that the EHCP process can hinder their access to the right school placement. An example is given of a child who the school believe needs a special school who, at age 5, is:

However, because the child was not picked up by early years services, the school must start the lengthy EHCP process from scratch. The head suggests that children with complex needs should be able to access special schools without an EHCP.

Additionally, the head identifies that a shortage of Educational Psychologists (EPs) means that the school is paying £900 for private assessments. She adds that the lack of EPs means that a child’s access to assessment depends on their school’s willingness to pay £900.

Ten other interesting or quirky ideas

  1. Have a specialist ADHD outreach team for schools in every area.
  2. Provide specialist on-demand SEND drop in clinics for parents and schools to seek advice.
  3. Stop overloading SEND caseworkers.
  4. Mount a huge information campaign to inform neurotypical people about neurodiversity.
  5. Pay early years staff more.
  6. Reduce the frequency of EHCP annual reviews.
  7. Pay parents to home educate their children if nowhere can be found to meet the child’s needs.
  8. Introduce streaming into EHCPs: Children with complex disabilities must come first above those with less severe SEND.
  9. Create a SEND PGCE to create more skilled workforce for special schools.
  10. Provide daily exercise (e.g. the daily mile) to boost mood, cognitive function, social skills and much more.

More from the latest inquiry evidence

Read a summary of all the latest 28 submissions here.

Helen Hayes, SEND inquiry chair, with image of Houses of Parliament behind her.

Whose voices are missing from the SEND inquiry?

The SEND inquiry parent evidence is heavily skewed towards parents whose children have EHCPs. Parents whose children’s needs are met at SEN Support are under-represented. Also under-represented are families who have had a good experience of the system working for their child.

Furthermore, larger organisations (e.g. trade unions, national charities, local authorities and academy trusts) have not yet had any evidence published.

Finally, and crucially, there is no evidence from children. Whilst this may be due to the inquiry team declining to publish submissions from under 18s, another possible reason is that children simply aren’t being asked for their views.

This narrowed evidence base may be an issue that the SEND inquiry has to wrestle with when making their recommendations.

What happens next in the inquiry?

More evidence will be being read before publication and this will be considered alongside the oral evidence that the committee has begun hearing. Then, things might be quiet for a time as the committee and civil servants formulate their inquiry report.

Read more on the SEND inquiry

An article about the previous wave of evidence from professionals:

An article about the previous wave of parent evidence to the SEND inquiry:

Other interesting reads

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  • Aaron King, Director

    With over 20 years experience of working with children & young people in both mainstream and SEND settings, Aaron King is the driving force behind 9000lives.

    Aaron has written for the TES, including in the Leadership & Governance sections. He has also been a school governor for around 15 years.

  • Aaron King

    Aaron King Director

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