On the 9th May, 50 charities, all members of the Disabled Children’s Partnership, signed an open letter to the Government addressing proposals set out in the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) Green Paper which contains recommendations to improve services from the SEND Review that was first announced in September. Read a full briefing on the campaign here.

On the 25th May the members received a reply from the Health and Education departments. We have summarised the main concerns and the responses given in the table below. The letter addresses the concerns under four key areas of the green paper. You can download the letter in full here.

Our Concern:

Only letting families pick a school from a pre-defined list – this could limit choice and prevent a young person from accessing the school that is best for them.

Their response:

‘The expectation is that all schools on the list will be settings that can meet the child’s special educational needs as identified in their education health and care needs assessments. This aims to give parents and carers clarity on what is available locally which may still include mainstream, special, independent or out of borough provision where appropriate, in order to meet the child’s needs. Our intention is that this will lead to greater transparency about what is available for their child in their local school and greater clarity about how it can be provided. We also aim for this to improve the choice offered to parents and carers by suggesting options they may not have otherwise considered.’

Our Concern:

Deciding the levels of support disabled children get from a national banding system, possibly restricting access to support – it should be based on individual need, as was laid out in the Children and Families Act 2014. Through a national system like this, we are concerned that young people may be grouped together generically by condition – rather than by being assessed as individuals.

Their response:

‘A national framework of funding bands has the potential to ensure far greater consistency in funding arrangements throughout the system. This would make it easier for parents and carers to understand not only the provision they can access locally, but also the funding levels that provision would attract, giving them greater assurance that their child’s needs will be met appropriately.’

Our concern:

Making mediation mandatory before allowing families to go to Tribunal. We recognise the important role mediation can play, but we are concerned that making it mandatory, rather than the current requirement to consider mediation, simply adds an extra step in an already arduous process.

Their response:

‘…the Green Paper includes proposals to bring more coherence to complaints processes and to strengthen accountabilities across the system as well as a proposal to introduce mandatory mediation. The national standards will set clear expectations of how different parties should engage in mediation and we will make sure there is appropriate support available to parents to help them understand the mediation process and how best to engage with it.’