Delays to special needs help 'acute concern' – Ofsted

Delays to support for children with special educational needs in England are an “acute concern”, Ofsted’s chief inspector has told the BBC.

Half of local authorities inspected in the last school year had “significant weaknesses” in their special needs provision, the regulator said.

Ofsted’s annual report also says children’s education post-pandemic is being held back by staff shortages.

The Department for Education said it will set out improvement plans in 2023.

Ofsted’s annual report, which is due out later, looks back at inspections carried out over the previous academic year across children’s social care and education providers.

More than half of the local authorities inspected by the regulator were required to produce a written statement of action over “significant weaknesses” in their special needs provision.

Nearly 1.5 million school pupils are currently identified as having special educational needs or disabilities in England, an increase of almost 77,000 since last year.

Of these, around 355,000 children have an education, health and care (EHC) plan. These plans are legally binding documents to make sure children with the most complex needs get the support they’re entitled to.

It should take local authorities a maximum of 20 weeks to decide whether to issue an EHC plan once a school or parent has applied.

But Ofsted says only 60% of all EHC plans are being issued within that 20-week limit. Twenty local authorities are particularly slow, with just one third of plans were being issued in that time.

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman told the BBC these delays were her “most acute concern”.

“Childhood is short. A child who clearly has some significant problems, the faster they can be understood, the faster the right support can be in place, the greater the chance there is of minimising the effect that those problems have on that child’s education and their adult life,” she said.

“A prompt response is the critical thing for me.”

Abi Horsfield’s first application to get an EHC plan for her son Casey was rejected, despite Casey having a diagnosis of Autism spectrum disorder and Dyslexia. She applied again and was eventually successful, but only after waiting around eight months for the process to complete.

Abi said it was a “really difficult and really emotional process”.

“When you get your rejection letter it clearly states that you’re on your own as a parent now, that even if the school have applied initially, you have to take it forward as a parent.

“The process needs to be more user friendly… and support should be out there for every child that needs it.”

Ms Spielman said the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is struggling to cope with increased demand since the pandemic.

“Delays and backlogs have built up. It’s hard getting children assessed, it’s hard getting them the right specialist services,” she told the BBC.

“Families are getting frustrated and some of them are turning to private assessment. Schools are sometimes picking up the gaps themselves out of their own budgets with things like speech therapy. It’s a system that’s leaving a lot of people unsatisfied at the moment.”

Ofsted is changing the way it inspects special needs provision for local areas jointly with the Care Quality Commission from January next year. Ms Spielman said it will focus more sharply on the experiences of children and young people “to make sure we really crystallise who is responsible where improvements need to be made – so there is no uncertainty coming out of these inspections who needs to do what”.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has said the government will publish updated plans to improve the SEND system early next year.

The Department for Education said it’s investing £400m in high-needs budgets next year.

A spokesperson added: “We are providing over £30m to train 600 new educational psychologists, who help create education, health and care plans, and funding up to 5,000 new early years special educational needs co-ordinators.”