Support and Desperation

The green paper Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability ends its consultation period on June 30th. What has surprised me most is the relative silence that has accompanied its presentation given the long term implications of what is being proposed. But then given the skill with which this government  has managed to present its reforms and cuts as a battle against wasting money on the undeserving, it really shouldn't surprise us.

Support and Aspiration is no different and indeed has been particularly successful because it has been able to draw on the support of a great number of families with disabled children. As Ian Birrel ponted out in his Guardian article  "the core aims of Michael Gove's green paper have been broadly welcomed ". They key to that support has been the committment to replace the current plethora of assessments with a single Education, Health and Care Plan.

Under our proposal, by 2014, all children who would currently have a statement of SEN or learning difficulty assessment would be entitled to a new single assessment process and ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’ to identify their support needs.  Support and Aspiration p. 36

This looks fine because by making the Education, Health and Care Plan available to everybody who currently receives a statement of SEN, they will theoretically be making a broader range of support available to families whose child currently has a statement but at the moment is not eligible for additional social care support. On the surface this looks like motherhood and apple pie, but it doesn't add up.

Currently 4.9 disabled children per 1000 children are in receipt of social care services (2008 figures) of one form or another, so 0.49% of all children. This compares with the current number of children with statements of SEN which stands at a national average of 2.7% of all children. Now if we were to presume that the number of statements is going to stay the same the current proposals represent a 500+% growth in the number of children eligible to be assessed to receive social care services as a result of a combined Education, Health and Care Plan. This is self evidently not going to happen.

What is far more likely is that if the green paper is budget neutral the number of children eligible to receive social care services will actually remain the same. For those families this Education, Health and Care Plan will represent a significant improvement in  the co-ordination of the support that they receive. For the other (approx 4/5ths) children who currently have a statement they will not only not receive an EHC Plan but we can assume that they will not receive a statement, given that they won't exist. What they are likely to be left with is " A new single early years setting- and school based category of SEN" and no ability to have their child's educational provision guaranteed by a statement. So for some the green paper will offer improved support, others will be faced with uncertainty and desperation. 

That shouldn't surprise us - like much of what this government does it justifies its reforms by stigmatising those who are least able to defend themselves. Whilst  the proposals are imbued with a sensitive and in-depth understanding of the needs of severely disabled children and their families, that will have its roots in the experiences of David and Samantha Cameron, it funds that sensitivity by removing the support of children and young people whose needs are less complex, less visible and may on occasion, erroneously be attributed to the parenting skills of those who are not middle class. 

We do not know how effective the new system of school based SEN will be in including children without the additional support and protection of a statement, but when viewed in conjunction with reduced protection against expulsion that are a part of Michael Gove's other initiatives, the implications aren't great.