Received from: NASUWT
Congress notes that the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system in England is under unsustainable pressure and that sustained under-investment across public services, including education, has reduced capacity, increased workload and weakened support for children and young people with additional needs.
Congress further notes that education funding has fallen as a share of GDP since 2010, while schools and colleges face job cuts, excessive workload, falling real-terms pay and increasing expectations to meet complex needs without sufficient specialist support.
Congress believes that SEND reform must be grounded in the experience of children, families and the education workforce. Inclusion cannot mean placing more pupils in mainstream settings without the funding, staffing, specialist support, appropriatebuildings, curriculum flexibility and wider services, including specialist and alternative provision, needed to meet needs effectively.
Congress is concerned that government proposals risk weakening statutory entitlements, including education, health and care plans, and shifting responsibility onto individual schools and staff for failures elsewhere in the system.
Congress, therefore, calls on the General Council to campaign for SEND reform that:
i. is properly funded through a long-term settlement, including increased education investment as a proportion of GDP
ii. protects and enhances children’s legal rights
iii. tackles workload, recruitment, retention, pay and job-security pressures
iv. integrates education, health and care
v. ensures funding is sufficient, transparent, accountable and reaches frontline provision
vi. places the voices of education staff at the centre of policy design.
NASUWT