Composing motions 42 and 43Congress 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, appropriate buildings, curriculum flexibility and wider services, including specialist and alternative provision, needed to meet needs effectively.
Congress endorses the principles of inclusive education and full government funding of mainstream schools for the inclusion of pupils with additional support needs (ASN)/Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), while maintaining quality special school provision for pupil placement as appropriate.
Congress echoes the calls of education unions for increased, ring-fenced funding to support all pupils with ASN/SEND.
Congress condemns the sustained failure of the UK and devolved governments to fund ASN/SEND provision adequately. Chronic underfunding has left local authorities unable to deliver the level of provision required in law, resulting in huge pressure on schools and a growing number of pupils having their needs unmet.
Congress recognises that what is often labelled as ‘challenging behaviour’ is the direct result of unmet additional support needs, which inhibits educational progress and limits life chances, with profound consequences; and poses significant health, safety and wellbeing risks to teachers and support staff.
Congress asserts that persistent under-investment in ASN/SEND is destabilising the entire education system – damaging the wellbeing and progress of all pupils and placing intolerable pressure on teachers and support staff.
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.
Congress instructs the General Council to campaign for the UK government, and call on the devolved administrations, to put in place the requisite additional, ring-fenced resources to fully implement the relevant legal duties for all pupils with additional support needs and thereby improve the quality of education provision and wellbeing for all pupils, and the working conditions, health, safety and wellbeing of teachers and support staff.
Mover: NASUWT
Seconder: Educational Institute of Scotland