2 March 2023
The DSA welcomes the long awaited release today of the DfE’s SEND Review Improvement Plan and roadmap. This has been a drawn out and much delayed process, despite the ongoing and urgent challenges facing children and young people with SEND, and their families.
We provisionally welcome the plans to standardise and improve the EHCP process, the prioritisation of early intervention and fairer access to support, the focus on building up Alternative Provision, and the ongoing engagement with Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission.
However, some of the biggest concerns identified during the SEND Review by families and professionals focused on the clear need for greater accountability within and across the system – unfortunately these requests seem to have been almost completely ignored. In addition many of these plans will require significant time periods to implement (additional special schools), with further and specific detail on how/why they might be effective (national standards, local partnerships, ‘tailored’ schools lists).
To solve the range of challenges within the SEND system we needed a bold, confident, fast-moving and well-funded plan – and we are concerned that these proposals lack the scale, speed and ambition to affect any meaningful change on the ground for the vast majority of children, young people and families.
We will be working through the full set of plans and will release our detailed response early next week.