Right Support, Right Place, Right Time

The Department of Education (DfE) recently published 'The SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan: Right Support, Right Place, Right Time' in response to the SEND Green Paper that was published in March 2022. The DfE recognises in the Plan a vicious cycle of late or incorrect identification of children and young people's (CYP) needs, late intervention, low parental confidence in the system and insufficient resource allocation in meeting the children's needs. The title of the Plan also acknowledges that the high aspirations of the 2014 reforms 'have not been achieved because insufficient attention was paid to delivery', which the Plan seeks to address.

The Division of Educational and Child Psychology (DECP) welcomes many of the proposals in the Plan including the need to end the postcode lottery in provision; the greater emphasis on co-production of action plans; the focus on improved transitions and the introduction of the three-tier approach to alternative provision (AP). We also welcome the acknowledgement of the need for a more joined up approach between health and education in meeting children and young people's needs including their social, emotional, and mental health issues. The issues we would like to highlight are discussed below. 

Inclusion

We were heartened to note the Plan's commitment to building a more inclusive society. The Plan highlights the importance of diversity and inclusion in mainstream settings and the role mainstream schools play in providing quality first teaching and evidence-based special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support to meet the needs of the majority of pupils with SEND.

We do, however, find it somewhat contradictory that the Plan also includes opening new special schools, some of which will provide provision for children and young people (CYP) whose needs could be met within an inclusive mainstream school. This inconsistency is noted within the Plan itself which argues that investing in 'new places and improving existing provision' reduces the need for costly independent provision.

We note the importance placed on ordinarily available provision in mainstream education being used to meet the needs of pupils with SEND without the need for an education, health, and care plan (EHCP) or diagnosis. Too often we find that CYP are denied access to support without a diagnosis and the process to get an EHCP appears lengthy and frustrating. Schools currently struggle to provide the support outlined in local authorities' specification of what constitutes ordinarily available provision. We welcome the fact that the DfE will be reviewing the funding for SEND, including the notional SEND budget for mainstream schools in 2023. Without additional funding, schools will struggle to provide the level of support outlined in a local authority's specification of what needs to be routinely provided.

National Standards and Funding

The Plan proposes that the setting of evidence-based National Standards will be completed by 2025.  We look forward to the establishment of National SEND and AP Standards with the expectation that they provide clear guidance on the support that CYP should be provided with, as well as determining the local SEND partner responsible for funding and providing that support.

The Plan recognises that barriers to achieving the 2014 reforms include lack of funding and insufficient capacity within the SEND skilled workforce which led to a well-documented fragmented policy implementation (Palikara et al., 2018). It remains to be seen whether the funding outlined in the Plan is sufficient to address these issues and how the funding bands will be adjusted to variations in costs in different regions of the country. 

Alternative provision

There is strong evidence of links between youth offending and having attended alternative provision. A report issued in by the DfE and Ministry of Justice in 2022 identified that 45% of those who had attended a state funded alternative provision had been cautioned or sentenced for an offence .  Even more troubling is the profile of those who are excluded from mainstream settings and sent to alternative provision, with a higher proportion of these young people coming from Traveller of Irish heritage, Gypsy Roma, Black Caribbean, and White and Black Caribbean ethnic groups and those eligible for free school meals.

We agree about the importance of monitoring of the movement of pupils with behaviour needs into and out of alternative provision and welcome the proposals for the three-tier model which is intended to reduce the number of those attending expensive long-term places outside of mainstream provision. Clarity is needed around the way that early interventions and support could help at-risk pupils stay in mainstream schools.

Mental health

The Plan recognises that families and CYP struggle to get timely access to additional specialist support from mental health services. The DECP has previously questioned in successive consultation responses (2016/2017) whether sufficient resources are being deployed to address this. The Plan acknowledges that many pupils may not have access to Mental Health Support Teams by 2024.

We note that educational psychologists are trained to understand, recognise, and support children's mental health and well-being needs. Working directly or through supporting school staff support for CYP can be provided in a proactive and preventative fashion.  Having more trained educational psychologists could help to fill the current well-documented gap in mental health provision and prevent the escalation of emergent needs.

Standardisation of EHCP templates

We note the desire to have standard digitised EHCP templates. This could have implications for the way that educational psychologists provide advice for educational health and care needs assessments, and we would like to contribute to the development of these templates, and to ensure that the inherent process encourages co-production involving schools, families and the young people themselves.

Conclusion 

We are particularly pleased that the DfE recognises the critical role that educational psychologists play in terms of providing better outcomes for CYP with SEND through supporting early identification and intervention of needs, and preventing the escalation of difficulties which can be costly to address. Educational Psychologists have a wealth of expertise to offer to make positive changes at the individual, group, and organisational level.

The DECP would like to assist the Government in the implementation of this SEND and AP Plan. Educational Psychologists can make an important contribution to:

• The SEND workforce planning steering group to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of SEND professionals including Educational Psychologists to meet needs and develop knowledge, skills and expertise in the workforce
• The update of the SEND Code of Practice and support its effective implementation
• The provision of practice guides for promoting children and young people's education outcomes and supporting their mental health and wellbeing
• The multi-disciplinary specialist workforce working in pilot alternative provision schools and the monitoring of the type of pupils who move into and out of alternative provision
• The development of standardised, digital EHCPs

With contributions in alphabetic order from:

• Professor Vivian Hill, AfBPS, CPsychol. DECP Committee Member, Programme Director at UCL Institute of Education, practising Educational Psychologist
• Dr Victoria Lewis AfBPS, CPsychol, Vice-Chair of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology, practising Educational Psychologist and Academic Tutor at Universities of Nottingham and Sheffield
• Dr Melernie Meheux, CPsychol, DECP Committee Member, practising Educational Psychologist, and Academic Tutor at UCL Institute of Education
• Professor Olympia Palikara, AfBPS, CPsychol, Vice-Chair of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology and Professor of Educational Psychology at Warwick University
• Dr Cynthia Pinto, CPsychol, Chair of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology and Chartered Psychologist, practising Educational Psychologist, and Academic Tutor at UCL Institute of Education