So, next week government ministers will set out their detailed response and reform timetable as their next steps in the SEN Green Paper. They've been saying it's 'imminent' since February, so we'll see what they've come up with.
Ministers say they've committed to making all the necessary legal changes to put in place reforms proposed in the Support and Aspiration Green Paper and yesterday, in the Queen's speech, they pledged that the planned Children and Families Bill would deliver better support for families. It would introduce a single, simpler assessment process for children with SEN or disabilities, backed up by new Education, Health and Care Plans - the same EHCP that Surrey, as a pathfinder council, is setting up now. As a member of parent-carer forum, Family Voice Surrey, I am one of two parent reps, along with FVS Chair, Angela Kelly, for this pathfinder stream. Our next EHCP meeting for this is next week, so it will be a very interesting day, I think!
The SEN key measures announced yesterday were:
- replacing SEN statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments (for 16- to 25-year-olds) with a single, simpler 0-25 assessment process and Education, Health and Care Plan from 2014
- providing statutory protections comparable to those currently associated with a statement of SEN to up to 25 in further education – instead of it being cut off at 16
- requiring local authorities to publish a local offer showing the support available to disabled children and young people and those with SEN, and their families
- giving parents or young people with Education, Health and Care Plans the right to a personal budget for their support
- introducing mediation for disputes and trialling giving children the right to appeal if they are unhappy with their support.
The legislation intends to draw on evidence from all the 20 local pathfinders set up in last September. Certainly, in Surrey, we have a long way to go before the LEA are in any sort of position to make evaluations on outcomes. This is despite the government saying that interim evaluation reports are due in summer and late autumn 2012, with a final report in 2013.
IPSEA, the charity that supports parents though the SEN process said, "It is essential that the Pathfinder pilots be given a rigorous evaluation before any legislation in this vital area goes on to the statute book. The pilots started only in late 2011, and have two years to run. It seems premature and potentially unsound to rely on the evidence from these Pathfinder pilots one way or the other before 2014."
There are huge changes in the offing and no one is really sure, as yet, how it's all going to work out. There certainly is an enormous amount of work being done by many committed people all over the country in the different aspects of the proposals.
I look forward to seeing the detailed response and finding out how much they've listened to what people at the SEN coalface really think.
Tania is an experienced broadcast and print journalist & author. She also runs a PR, web & social media consultancy, SocialOro Media.
Tania is a rare disease & chronic pain patient advocate with Ehlers Danlos syndrome.
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