Parents of children with special education needs (SEND) are significantly less satisfied with the support their child receives at school than other parents, a new report has found.
In the biggest representative survey of its kind, parents of children with SEND who had no protection through the education, health and care plan (ECHP) were the least satisfied group.
The Parent Voice Project’s report, How Schools Work for Every Child, 41 per cent of parents of children with SEND identify lack of SEND provision as a top issue affecting school children in the UK.
Half of all parents said it was important for children with SEND to be educated in mainstream schools, but only half of the surveyed parents (52 per cent) thought teachers had the right tools to deal with SEND. However this figure dropped to 38 per cent among parents of children with SEND but no EHCP.
In focus groups conducted by the project, parents of children with SEND described a gap between reassurance from school and the reality of what they and their child experience.
The report said: “Many spoke about being promised support, only to experience delays, staff turnover, or shifting responsibility. This issue was rarely framed as ill will on the part of schools, but rather as inconsistency and lack of follow-through – particularly where an EHCP was absent.”
A mother from Oldham with a child aged 14 with SEND said: “I got told everything I wanted to hear: we’re going to do X, Y and Z. We’re going to try and support you. And when they did nothing, you chase again. That teacher’s left, and it’s gone to another one.”
The survey said the findings show that “formal recognition shapes parental confidence”, as 61 per cent of parents with SEND and an EHCP believe teachers are well equipped.
The findings reflect that parents of children with SEND and an EHCP show no statistically significant difference in satisfaction compared with parents of children without SEND. This suggests that parents have more positive experiences with the schools when an EHCP is present.
One mother from Weston-super-Mare with a child with SEND and an EHCP, said: “When he was in mainstream but before he had an EHCP, getting him the help he needed was a fight and the school basically turned around and sad we haven’t got the funding. Then when he got an EHCP and the school still wasn’t helping him, I was able to go back and say, ‘Where’s the funding going?”
The findings of the report will land heavy with government ministers, after the education secretary announced sweeping reforms to SEND earlier this year.
An estimated 270,000 fewer young people will be awarded education, health and care plans (EHCPs) by 2035, a drop of more than 40 per cent on current projections.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the current system “designed 10 years ago for a small number of children is now broken. Parents end up fighting tooth and nail for entitlements on paper that don’t see them getting additional support. Children’s educations and lives have suffered”.
According to official modelling, the number of EHCPs is forecast to fall rapidly after the new system is introduced, from a high of almost 8 per cent of pupils in 2029-30 to less than 5 per cent by 2034-35.
At the moment, parents face long waits to access support for their children, in part because the number of EHCPs issued has soared in recent years. There were 638,745 last January, up from 353,995 in 2019. The rise has led to spiralling costs for councils and large deficits.
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