Ofsted chief wants young people with SEND to be ‘front and centre of education recovery’

Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, gave a speech on Friday looking back at the effect of the pandemic on children and especially those who have been last on the national priority list that have borne the brunt.

She acknowledged that many children with SEND have had a difficult time with education stopping and their usual support services withdrawn. She expressed that the recent report highlighted that many old issues remain; misdiagnosis is a problem “children being wrongly labelled, simply because they haven’t been taught well, or given enough time and support to learn”, while children with genuine needs are missed or having those needs identified too late; local area joint working is often weak. There will be a consultation on the new approach to Local Area SEND reviews and Ofsted are currently contributing to the government’s SEND review which is now proposed for release in Autumn 2021.

There was also acknowledgement that there are areas of deficiency both in social care and education that need to be addressed such as joined-up needs analysis and commissioning to make sure that community-based services meet the children’s needs in that area. Though there have been positives in the increase in remote working providing more opportunities to have the right people around the table. The care review is currently underway and the Case for Change research has been released for responses.

There are many challenges ahead although there are also opportunities. It is hoped that the upcoming SEND review will be a catalyst for widespread across all areas of Education recognising what Amanda Spielman notes as the “wholesale system changes are needed to make sure children are getting the best deal”.