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COMPLETE NATIONAL OVERVIEW
NB Further details of the education system can be found in: HOLT, G. et al. (2003). Education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: A Guide to the System. Slough: NFER or on www.eurydice.org. A comprehensive list of terms can be found on www.nfer.ac.uk/eurydice
Legal System
The UK education system has a number of regional differences with separate legislation for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. This national page is for England.
The Education Act 1996 imposes certain duties on local authorities (LAs) – the administrative areas responsible for the provision of statutory education for England and Wales.
The Education Act 1996 requires that LAs:
- identify children with special educational needs;
- where necessary, make an assessment of those needs, taking account of educational, medical, psychological and other factors; and
- where necessary, make a formal statement of those needs and specify the provision which should be made to meet them.
LAs must draw up and publish a special educational needs policy, which should show how all pupils with special educational needs can have access to the National Curriculum. They must also publish a Behaviour Support Plan – a statement of their provision for pupils with behaviour difficulties (www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/guidanceonthelaw/1_98/part1.htm; ). They have a qualified duty to place pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools, alongside pupils of the same age without such needs where parents want this. The qualifications for mainstream placement are:
- that the child receives the special educational provision required by his/her learning difficulty;
- that it is compatible with the provision of efficient education for the children with whom s/he will be educated; and
- that there is an efficient use of resources.
Under the Act, state schools must also do their best to make the provision a child’s learning difficulties call for. They must also publish information about their special educational needs provision.
Under the terms of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, LAs have to ensure early years provision to meet the needs of all children in the area from the age of 3. LAs have Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships to oversee provision and provide information to parents. All children with special educational needs are included in these arrangements.
The disability element of Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 ( which amended the Disability Discrimination Act 1995) requires LAs to ensure that they do not discriminate against pupils with disabilities: they must not treat disabled pupils less favourably and must take reasonable steps to avoid putting these pupils at a substantial disadvantage. They must prepare Accessibility Plans, showing how they will improve access to education for disabled pupils. Guidance is available from the DCSF (2002) (www.dcsf.gov.uk/sen) and a Code of Practice and Handbook is available from the Disability Rights Commission (www.drc-gb.org.uk). The legislation also requires LAs to provide parents with information and guidance on special educational needs, and a means of settling disputes. The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 also requires public bodies like schools and local authorities to promote equality of opportunity as between disabled and non-disabled people and to draw up Disability Equality Schemes.
Financing
Local authorities receive their schools’ funding through a Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), a ring-fenced grant paid by DCSF. It is for each local authority to distribute funding – in consultation with a local Schools Forum – to its schools using its locally agreed formula and it is for schools’ governing bodies to decide how to spend their available resources. DSG provides most funding for special educational needs provision in schools.
Local authorities and their Schools Forums decide how much money will be retained centrally by the local authority for core services (like the educational psychology service) and how much will be delegated to schools (for example, funding that schools can use to provide additional support to children with special educational needs). It is for governors and head teachers to decide how much of their school’s delegated funding will be spent on SEN services.
In some cases, funding for pupils with statements are delegated to mainstream schools; in other cases, local authorities retain these budgets and fund the required provision in schools.
Special schools are funded according to local authority formulae, usually according the agreed number of places at the school, and also have delegated budgets.
DCSF has published guidance for local authorities on “The management of SEN expenditure”.
Identification of Special Educational Needs
The Education Act 1996 (as amended by the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act - SENDA, 2001), states that a child has special educational needs ‘if he has a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for him’. Such provision is required when a child:
- has significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of his/her age; or
- has a disability which either prevents or hinders him or her from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided in schools, within the area of the local authority concerned, for children of his/her age; or
- is under the age of five years and is, or would be if special educational provision were not made for him/her, likely to fall within either of the above paragraphs when over that age.
English as an additional language, giftedness and high ability are not included within the definition of special educational needs.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which sets down the basic definition of disability used by the SENDA, describes a disabled person as 'someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities'.
The Education Act 1996 requires LAs to undertake a multi-professional formal assessment of a child in its area if they believe that the child has special educational needs that are such the LA will probably need to arrange provision over and above what is normally available in a mainstream school and, if necessary, set this out in an SEN statement.
Connexions, the guidance service for 13 to 19-year-olds, is responsible for arranging assessments of learning difficulties and identifying suitable provision for further education when a young person leaves school; the Learning and Skills Council (www.lsc.org.uk), which is responsible for post-16 further education and training, has a statutory duty to take account of these assessments. All pupils who have a statement of special educational need are required to have a Transition Plan, which is drawn up by a wide range of professionals attending the annual review of their statement following their 13th birthday.
The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachinginengland/detail.cfm?id=378 ; gives detailed guidance on effective processes for the identification and assessment of pupils with special educational needs. It has separate sections on provision in the different phases of education, working in partnership with parents and other agencies, and on pupil participation. It recommends that schools and LAs adopt a graduated response, documented at each stage and using a range of strategies and means of support for pupils with learning difficulties, starting with those available within the school (or early years provision) and moving on to specialist external support.
The Code of Practice lays out detailed guidance as to the procedures following a decision to undertake a formal multi-agency assessment for a child. This includes time scales for taking action and regulations regarding informing parents.
The LA will make a statement of special educational need if the assessment indicates that the special help a child needs cannot reasonably be provided within the resources normally available to the school. If the LA decides not to make a statement of special educational needs, it must notify the parents of this decision. Parents have a legal right to appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST) (www.sendist.gov.uk) if they do not agree with the final statement or if the LEA decides not to make a statement. LEAs in England and Wales must ensure that the child receives the educational provision specified in the statement of special educational needs.
All statements of special educational needs must be reviewed annually.
Special Needs Education within the Education System
Under the terms of the Education Act 1996, all pupils have a right of access to the National Curriculum and all schools (including special schools) are required to deliver the National Curriculum, which is sufficiently flexible to accommodate different paces and styles of learning. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which is responsible for all curriculum and assessment arrangements in England, publishes detailed subject-based guidance as to how to include pupils with special educational needs in the national curriculum, including a formal, nationally applicable, framework for assessment of children’s attainment (www.qca.org.uk/inclusion). While there are procedures for headteachers to make temporary exceptions from the National Curriculum for pupils, this option is rare, largely on account of the flexibility of the National Curriculum application.
The first option for pupils with special educational needs will always be, by law, the local, or preferred, mainstream school. However, if this is not suitable to meet their needs, provision is available in ‘resourced’ schools (schools which can guarantee resources and staff expertise to meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs – usually in a particular ‘category’ of need and regarded as an area resource). About one per cent of the school population is educated in special schools, though the proportion varies according to the particular local authority.
(See the legislation on disability discrimination under Legal System above.)
Assessment of the attainment of pupils with special educational needs
Children in early years provision are observed and their achievements recorded in a foundation stage profile which is intended to provide a picture of what a child has achieved, knows and can do. The Foundation Stage Profile Handbook (QCA, 2002) (www.qca.org.uk) provides general guidance for teachers, including those responsible for children with a range of special needs.
All pupils are assessed at the end of each of the four Key Stages of education (age 7+, 11+, 13+ and 16+). All National Curriculum subjects have attainment targets and end-of-key-stage assessment in the first three key stages is via external, national, testing and teacher judgement based on teacher records. Pupils are awarded a ‘level’ of attainment. There is a series of graduated ‘level descriptions’ with an indicative range for each end-of-key stage assessment; the government sets targets for the proportion of pupils at each of these levels and LAs are required to set local targets, together with an action plan for achieving them. A series of ‘preparatory’ levels, known as the P scales, has been developed to lead up to level 1 of the National Curriculum assessment for pupils with learning difficulties who make slower than normal progress and whose progress would otherwise not be captured by the staged approach appropriate for other pupils (www.qca.org.uk/inclusion). The P scales have now been made part of the National Curriculum.
At Key Stage 4, pupils take externally set public examinations (the General Certificate of Secondary Education or General National Vocational Qualifications). Entry Level Awards are designed for pupils with special educational needs. A Foundation Learning Tier is being developed to bring a more focused and strategic approach at Entry Level and Level 1 for learners aged 14-19 and adults. The Tier will help meet the needs of many young people with learning difficulties and disabilities and ensure that they get recognition for their achievements. A key feature of the Foundation Learning Tier will be the establishment of progression pathways; clear stepping stones that will enable learners to access a first full Level 2 programme. They will establish appropriate progression routes to Level 2 but also to positive destinations such as employment or independent living. Phased implementation of the Progression Pathways will begin from September 2008 with full implementation by 2010.
All schools are required to set targets for pupils with special educational needs. Guidance is available from DCSF and QCA (DfEE/QCA, 2001); there is also specific guidance on target-setting for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties (www.qca.org.uk/inclusion)
Teacher Training
All those seeking Qualified Teacher Status, by whatever route, must have basic knowledge and skills in the field of special educational needs and be familiar with the respective Code of Practice for their country (www.tda.gov.uk) Newly qualified teachers are subject to statutory induction standards when they begin teaching; these include the requirement to plan effectively to meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs.
The Education (Teachers) Regulations 1993 require that all teachers of classes of hearing-impaired pupils and visually-impaired pupils must obtain a relevant, additional, approved qualification within three years of appointment. Continuing professional development (CPD) in special education is provided by a range of organisations, including LAs, higher education institutions, independent consultants and voluntary agencies, as well as mainstream and special schools themselves (either for their own, or other schools’, staff). Schools receive a School Development Grant which they can use for CPD if that is felt to be a need.
The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) is working on a series of projects designed to improve the coverage of special educational needs and disability issues in the initial training received by those intending to be teachers, including the creation of new study units. We are also introducing new specially produced training materials to bolster the confidence of those teachers already in post. These materials, developed under the Inclusion Development Programme, focus in 2008 on children with communication difficulties (speech, language and communication needs and dyslexia) and in 2009 on autistic spectrum disorders. In addition, TDA is also working on nationally accredited training arrangements for those charged with co-ordinating SEN provision in schools - the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO).
Development of Integration/Inclusion
The government specifically promotes inclusion, understood, broadly, to include all potentially vulnerable and marginalised pupils, not just those with special educational needs. Government policy is strongly stated in the SENDA (see above) which, essentially, makes duties anticipatory: Schools must ensure that curriculum arrangements such as policies for homework and school trips do not discriminate against disabled pupils whether or not they currently have these pupils on roll. Likewise, accessibility plans must allow for the accommodation of such pupils whether or not there is currently a need for environmental amendments.
At the same time, it is recognised that it is of critical importance to maintain high levels of expertise and specialism, so the challenge is to mobilise these and reform support structures. A time-limited action plan addressing some of the key challenges in special education provision was launched in 2004 (www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/sen/senstrategy).
Quality Indicators for SNE
The quality of special education is included within wider quality assurance mechanisms rather than being a discrete issue. All schools are subject to inspection by the responsible government department, Ofsted (www.ofsted.org.uk), and are also assessed by their local education authority, which has specific responsibility for raising standards of achievement in schools and, in accordance to the Code of Practice for an LEA’s relations with its schools, intervenes in its schools in inverse proportion to the school’s effectiveness (www.dfes.gov.uk/lea/annex.shtml). The quality of education for all pupils, including, specifically, those with special educational needs, is part of the inspection framework (www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications). Ofsted also assesses and inspects LEA provision and services and LEAs are also scrutinised by the Audit Commission, which reports specifically on special education provision from time-to-time (www.auditcommission.gov.uk/performance), usually focusing on efficiency and value-for-money.
View the SNE data for United Kingdom [opens in new browser window]
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