What if FE students were included in SEND reform?

Over the past few months, the new Labour government has been busy getting its head around the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system it’s inherited. They’ve been quick to declare it ‘broken’ but have yet to set out a plan for fixing it and they’ve given little away about their view on the previous government’s SEND and alternative provision improvement plan. It would appear, though, that the Labour government may well be open to considering a different way forward.

This moment of pause has given rise to a number of organisations throwing their hats into the ring, offering alternative solutions. None of these, however, have paid much attention to young people with SEND in the further education (FE) sector. And in some cases, their system-wide recommendations, designed to sort out the well-catalogued problems in schools, would have unintended, negative consequences for colleges and their learners with SEND.

That’s why AoC and Natspec are stepping up to offer some new ways forward for SEND in FE. We don’t have all the answers, but we have a good understanding of what makes FE different from schools and the different challenges faced by colleges, both general and specialist, and the young people with SEND who are served by them. We are in a good position, therefore, to suggest some different solutions for FE.

We plan to produce a series of articles over the coming months as a jumping-off point for discussion with other stakeholders with an interest in post-school education for young people with SEND. We intend to pose some big ‘what if?’ questions as we test out some alternative approaches with one primary goal: fixing FE for learners with SEND. We want to hear back from readers: which aspects do you agree with?, Where do you disagree and what are the alternative solutions? How could we refine or improve our ideas? What have we missed? You can simply fill out this form to share your views with us. We will be collating responses to each article and sharing a summary with readers. And if there is appetite for it, we plan to hold an online symposium to talk through any differences of opinion.

We have an opportunity right now to jettison some of the most dysfunctional aspects of the current system we have been lulled into thinking of as givens. Let’s all be bold in our thinking about a new approach. Watch out for our first article to be published next month, in which we ask, is it time for an amicable separation between local authorities and FE settings when it comes to commissioning high needs places?

If you would like to be alerted as articles in this series are published, please send your email address to Will.Marshall@natspec.org.uk.

David Holloway is the Senior Policy Manager SEND at AoC and Ruth Perry is the Senior Policy Manager at Natspec.