Leamington school governor highlights how some SEND pupils struggle in mainstream schools

A councillor and school governor has highlighted how some special educational needs pupils struggle in mainstream schools.

Cllr Judy Falp, a governor of Campion School in Leamington, spoke of the “extremely difficult” situations she has encountered during consideration of Warwickshire County Council’s spiralling spends on such services.

The authority expects to spend £17.5 million more than it budgeted for on the High Needs Block, money to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) up to the age of 25. Included in that is £9.37 million more than planned on independent school places with the number of children requiring them up for the first time in six years.

The council’s report cites increases in permanent exclusions, children not attending school for medical reasons that are often associated with mental health needs and a surge in requests for children to be assessed – up from 800 to 1,300 in one year having dropped the year before.

It is also noted that recruiting teaching assistants is “increasingly difficult for schools, leading to schools declaring that they cannot meet need”.

“We have certainly seen it at the sharp end, the increase in SEND pupils, our ability to keep them in mainstream, it is extremely difficult,” said Cllr Falp. “Individual placements are far better for some of these children but they are limited, we cannot get them there.

“I hate to get to the stage of excluding children, sometimes we have to because they cannot cope in a mainstream school. They then end up going to a second mainstream school and sometimes a third before they actually find a placement that is suitable for them.

“I think I am at a particularly good school that does everything possible to keep a child in mainstream. All the way down the line, it is extremely difficult for the county because there is more and more demand.

“I wonder sometimes whether Covid hasn’t helped. There are times where children have come to us without a lot of support from primary education because of Covid and I think that causes extra problems.

“It is difficult for the county and difficult for the schools, we do get support from the county but it is still a difficult time.”

Councillor Peter Butlin (Con, Admirals & Cawston), the deputy leader of Warwickshire County Council, replied: “It has been reported that Covid is having an effect on the amount of children coming through.

“As you can imagine, when lockdown took children out of those normal interactions with social peers, that is reflected in the way that children are presenting at schools at the moment and the amount of work that a lot of schools are having to do. It also bounces back into SEND.

“Also, our diagnosis rates for conditions that you find in SEND are happening a lot quicker than they used to.

“Demand is going up for those two reasons, we have a statutory requirement to deal with it and the trouble is we don’t have any powers.

“If we appeal against some of these decisions, the financial implications do not affect the way they are considered which has made it very difficult in terms of provision across the whole county.”

The council reports that it is engaged with a process to access government grants for “transformation projects” to address the challenges.

Work on emotionally-based school avoidance, education health and care plan top-ups and supported internships are “all expected to have positive long term financial impact by reducing the pressure for specialist provision through best practice”, including the establishment of the Warwickshire Academy, a school in Ash Green designed specifically for children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties.