The children’s commissioner for England has called for the introduction of education plans for pupils who need more support, including those not meeting expected standards or who are persistently and severely absent.

Dame Rachel de Souza has also called for a focus on supporting pupils with additional needs beyond special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including safety, pastoral, health and learning needs.

The recommendations follow a school census carried out by the commissioner’s office, which asked questions of every school in England.

The responses show school leaders’ major concerns include funding, attendance, and pupils with SEND and access to external support.

Reforming statutory support

In a report published today, Dame Rachel recommends reforming statutory support through a system of children’s plans.

As Tes revealed earlier this year, the government is assessing whether education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are the best way of supporting pupils with SEND.

A White Paper that includes the government’s plans for SEND reform is expected in the autumn.

The Children’s Plan: The Children’s Commissioner’s School Census recommends moving to a system whereby pupils can have education plans, education and health plans or education, health and care plans, depending on their needs.

The report says an education plan should be available for all children who need specialist support to engage in education, over and above a core school offer.

This would set out the support they should get from their school, or from their local area and “would include all children who don’t meet the expected standard at the end of key stage 2, who are suspended or excluded, or who are severely or persistently absent”, the report adds.

It says that in some cases, children with just an education need - and not health or care needs - may need to access a special school place and that the education plan would enable that.

The census finds that school funding is a frequent concern for school leaders, with secondary schools more worried about the funding of wider services than their own.

Attendance is the main concern among secondary schools, while concerns for children with SEND also rank highly.

Some 53 per cent of primary schools and 40 per cent of secondaries said experiences and progress of children with EHCPs or on SEN support were among their biggest concerns - but cited funding and a lack of specialist staff as their biggest barriers to fulfilling the requirements of an EHCP.

The census also reveals that schools are not always aware of pupils’ additional needs, with only 16 per cent of secondaries able to give the actual number of children on waiting lists for mental health support. Large numbers of schools were unable to report exactly how many children had experienced bereavement, lived in unsuitable housing or had a parent or carer in prison.

Schools wanting to do more

The report also reveals that schools’ response to pupils’ additional needs varied, but some schools wanted to do more.

Of schools who did not employ staff in specialist professional roles, more than 75 per cent said they want to provide mental health counsellors, family support liaison/support officers, educational psychologists and education mental health practitioners.

At an event launching the report in Westminster today, Dame Rachel will say: “My school census confirms what children have already told me: that they deeply value education, but where they need extra help, it should be easily accessible and available locally.

“Now school leaders have agreed, with powerful results, as they lay bare the challenge of filling the gaps left by years of neglecting other services, without the structures and systems to support them.”

She will add that the past 30 years of education reform have transformed outcomes and opportunities for most children, but failed “for many of the most vulnerable”.

Dame Rachel will say: “The next great wave of education reform must fill those gaps by redefining how we think about need in school, because for some children even the best teaching will not be enough unless the systems around them can respond to the daily complexities of their lives: these additional needs.

“Too often, these additional needs - those which require extra help to attend and engage at school - are ignored, unrecognised or shoehorned into a SEND system that cannot provide the right support.”

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