DfE open to more specialist packages for complex needs

The Department for Education is open to creating more specialist provision packages as part of its plan for a framework in which “no children will fall through the gap”.

These packages, which will set out the support young people with the most complex special needs should expect, are a key element of the government’s planned reforms.

The packages will underpin education, health and care plans - known as EHCPs - under Labour’s plans for a new system.

Earlier this year, the government published seven proposed areas for these packages of support, but there have been concerns about them missing some pupils’ needs and that they omit mental health.

An expert panel is currently working on producing a final set of draft proposals.

Evidence-based approach

Speaking at the Tes SEND Show in London, Claire Burton, the DfE’s director of SEND and alternative provision, said it “would be fine” if the number of packages increased.

She said: “What we’re trying to do is design a framework from which children will not fall through the gaps, and we are trying to do that in as evidence-based a way as possible.

“The panel is looking at the domains of need and trying to really granularly look at the profiles of children and how we can meet their needs best.”

Ms Burton added: “And if that takes more packages, then I think that’s fine, as long as we’ve still got that really clear idea of what these [packages] are driving in terms of the provision on the ground.”

“Ultimately, what the packages are doing is setting out ‘what is the special provision that we expect to see?’”

The initial seven areas for specialist provision packages were: profound and multiple learning difficulties; significant executive function; complex executive function and communication; social and emotional development focused on externalising behaviour; social and emotional development focused on internalising behaviour; sensory impairment; and physical disability.

Tiers of SEND support

The government’s SEND reform proposes moving to a three-tier system of SEND support.

Beyond a school’s universal offer, there will be “targeted”, “targeted plus” and “specialist” tiers of support.

The specialist provision packages will be for students on the specialist tier, who could be in either a special school or mainstream provision.

The government announces its SEND reforms in February, and is considering responses to the consultation it carried out this year.

Another element of the reforms is the government expectation that every mainstream secondary school has an inclusion base for pupils with SEND, and that an equivalent number of places are being created in primary schools.

This will either be specialist bases commissioned by councils and trusts or support bases led by schools.

There is currently an official system of resourced provisions and SEN units in mainstream schools, but schools have also been setting up informal approaches.

‘A real expansion’

Ms Burton said that the government was responding to “a real expansion” in schools setting up both formal bases and their own inclusion spaces.

She added: “I think part of what we’re trying to do is learn from a really rapidly evolving picture across the system, as people look at how they can use those within their schools.”

Ms Burton told the event that, when speaking to parents of children who are attending a base or space, “some have had a brilliant experience, and some will tell you that it is a way of segregating their child in a school”.

“And so, for me, there is an opportunity here, but there is also a risk, and we have to be really aware of that.”

She told the event that part of the government’s role was to create a framework and to enable the sector to learn from what is working.

Earlier this year, the DfE published guidance on how inclusion bases should be run.