Changing the threshold at which pupils get an education, health and care plan (EHCP) will not address the difficulties that the special educational needs and disabilities support system faces, an inquiry into solving the SEND crisis has heard.

An academy trust director of SEND told MPs on the Commons Education Select Committee that any efforts to reduce referrals for EHCPs or change the threshold at which a plan could be accessed would be treating the “symptom and not the cause” of problems.

The committee held the penultimate session of its SEND inquiry today, hearing evidence from both school leaders and research experts.

Here are seven points that were debated during the session:

1. Warning over changing EHCP threshold

The committee was told that any efforts to change the threshold at which EHCPs could be accessed would not address the causes of the difficulties in the SEND support system.

MPs asked school leaders about the length of time it takes to get an EHCP and the support families need.

Nicole Dempsey, director of SEND and safeguarding at Dixons Academies Trust, which runs 17 schools in the North of England, said: “I worry that any attempt to reduce the number of referrals being made, or to raise the threshold for EHCPs is trying to manage a symptom and not the cause.”

She said better guidance for schools and better access to support services was needed, and this would have the “knock-on effect of protecting that specialist layer [of provision] for the children who need it”.

Tes revealed last month that the DfE is considering whether to keep EHCPs as part of its ongoing work to reform the SEND system.

2. Should Sendcos be on leadership teams?

MPs asked school leaders whether Sendcos should be on school leadership teams.

Conrad Bourne, director for SEND at The Mercian Trust, which runs 12 schools in the West Midlands, said he did not think Sendcos necessarily needed to be a member of a SLT.

He added: “They may not want to be on the senior team - that may not be your career ambition. Also we are seeing Sendcos at very different stages of their careers.”

However, he did say he would support the need for someone on a school’s leadership team to have a Sendco qualification.

Daniel Constable-Phelps, executive headteacher of St Mary’s Church of England Primary School and Nursery in Southampton, also supported this.

He said that if a Sendco were in an assistant headteacher role, this would help to ensure that some of their time was protected to provide strategic leadership of SEND provision in a school.

3. Have pupils with SEND been a casualty of Gove reforms?

Peter Gray, co-coordinator of the national SEN Policy Research Forum, said the committee should consider the impact of the reforms of former education secretary Michael Gove on pupils with SEND.

As education secretary in the coalition government from 2010 to 2014, Mr Gove oversaw significant reforms to exams and the national curriculum.

Dr Gray asked whether these reforms had led to “improved attainment test results for the majority” but added: “Has the special needs population been the casualty of that drive in terms of things getting worse for them rather than better?”

4. ‘Chaos’ around who is identified with SEND

Jo Hutchinson, the Education Policy Institute’s (EPI) director of SEND, said there was “chaos” around who gets identified as having special educational needs at school level.

“Looking at inclusion through the lens of who gets identified as having SEND and who doesn’t, it’s very clear that inclusion is very variable from school to school,” she said.

“And nationally we can see there is a certain amount of chaos within the identification system. So it is hard to imagine it being the case that we are in a good place.”

She also told the committee that the EPI had found evidence that inclusion was a problem within mainstream schools, and pointed to the “high and increasing numbers” of pupils having unexplained school moves or exits from the school system.

5. A diagnosis approach versus a needs-based approach

The committee asked what could be learned by looking at how special education needs are met in other countries.

Dr Susana Castro-Kemp, associate professor in psychology and special needs at the Centre for Inclusive Education, said research shows that there is a spectrum of approaches around the world, from a more medicalised approach to defining SEND to a more need-based approach.

“We find that England is somewhat in the middle of this spectrum,” she said.

She told MPs that, although there is not a requirement for a child to have a diagnosis to be supported, in practice, “diagnosis has worked as a passport to access services”.

6. Experts praise impact of school clusters

MPs were told there was “huge potential” for schools to work in clusters to share high-needs funding and make coordinated decisions.

Dr Gray said he was aware of this approach being used in around 15 local authority areas.

He added: “If you take speech and language therapy, parents can get very frustrated by waiting lists and having to wait for ages.” If schools could look at this in service clusters, Dr Gray said, they can lead on what is needed at school and area level and what training staff need.

7. Ofsted should look at schools more in SEND area inspections

The session also focused on the impact of accountability on inclusion. Dr Gray highlighted that Ofsted plans to inspect inclusion as part of its new report card system, due to be introduced later this year.

But he told the committee that the role of schools should also feature more prominently in the SEND area inspections that Ofsted carries out with the Care Quality Commission.

He said there could be a mismatch between SEND area reports that warn some schools are not inclusive enough and individual school inspection reports where this criticism is not followed up.

This echoes a finding highlighted in a Tes investigation into school inclusion last year. One council director said that Ofsted was judging schools with very high exclusion rates as “good” and “outstanding” but “then are coming to me and saying the overall school system is not inclusive here”.

For the latest education news and analysis delivered every weekday morning, sign up for the Tes Daily newsletter