Nov 4, 2024, London Councils: London Councils Announce Recommendations to Enhance Inclusion for Young People with SEND
Ensuring London’s schools are ‘genuinely inclusive’ is vital to protect the success of London’s schools as the number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) grows, according to a new report from London Councils, commissioned from Mime Consulting.
The Inclusion in London Schools report shows that children with SEND currently make up just over 17 per cent of the pupil population in the capital, an increase of 3 percentage points since 2016. Seven London boroughs have at least a fifth of their pupils who have SEND. . . .
Learning in a classroom alongside pupils without SEND reduces emotional distress and boosts attendance levels for children with additional needs. It also leads to better short-term educational outcomes and long-term employment prospects. Alongside this, inclusion allows families to avoid financial distress and career sacrifices that may be required to look after their children if they are not in mainstream school, while having the added benefit of tackling prejudice towards people with SEND as pupils interact and learn together.
However, in London there are a number of barriers that prevent inclusion from being part of a school’s offer to pupils. The biggest issue is that there is insufficient funding for many local authorities to meet their statutory duties. Alongside this, the report reveals only 1% of school senior leaders believe they have enough funding to meet the needs of their pupils with SEND. . . .
“With the number of pupils with SEND growing nationally, increasing by 27% from January 2019 to January 2024 and reaching 1.7 million pupils across England, we must take steps now to ensure all children in London and across the country get access to an excellent education.”. . .
A properly trained and supported workforce with the skills needed to deal with greater number of pupils with SEND would allow for more inclusion in mainstream schools. London Councils is calling on the Government and DfE to increase support for SEND specialist teachers and to professionalise teaching assistant roles.
Greater funding and an updated framework for performance measures would support mainstream schools to offer inclusive education to pupils with SEND in their area, while establishing inclusion as common practice. . . .
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