(UK) Suffolk: Schools struggling to support students with "complex needs"
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
A Government minister's visit to a Suffolk school has prompted a headteacher to warn providing for students with special educational needs is an 'impossible problem' in the area.
Georgia Gould, the schools minister, visited Alde Valley Academy, in Leiston, on April 8 as part of a conference on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Parents and teachers were able to raise their concerns around the Government’s planned overhaul of the system directly with the minister.
Gavin Hetherington, the academy’s headteacher, described the visit as ‘incredible’ but said support simply was not there to help young people and their families.
“The conversation around SEND has been sort of pushed to one side for far too long,” he said. “It has become an impossible problem in Suffolk because of the challenges that we face.
“I hear a lot about schools and accountability, but schools are really struggling to meet the needs of lots of students with complex needs.
“We are desperately trying hard to make a fantastic environment for our young people so they can leave this school with terrific outcomes, but we need support to be able to do it.”
Schools minister Georgia Gould
The visit comes as the Government’s consultation on the schools white paper, which sets out how it plans to overhaul the system, is due to end on May 18.
Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, MP for Suffolk Coastal, who organised the conference, said ‘families have been let down’ by a system unfit for purpose.
She echoed many of the same concerns raised and promised to call on the Government to ensure the changes not only compelled councils to deliver but also addressed inequalities in rural areas causing a ‘postcode lottery’.
The MP urged those impacted to engage with the consultation to make sure ‘everyone benefits from the reform’.
The changes included a new legal requirement for schools to create so-called Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for all children with SEND needs.
These ISPs would have to be reviewed at least once a year and would be served by two different layers of support – ‘targeted’ and ‘targeted plus’.
Targeted support would include reasonable adjustments such as laptops for children with dyslexia, while ‘targeted plus’ would give pupils access to specialists, including educational psychologists.
A conference on SEND was held at Alde Valley Academy, in Leiston
Meanwhile, Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) – legal documents outlining a pupil’s needs and the support they should receive – would also be receiving significant changes, only being reserved for the most complex cases from 2035.
To implement these, the Government is putting a £4bn package, nearly half of which will be used to provide more access to experts, such as speech and language therapists.
Mr Hetherington said it was important for the money to filter down into schools, especially in places such as Leiston, which could become ‘quite isolated’.
Even when the school put a job advert out, he said the number of applicants would either be very low or sometimes even ‘non-existent’.
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