The SEN Green Paper “Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability” is at best a missed opportunity to address the real issues of how special needs of all kinds are met through the education system. It contains few welcome proposals for the great majority of pupils with special needs and their parents.
CASE has written a critique of the proposals and also a full response to the consultation questions.
CASE has written a critique of the proposals and also a full response to the consultation questions.
The Green Paper’s weaknesses
• It appears to be very much more concerned with the needs of the relatively small number of parents whose children have severe and rare conditions than with the totality of special needs. There must be concern that the support available to pupils with common cognitive and behavioural conditions will be downgraded.
• It argues for a “single assessment process” but does not suggest what form this might take, who would “own” it or how multiple contributions would be handled.
• Its authors appear to have learnt nothing from existing post-16 arrangements which already have a single assessment process (Learning Difficulty Assessments) and banded funding.
