A new report suggests that hundreds of children with special educational needs (SEN) are missing out on any form of suitable education in England. The report indicates that SEN children, who make up only 16% of the student population in state education, account for 22% of the 2,900 children not enrolled at a school or getting educated elsewhere. The data comes from the children’s commissioner’s office for the 12-month period between the spring terms of 2022 and 2023, indicating that 11,600 children were missing from education at some point during that time. While many worked their way back into the education framework, 2,900 had not registered at any school or were known to be learning at home or somewhere suitable elsewhere.
Children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza, who produced the report, explained that managing the SEN crisis and improving attendance are the top priorities for getting children back into schools. She emphasised that provision for children with SEN is “the number one thing that needs sorting out alongside attendance to make sure our kids can go to school”. She also called it a “scandal” that children missing from education were “not on anybody’s radar”.
According to a Teacher Tapp survey commissioned by BBC Radio 5 Live, 28% of school leaders across the state sector said SEN funding was their top financial concern. The number of pupils at Varndean High School in Brighton who have an education and healthcare plan (EHCP) has risen by 50% to 30 since the last school year, said head teacher Shelley Baker. She explained that for each student with an EHCP, it is an extra resource of a good couple of weeks on a member of staff that they don’t have and they have to be creative to ensure the child gets the support they need.
Although children recorded as being in suitable home education are not classed as missing from education, Dame Rachel called for each child to be given a unique identifier, similar to an NHS number, to help track those who are. Supporters say it would help agencies like schools and social services to speak to each other across council borders. It was also an election manifesto promise of the Labour party. The Department for Education has said it will bring in a law so that councils must produce and maintain registers of children not in school, “ensuring fewer young people slip under the radar
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