Natspec, the membership organisation for specialist Further Education providers, has responded to the government’s SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, which was published today.
Clare Howard, Natspec Chief Executive, said:
“We support the government’s aim to create a more inclusive system where children and young people’s needs are more swiftly met. However, we cannot fully endorse a plan which fails to make much-needed commitments to support the FE sector. When the Green Paper was published last March, we said it was a missed opportunity to address the issues facing young people with SEND in further education. After almost another year and further submissions of evidence, we seem to be in the same position.
We are pleased to see more references to FE in the Plan, and the specific commitment to recognise and integrate specialist colleges into the wider SEND system. The increased focus on accountability is also welcome. But whilst the Improvement Plan acknowledges some of the issues for FE, it still fails to include concrete solutions or new proposals, and does not provide the urgent funding for specialist staffing and facilities required by both general FE and specialist colleges.
We are pleased to see more capital funding for special schools, but the children who benefit from new buildings at school also deserve quality facilities when they reach college. Many specialist colleges are now in desperate need of capital funding but there are no new resources for refurbished or extended facilities at specialist colleges.
It is essential that government now works productively with the FE sector to fill these gaps. There must be FE representation on the National Implementation Board and the Regional Expert Partnerships, and both general FE and specialist FE colleges need to sit on Local Inclusion Partnerships to help develop effective Local Inclusion Plans. We look forward to working with government on these matters.”
Lynette Barrett, Chair of Natspec said:
“Natspec welcomes the plan’s vision for a society which recognises the strengths of children and young people with SEND, has high aspirations for them and where more children and young people can have their needs met through ordinarily available provision. We also agree that there is a need to create a less adversarial system and improve access to timely, high-quality specialist provision.
But we are concerned to see that the government is still committed to aspects of the Green Paper that we do not believe will support positive change – mandatory mediation, funding bands and tariffs, and the creation of tailored lists for example.
The resources required to trial these proposals through the regional partnerships could have been put towards the more urgent needs of the sector – such as addressing the staffing crisis in colleges, tackling the late decisions and missed statutory deadlines that routinely cause such anxiety for young people and their families, and filling the funding gaps for FE providers.
The commitment to work with the FE sector on funding and commissioning issues for post-16 is helpful, and Natspec will continue to work with the government and offer proposals to ensure quality provision for all young people with SEND.”