Some young people with complex needs are not given any opportunity to participate in education beyond school. This can be as a result of misguided decision-making about which young people merit a place in FE or because of a lack of strategic planning to ensure there are enough specialist places to meet needs. Other young people face the uncertainty of funding for their places only be confirmed annually or even termly, leaving them unable to plot a steady progression route to their post-college goals and often in a state of high anxiety.
Some local authorities are reluctant to fund FE places for young people capable of improving their skills for independence but unlikely to achieve employment. Others, seeking to reduce costs, avoid placing young people in specialist settings despite the complexity of their needs. Many of the current government’s Safety Valve Agreements, designed to reduce local authorities’ high needs overspend, actively encourage the exclusion of specialist providers from the local SEND system. Without the opportunity to develop these vital skills for adulthood, with the support of expert staff, these young people face a bleak future.
Too much local authority decision-making about placements is poor. Some of it is unlawful as evidenced by the high number of first tier tribunals which find against the local authority. The current system of accountability, however, does little to discourage non-compliance with Section 3 (SEND) of the Children and Families Act.
Access to timely and sufficient information, advice and guidance about the full range of post-school options for young people with SEND is generally poor. Too often securing specialist FE feels like a battle for the young person and their family. They are facing a postcode lottery that causes undue anxiety.
Natspec is calling for:
Better provision planning at a local and regional level
- Set high expectations of local areas in relation to the strategic planning of post-16 provision for young people with SEND at local and regional levels including requirements to secure an appropriate mix and balance of provision, including both mainstream and specialist providers, to meet differing needs.
- Engage in cross-boundary/sub-regional planning to avoid duplicating highly specialist provision.
- Revise the DfE market entry system to ensure that approval of new specialist providers is based on strategic sufficiency planning by local areas and/or regions and a thorough analysis of supply and demand.
- Involve specialist colleges in strategic planning of post-16 provision and ensure their representation within relevant partnerships and on decision-making boards.
- Collect as much SEND data on young people in FE as it does on children in schools, and present and analyse it in a way that supports local areas to understand the national, regional and local position, and to plan 16-25 provision accordingly.
- Ensure continuous professional development is available to local authority staff to enable them to understand the needs of young people with SEND and to be able to strategically plan provision and commission the most appropriate FE placements for individual young people.
Strengthen the current system of accountablity
- Introduce penalties for non-compliance with legislation and the SEND Code of Practice including specific consequences for the poorest performing local areas that go beyond simply re-inspection.
- Ensure new local area inclusion dashboards specifically report on performance in relation to 16-25 provision, using metrics such as the percentage of post-school placements confirmed by the statutory deadline.
Provide better information and support for young people and families about post-16 options
- Require local authorities to share comprehensive information about the full range of post-16 options with young people and families from Year 9 onwards.
- Enable young people and their families to access independent support from a dedicated transitions adviser to help them understand their options.
Facilitate partnership-working between general and specialist FE colleges
- Reform funding and commissioning systems to make it easier for general and specialist FE colleges to work together to meet the needs of individual young people and hence reduce the need for a binary choice between specialist and mainstream provision.
Fair treatment
- Parity of esteem for non-accredited study programmes based on personal development goals with vocational/academic accredited learning programmes.
- Revised guidance from DfE in England and new guidance from Welsh government on maintaining and ceasing EHC Plans/Individual Development Plans (IDPs) to support fair and consistent decision-making.
- A guarantee from Welsh Government that learners whose complex needs cannot be met in a mainstream FE setting will have access to a specialist college placement.
- Thorough updating of EHC/ID Plans prior to transition to FE so that they support effective programme planning and include agreed end goals for FE.
