As many as half of all the children identified as having special educational needs are wrongly diagnosed and simply need better teaching or pastoral care instead, a report published today finds.
About 1.7 million schoolchildren in England are regarded as having some form of special needs, ranging from physical disability to emotional problems.
While the number with the most severe challenges has gone down since 2003, the number identified as having milder problems has risen from 14% to 18% of all pupils in England in the past seven years.
The Ofsted review of special needs provision recommended that schools should stop identifying children as having special educational needs (SEN) when they simply needed better teaching and pastoral support.
In one primary school visited by inspectors, where a large number of service families had children, Ofsted said pupils were "inappropriately" identified as having special needs because their fathers had been deployed to Afghanistan.
The report said: "This group was … vulnerable to underachievement because their fathers were all serving in Afghanistan. However, although these pupils had additional needs for a period of time, this should not have required special educational needs to have been identified."
Ofsted also visited a high school which identified all year 11 students – 15-16-year-olds – who were at risk of falling short of their expected GCSE grades as having special educational needs. All the students got additional mentoring from senior staff.
"This led to a doubling of the numbers of such pupils between years 10 and 11," the report said. While the additional support was valuable for many of them, the identification of special educational needs was "inappropriate".
Ofsted found that about half the schools and nursery providers visited used low attainment and relatively slow progress as their principal indicators of SEN. In nearly a fifth of these cases very little further assessment took place.
Inspectors also saw some schools that identified pupils as having special needs when their requirements were no different from those of most others.
They were underachieving, but this was sometimes simply because the school's mainstream provision was not good enough, and expectations for them were too low.
The report said: "Some pupils are being wrongly identified as having special educational needs and … relatively expensive additional provision is being used to make up for poor day-to-day teaching and pastoral support. This can dilute the focus on overall school improvement and divert attention from those who do need a range of specialist support."
In areas where school funding was linked to the proportion of children with special needs, this provided an "obvious motivation for schools to identify more such children", the review said.
Some schools Ofsted visited believed that identifying more pupils with SEN could boost a school's contextual value-added score, a measure of how much pupils are improving which takes into account the challenges they face.
Pupils with special needs or a disability are disproportionately from disadvantaged backgrounds, much more likely to be absent or excluded from school and achieve less than other children both at a given age and in terms of their progress over time, the report noted.
The number of pupils with a statement, given to those children who require intensive support, has declined slightly from 3% to 2.7% since 2003. But the proportion of those identified as requiring "school action", which means they get extra help such as tuition in small groups, has risen.
Christine Gilbert, the chief inspector, said: "With over one in five children of school age in England identified as having SEN, it is vitally important that both the way they are identified, and the support they receive, work in the best interests of the children involved.
"Higher expectations of all children, and better teaching and learning, would lead to fewer children being identified as having special educational needs."
Parents told inspectors that under the current system they needed to "fight for the rights" of their children.
Often they saw an SEN statement as a guarantee of additional support for their child. But inspectors found that the identification of a special need or disability did not reliably lead to appropriate support for the child concerned. The review team found that children with similar needs were not being treated similarly and appropriately, and parents' perception of inconsistency was well-founded.
Claire Ryan, a mother of three children with autism, said she had fought for her children to be properly diagnosed and supported in school. "[My daughter] has got a specific learning difficulty, although she is very bright. I have been telling the school since she was in the infants, I think she is dyslexic.
"It was not until she was in year five – 10 years old – that she was diagnosed. The report says parents are fighting for statements to ensure their child's future – that is exactly what I've done. If teaching was better and schools understood and were willing to work with parents, we could get these things into place at such an early age."
Across education, health services and social care, assessments were different and the thresholds for securing additional support were at widely varying levels. In some cases, repeated and different assessments of a child threw up a time-consuming obstacle to progress rather than a way for effective support to be provided, the report said.
Ministers launched a review of special needs provision last week to look at how to ensure parents can send a child with SEN to their preferred choice of school. A green paper to be published in autumn will aim to overhaul the system and look at early assessment, funding and family support as well as school choice.
The children's minister, Sarah Teather, said yesterday: "Children with SEN and disabilities should have the provision they need to succeed and parents should not feel they have to battle the system to get help. Improving diagnosis and assessment will be central to our commitment to overhaul the system to ensure families get the appropriate support."
Jolanta Lasota, chief executive of TreeHouse, the autism education charity, said families often faced "immense barriers" when trying to access services and support. "One of these barriers is getting that initial statement of SEN. But a statement alone is not enough and at TreeHouse we are calling for a greater understanding of special needs such as autism and more collaboration with young people and their families to deliver effective services which really support the family involved."Ed Balls, the shadow education secretary, said: "The key to success is investment in good teaching and support. So I hope the present government will maintain the same level of funding and support for training teachers and support staff to ensure that children with SEN continue to remain a priority and that the focus on how best to maximise children's development and learning is maintained."
Comments in chronological order (Total 242 comments)
Post a comment14 September 2010 12:16AM
Don't necessarily blame teachers when some parents fight so hard to have their child diagnosed because of the extra support it entitles them to.
It's extremely damaging to label a children with SEN unnecessarily.
But I teach in a special needs school where although the majority of the students need to be there, we have some parents who will do anything to keep their child out of a large mainstream comprehensive.
14 September 2010 12:18AM
Who stands to benefit from this report? Follow the money...
14 September 2010 12:18AM
How lucky, the number of pupils needing help is to be reduced just as the cuts hit and the Lib Dems bring in their much vaunted 'pupil premium'.
Not that I am cynical of course.
14 September 2010 12:23AM
Don't also forget that special needs can apply at the gifted end of the spectrum as well as the more publicised learning difficulties end. Our state school system doesn't really cope too well with the extremes and really bright children are often left to educate themselves.
Many behavioural problems in schools come from bright children not being sufficiently stretched.
14 September 2010 12:25AM
Unintended consequence.
If the SEN label is the only way of giving extra help, every pupil needing extra help is SEN. If you only have a hammer every problem is a nail.
14 September 2010 12:26AM
My little boy was initially suspected of being special needs, because he had late-developing speech and did not communicate much with others.
Although I had reason to think there were other reasons for his behaviour (his grandmother and father are partially deaf, he was constantly ill, and I had post-natal depression soon after he was born leading to his dad bringing him up for two years) I am so grateful to those who listened when I said he wasn't right.
He was put through repeated hearing checks (deafness is difficult to diagnose in a child who cannot speak and is over 2) before his own partial deafness was discovered. His progress was monitored by a speech therapist, who observed him discreetly in nursery. I was given (very) valuable tuition on how to bond properly with him, mostly involving the parent-child game. I read to him, a lot. We played, a lot.
Two years on, he has had a simple operation for deafness (grommits), can read, talks normally and is a very affectionate little boy. But at every stage he has been monitored, his progress checked. It has been an immense reassurance. In particular, I am very glad I had the support to help me over the after-effects of PND.
Thirty years ago, my eldest brother was diagnosed with brain damage and put into mainstream schooling with little help. I can only imagine what his life would have been like with more education, more patience.
My son's (quiet, question-marked) diagnosis of special needs has now been removed. His teacher still finds the time to encourage his confidence, but he is settled and hitting all the appropriate targets. He missed them all at three. Last year he won his year's attainment prize. I should mention that we are not rich people and greatly appreciate all that the state did to help him.
14 September 2010 12:27AM
IMO if they're entering the British education system they should all be treated as special needs seeing how many thieves and murderers it churns out. They really ought to put in some effort to stop that.
14 September 2010 12:31AM
Oh, and my point: special needs diagnoses are often made very early and are often removed. They help kids with all kinds of problems, and at a very young age, when it is far easier to help them. My kid's special needs diagnosis led to a lot of help and has been of immense value to his life. Extra care/tuition is the result of special needs diagnosis, not separate to it.
14 September 2010 12:33AM
@ratherbered
Many behavioural problems in schools come from bright children not being sufficiently stretched.
Indeed - or, I'd say, sufficiently stretched.
My 8 year old lad it bright academically but can have a bit of a short temper and sometimes has trouble concentrating (as a lot of boys of that age do).
So far, I've had his first school claiming he might have ADD which my Dr wife immediately dismissed as crap, pointing out to the teacher in question why her diagnosis was nonsense.
His next school then suggested he has aspergers. Under some protest I paid for an assessment by a consultant therapist which concluded there is nothing wrong with him at all - he's just an 8 year old boy who can be a bit naughty at times, especially if he's got nothing much to do.
In conclusion, much as I respect teachers, they aren't qualified to make such diagnoses and, to be honest, putting labels on kids is a bad idea generally as it gives them an excuse e.g. "It's not your fault - you can't help it" when in fact they can - it just takes a lot of effort.
14 September 2010 12:34AM
We could cut out a lot of the thieving by closing down the public schools and that would be far cheaper.
14 September 2010 12:34AM
it still shocks me that people say it is labeliing a child, if you look at the DSMV4 for many special needs children it is clearly a diagnosis not a label. Having fought for 11 years to get help for my son's autism ,why when it is not a physical disability is it called a label therfore the child does not need help? I also work in education and more and more children are coming in with communication difficulties, money should be spent on why? not rearching why not! This type of propaganda just makes parents feel more helpless as LEA's do not want to fund special needs.
14 September 2010 12:37AM
I know someone who took their child to an educational psychotherapist and had him diagnosed with dyslexia for a fee of £300 and it took an hour to do the diagnoses. She got the number from her friend who had taken her child there. I suspect this educational psychotherapist wouldn’t be so popular if he was telling parents their child doesn’t have special needs.
14 September 2010 12:42AM
@ArseneKnows
Indeed, and would also get rid of the majority of the mass-murderers.
14 September 2010 12:51AM
About 12 years ago, I was engaged to someone who had dyslexic symptoms. I made him go for a (free) test, which confirmed it. His mother, a nurse, urged him to keep the diagnosis a secret as it would stigmatise him, label him.
He is now a much happier man. Now that he knows WHY he has problems reading and writing, he takes more care, accepts that he has to work harder than others, and above all has gained in confidence. Because he no longer thinks of himself as stupid, just someone who needed a diagnosis and support.
In our final exams at university, he and I were both labelled special needs, i.e. given extra time. I had the beginnings of dystonia, which affected my writing speed. He had use of a computer and extra time.
Sorry to sound like Trisha, but life really is like this - most people know someone who needs extra support in school. The fact is that 'special needs' is a blanket term to cover all those who need help and understanding, not just a term which marks out the mentally diabled like my brother. Parents who see it as a stigma are showing their own prejudices against those with mental handicaps.
14 September 2010 12:53AM
Wasn't the special needs industry anything other than to provide cushy jobs for teachers who don't want to teach any more?
Like all the schemes of the (hopefully) last Labour government the needs of the end user comes a poor last.
14 September 2010 12:57AM
@seanthorp
Can you not read? Or do you not understand what 'British' means? There is no such thing as the British education system. There are different systems in Scotland and England, for example.
14 September 2010 1:13AM
ArseneKnows
More than likely some truth there. The real detail is this:
Co-incidental for identification to be made in year 11? Not really. Whatever pupils results are, CVA scores are drastically inflated by SEN labels.
Does that make me more cynical than you?
14 September 2010 1:28AM
@MajorIcewater
Your post just demonstrates clearly that there are people with special educational needs that I was, up until now, unaware of. What a disgraceful post....I only hope that you never need to get help with a child requiring some of the high quality assistance that our child has received. It would be wasted on you clearly.
14 September 2010 1:36AM
The question of labelling is interesting: if you avoid them then you may lose out on the enhanced funding resulting from the statementing process; if you obsess about them then you create a culture of dependency, a veritable alpahbet soup of acronyms. Who would be a SENCo?
The schools which I have been associated with that managed to 'turn themselves around' did so by fostering a shared sense of common purpose, with achievable goals being set for all. In other words, inclusion came to be seen as a genuinely 'whole school issue', hence the startling improvement in overall levels of achievement and general attitude, inside and outside the staffroom. I grant you that this is often achieved by incredibly ego-centric headteachers but there may well be something to be said for the old adage: if you want an omelette, you need to break eggs.
In areas of severe deprivation &/or challenging circumstances, what is absent in a school population is not just the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, important as those are, but the necessary attitudinal, social and cultural mindset from the outset. Energising such communities is not easy- but it is not unknown for such places of learning to become 'havens', with a de facto practice of 'leaving it at the school gates'. For those who do not know what that means, I envy you your ignorance. As for formal diagnostic assessments, there still remains a hierarchy of importance within multi-agency teams even with the Every Child Matters agenda, and that needs to be addressed so that severe and pronounced needs are picked up earlier.
Whatever happens next- and the axeman will not be far away, in any case- it is vital that more thought be given to:
a. retaining as well as recruiting staff
b. inducting and mentoring new staff
c. identifying and encouraging managers
d. deploying lesser qualified & unqualified staff within reason
e. sharing 'best practice' throughout a school and a given area
f. allowing teachers time off to study &/or take sabbaticals (after seven years continuous service?)
g. leaving the damn system alone for two years at a time!
h. encouraging more practitioner research
14 September 2010 1:44AM
I just hope this doesn't lead to under-diagnosis of children with specific learning difficulties.
As somebody with very severe specific learning difficulty I know what it is like to go through school without being diagnosed - and I would not wish it on anyone.
14 September 2010 1:46AM
@ SamuelSmiles
While I accept that the labels can be a bit elastic and it can be a lottery as to who receives them, is anyone suggesting that we return a system where we stream students relentlessly and throw the bottom set to the wolves? I was in the bottom set for Maths and the top set for everything else so know what I'm talking about.
It also bears mentioning that more and more SEN teachers are extremely well qualified, which may or may not be their own choice. Such staff are priceless resources capable of acting as catalysts, with the necessary support, resources and staffing. I have seen ABC1 parents attracted to schools which were anything but simply by virtue of those schools having a desirable resource base; I know that because I ran one of them.
14 September 2010 1:58AM
I worked in a school in Suffolk where two Thai girls were dumped (long term) into a special needs class because their English was poor.
14 September 2010 2:02AM
What complete and utter tosh.... try Bad parenting, rise of junk food, console gaming, celebr guidence oh don't forget x-factor.....
14 September 2010 2:15AM
The Education system needs a complete overhaul but especially in this area. My Neqhew went to a local State Prep school and at the age of 5yrs,the Head thought he had 'learning difficulties' due to him being quiet in class. The Head was an egostical manaic, who was hell bent on getting extra funding for her School. So she went ahead & organised a person from the Local Authority to assess him, without explaining to the parents exactly what would occur as an outcome. Basically he would have been given a Statement. Luckily for my Neqhew,I was visiting and noticed a letter about this matter. I attended 'the assessment' and the assessor had to concede that there was NO need for her visit. When I questioned the Head afterwards,I recieved a inadequete response about how they get a certain number of children tested. She ended up blamimg the the previous Head. My point is,if he had been Statemented it would have been near impossible to get that removed. He was a shy child. After this terrible event our family took the decision to send him to a Public School. In the Junior School he was in,he flourished. This September he started Secondary School ,in a highly selective Top 20 Public School. I shudder to think what would have happened to him if he had been Statemented. State Schools are too quick to attach labels to children. In our families case, we had to leave the State sector but what of all the other children left behind?
The Government needs to regulate this area far better and allow parent to get second opinions. Some Heads do not appreciate being questioned and that leaves parents in a difficult position. Not everyone is able to rangle with the school system and it will be the children of parents, unable to stand up for them that get affected the most.
The whole Sen structure of monetary incentives and points for Schools needs to be stopped. Bad teachers need to be thrown out, for the sake of the defenceless children. Those that really require extra support should be given it but there needs to be in place stringent checks. To many State Schools are working the system irrespective of the long term damage that they may cause childrens futures.
14 September 2010 2:27AM
BUT I AM SPECIAL!!!1!!
14 September 2010 2:31AM
Rampant. I have an old friend who has spent years working with special needs kids. Now, he says, they get teenagers with what is called "Oppositional Defiance Syndrome".
Arsey teenager, I said? Yup, said he. Syndrome? Normal for fuck's sake.
14 September 2010 2:36AM
I worked in a school in Suffolk where two Thai girls were dumped (long term) into a special needs class because their English was poor.
How odd? Meanwhile in London at the turn of the millennium, I came across one Irish traveller diagnosed as borderline PMLD because she couldn't or wouldn't respond to the great bundle of nurosis playing itself out before here. A far more obvious example, and one to which I initially went along with, was the practice of filling withdrwawal rooms with ;gobby' black boys simply because they were loud and awkward. You know what? I don't miss much about some schools but I'd love to know where many of those loud and awkward boys are. I suppose The Pogues nailed that answer, didn't they? Some of them end up in heaven; some of them end up in hell.
14 September 2010 2:52AM
@ArseneKnows 14 September 2010 12:34AM
Do you make choices how you spend your money. As a leftie, I am sure that you know that Clement Attlee, a PM who the last shower were not fit to tie his shoelaces, was educated at Haileybury and Oxford.
Of course - as any fule know - every child who is sent to public schhol is in effect an extra tax contribution by the parents.
You may not believe it, but
1. For most of us, the schools we are sent to is not a matter of our choice.
2. Public school kids also bleed when cut, and grieve at loss.
3. Some of them are quite nice. Just a few, of course, wouldn't want to piss on your prejudices too heavily.
Also, a huge swathe of Labour MPs were either privately or grammar school educated. Working Class Tory's (shock horror) has it the full list, though it's a while ago. Yes, I know, different rules apply to Labour MPs.
14 September 2010 2:53AM
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14 September 2010 3:25AM
@ Zara77
I presume you are talking about the SSEN system?
Choice is the bottom line- but have you any idea how rare they are? About 2.7% of the population get them. Although they are no guarantee of anything, the enhanced funding can buy in specialist TA, teaching or other multi-agency support. Because they are quasi-legal documents, students can, within reason, be withdrawn and have certain curriculum alterations made for them which would not be as easy to arrange otherwise. And, as if all that wasn't enough, students so favoured can apply for special exam concessions, which usually involves having extra time along with a reader or a writer.
14 September 2010 4:48AM
@Pangar
Quite a lot of the children do not require these measure but due to poor teaching,are being labelled into a box from an early age. Im not sure if you are aware but Key Stage 1 assessments are actually based on teacher observation. So what happens when a parent challenges the teachers/Heads methods? They have the power to support each other and there is no real external checkpoint to protect the childs interest.
In my Nephews case the Head just wanted to get the points/funding,even though it was not needed. Actually he is a gifted child,whose future prospects would have been negatively affected. You see, once a Statement is attached to a child it follows and with it-the idea that parents are deluded about their child ability,should they challenge it. The Local Authority tend to support the School. So then you have go via a child psychologist,I know all this because of what nearly occured to my Nephew. Some children just require good teachers. Its a real shame, that we felt forced to go private for him. Until this incident we had blind belief in supporting the State System.
14 September 2010 5:43AM
if it's 2.7% of the population, it's about 1.7m. If it's 2.7% of kids under 16, it's about 333,720. If roughly half of these are mis-diagnosed, it's quite a small number, so does it really matter??. Most of these programs are self serving anyway, so fine tuning them is just for show. If the whole concept went away, no one will notice.
14 September 2010 5:54AM
So no change there - same as when I entered SEN teaching 30 yrs ago!
14 September 2010 5:59AM
When are we going to get away from limited and limiting notions of 'normality' ? Time to abandon special classifications such as 'special' needs. All have 'needs', they are just different.
14 September 2010 6:17AM
I'm all in favour of people sending their kids to public schools, if you can afford it you're enhancing their future prospects. We all know that special needs kids that survive Eton and Harrow go on to become MP's. Or am I completely misreading their behaviour during Prime Ministers Questions?
14 September 2010 6:21AM
It was nice to see someone else recognise that parents are all too keen to diagnose their children with something to try and get the benefits. Someone I know - who shall remain nameless - has done just this; sadly, not only to gain any benefits available, but also so that they can (a) wave the 'poor child''s 'condition' like a flag for sympathy and attention (for themselves as the 'poor' parent having to deal with it), and (b) use it to 'explain' their 'poor child''s bad behaviour as down to their 'condition' rather than admit that it is their own complete lack of proper parenting that is responsible.
I do, however, blame the authorities here for not carrying out a proper assessment for the child, to determine if they really do have special needs; they simply believed everything the parent told them about the so-called symptoms.
14 September 2010 6:32AM
It seems that whenever there is a question about education in the UK, the answer given is always - The Teacher and Teaching. Eg, public schools do better because of better teaching, state schools are underperforming because of bad teaching. Teachers are letting down SEN/Gifted children etc, etc.
Having taught in England and China it's been interesting to observe how, in China, teachers are expected to teach a good lesson, but it is not their responsibility whether or not the students learn. In China it is my impression that the responsibility for learning falls 70% on the leaners themselves, with the parents and the teacher sharing the remainder. Contrast with the UK where the culture seems to be that responsibility for learning is 70% the teacher, with the parents and child sharing the remainder.
I think this overdependence on the teacher in UK classrooms is quite unrealistic and damaging. Whilst public schools doubtless have on average better teaching, I feel it is also the message they give to their students, that they need to figure things out for themselves and achieve their best no matter what the obstacles, that is really lacking in state education. Of course public schools have huge material advantages over state schools. But this scapegoating and overemphasising of the importance of the teacher - particularly regarding secondary education - is just making matters worse.
14 September 2010 6:40AM
Having come from a military family having served in WWI & II, I can say without a doubt that ANY child of a seving military parent needs special attention. If you don't get the SEN label for the child, he or she, like so many military vets, just gets swept under the carpet.
14 September 2010 7:02AM
similarly, many kids diagnosed with ADHD just require a clip round the ear.
14 September 2010 7:03AM
The inefficient state - again.
14 September 2010 7:19AM
More attention needs to be paid at the diagnostic end. When you find that a considerable proportion of a class is labelled as ''special needs'' then the term loses its specificity and the really special child does not get the attention s/he needs.
The vast majority of children should fall within the norms - if not, the norms need to be redefined. It is then teaching techniques and ability that fail and the pupils' expectations of themselves that are faulty if the class does not live up to reasonable expectations.
14 September 2010 7:20AM
The article begins with too many children being diagnosed and ends with Teather saying there are too few - what a confusing article
I'm with Arseneknows on this - prepare to return to those wonderful days when children were flung out of school or left to rot as their needs are dismissed as the 'school's fault' and the funding for support is slashed - and the jails swell with these children as they are booted out of the system at the other end to no job and no future
It's nothing but more softening up propaganda- the target now is the most vulnerable children within mainstream schools for whom life is already pretty tough - how low are this elitist demolition government going to stoop?
14 September 2010 7:25AM
More teachers - smaller class sizes could help. But that's not going to happen any time soon.
@pangar 1.36am
Good post.
14 September 2010 7:34AM
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14 September 2010 7:36AM
similarly, many kids diagnosed with ADHD just require a clip round the ear.
So thats why when given an amphetimine based medication, which would make a normal child run around uncontrolably, my son is calmer and more focused? Your comment is completely without any type of thought or experience. Hey why dont i just beat him before he goes to bed and first thing in the morning too? Parent of a child with autism and adhd.
14 September 2010 7:51AM
I suspect many may have had rather too many clips around the ear - if not worse.
ADHD is sometimes called 'Dad Defecit Syndrome' and what some of these children need is a good male role model and a game of football to burn off excess energy.
14 September 2010 7:55AM
i've been calling this country "special needs britain" since the last government decided, in their great wisdom, that no one would ever be normal again.....
14 September 2010 7:56AM
BrianN
You are so right. What is normal. I am 58 and I have special needs, I must do, I'm in therapy for long term post traumatic stress disorder because I don't see the world the way every one else does, or so I'm told
Deja
You too are right. I'm from a military family, both father and grandfather served in ww2 and my father in various other little skirmishes until 1954. He was seriously off the wall, but like a dummy to gain his approval, I too joined the military 18 years including reserve service 2 of them in Belfast in the 70's. The result, see above.
If funding is going to kids who don't need it just because their parents think it will improve their educational chances, then shame on those parents for taking money from children who really do.
14 September 2010 8:01AM
I am the father and before a child is diagnosed with adhd the health officials go through how you as a parent actually parent....that means questioning on all aspects of parenting by psychiatrist and community psychiatric nurse. However the game of football or physical exercise can help some children with adhd but primarily with sleeping rather than concentration. But not all children respond to the same therapies.
14 September 2010 8:03AM
As many as half of all the children identified as having special educational needs are wrongly diagnosed and simply need better teaching or pastoral care instead
how about better parenting? that's where it all starts