Best Practice

SEND: A new form of accountability planned

From May 2016, there will be inspection of local authority SEND services. The Pathfinder final report suggests some accountability is needed, but what are the implications for schools?

The final report of the evaluation of the SEND Pathfinder Programme gives a worryingly mixed account of parents’ experiences of SEND reform.

Separate planning between agencies, parents used as go-betweens, and some potentially effective systems undermined by lack of resources and funding.

It is not a cohesive picture of a system on the brink of SEND break-through. Rather it is a patchy inconclusive set of mixed impressions of a system trying to find its feet at best and sinking slowly at its worst.

Any overall picture is hard to see because there is none. Local authorities were given a significant amount of discretion in terms of the way they implemented the reform. The government’s approach was to lay out the principles but to allow detail to be drawn in at a local level. However, this has led to variable implementation.

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