Balls sets out plans to give SEN pupils better deal

6 Aug 09
Children’s Secretary Ed Balls is to improve the support given to pupils with special educational needs by toughening up inspections and giving parents stronger powers
By David Williams

06 August 2009

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls is to improve the support given to pupils with special educational needs by toughening up inspections and giving parents stronger powers.

Schools regulator Ofsted will be required to treat as a top priority the services available to children with SEN.

Balls also revealed that parents will be more able to challenge the terms set out in their child’s SEN statement, with new appeal rights when the statement is reviewed by their local education authority.

Launching the package on August 3, Balls said the measure would give parents more say over the objectives set for their child, ensuring the support on offer was up to date and best suited to their children’s needs.

The measures were recommended in an interim report, also published on August 3, by Brian Lamb, chair of the Special Educational Consortium.

The study is part of a wider government-commissioned inquiry into SEN, due to publish its final report next month.

Lamb said his work so far has uncovered ‘unacceptable variation’ in the experiences of parents of children with SEN.

‘The education system as a whole is insufficiently focused on objectives and outcomes for disabled children and children with SEN,’ he said.

‘This is a long-standing and deep-seated cultural problem that has its origins in an era before all our children were entitled to education in our schools.’

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