By Nick Mann | 4 November 2011
Young people with special educational needs face a ‘postcode lottery’ when it comes to receiving the education, training and support best suited to them, Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge said today.
Hodge was commenting on a National Audit Office report on special education for 16–25 year-olds, published today. She said the relatively high number of young people with special educational needs who were out of work, education or training was ‘extremely worrying’.
She called on the Department for Education to set out the steps it planned to take to increase the participation of those with special needs.
The NAO report concluded that the exam grades and course outcomes achieved by this group of young people were improving at similar or better rates than those for all students in this age group.
But it warned that parents, students and councils did not always have the information they need to choose the most suitable school or college for each young person’s needs, and claimed that local authorities do not always consider value for money when examining placement options.
It also highlighted ‘wide variations’ from area to area in terms of the availability and use of specialist provision and the percentage of young people being sent to a particular type of education provider, such as schools and colleges.
Alluding to these discrepancies, Hodge said: ‘We will want to explore with the department why these differences exist and what steps they are taking to ensure students are not disadvantaged by where they live.’
Alison Ryan, education policy adviser at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, warned that funding cuts risk jeopardising progress made in this area.
She said: ‘While we applaud the National Audit Office’s focus on value for money, support for those with SEN cannot be done “on the cheap”. It requires high-quality professional expertise amongst specialists and school and college staff alike, with the appropriate training to support it.
‘We fear that the inconsistency of support, highlighted by the NAO, will become worse as a result of the government loosening local authority involvement and oversight of education. Further deregulation and competition will do nothing to improve education for young people with special needs.’
