Research reveals major disparities in how schools identify and support children with special educational needs, with academies showing lower identification rates
Children in England experience huge variations in having their special educational needs identified depending on school type, background and levels of absence, according to research by the Education Policy Institute (EPI).
It found pupils attending academies – rather than schools maintained by local authorities – or those living in heavily academised areas were less likely to be identified as having special educational needs when compared with other pupils.
The EPI said this may be due to fewer Send pupils enrolling in academies, under-identification, or it could be that academies are successfully meeting needs without formal identification.
Children with language barriers, for whom English is not their first language, are also less likely to be identified with Send, as are those with high levels of sickness absence and frequent school moves, because their needs remain hidden as they are less visible in school.
Girls are less likely than boys to be identified with social, emotional and mental health needs in secondary school, despite similar chances of having a behavioural or emotional disorder, according to the data. The report studied two cohorts, each with 600,000 children, as they passed through primary and secondary school to see who was identified as having special educational needs and who was not.
Jo Hutchinson, the director for Send and additional needs at the EPI, said: “Our research has confirmed the existence of the long-suspected lottery for Send in primary and secondary schools in England and pinpointed several groups of children who are at elevated risk of missing out on support.”
Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “For some years, it has been clear that where many academy schools were refusing admissions of Send students and suggesting ‘needs could be met better elsewhere’, the choice of school and educational opportunity for these students was being denied.
“It is good to see this being highlighted and we want to see the government urgently looking into the reasons why.”
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