DEVON County Council’s cabinet member responsible for services that support young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) says that she is disappointed to hear little of substance in the Chancellor’s spending review regarding national reform of the SEND system.

Councillor Denise Bickley said that by not prioritising change to the SEND system today, the Government is kicking the can down the road and failing thousands of children and their families.

The government says details of the government’s intended approach to SEND reform and how it will support local authorities will be set out in the schools’ white paper in the autumn.

Councillor Bickley said: ‘Autumn is not soon enough.

‘The current system is failing our children nationwide, today.

‘Rising demand, year on year, increasing costs to meet demand, and funding that has left local authorities across the country unable to keep up; clearly there’s an immediate need for national reform of the system.

‘The spending review document mentions £547 million allocated for plans to ‘reform the SEND system to improve pupil outcomes’, but we will have to wait to see how that will be spent.

‘Identifying school placements for children and young people with SEND can be challenging.

‘Our focus is to help schools be more inclusive so that young people can attend their local mainstream school, with the support they need, alongside their friends.

‘At the same time, we are increasing capacity within specialist schools and settings for young people with more complex needs.

‘We understand that there are generally better outcomes for the majority of children and young people where their learning is alongside friends and peers within their own communities.

‘That’s why we are focusing on improving inclusion in our schools, reducing our reliance on the independent sector and use of out of county provision.

‘At present, mainstream school budgets are under increasing pressure, with teaching assistant numbers falling and class sizes rising.

‘It is unsustainable to continue expecting schools to do more with less, while facing pressure to maintain standards of behaviour, improve academic results and meet the needs of every child.

‘We therefore welcome the extra funding for the schools’ budgets of which we hope the South West gets a fair share, correcting the poor funding deal our children currently get compared to the national picture’.