The Broken SEND System: A Crisis for the Next Generation

18 Jan

The SEND system is broken. Thousands of children and young people are being left without the support they need. Even the Secretary of State for Education has admitted that the system isn’t working for anyone involved (1). Whilst the focus of special educational needs and disabilities support is often on improving educational outcomes, the consequences of this crisis reach far beyond a lack of qualifications.

Over the past few months, the number of adults reaching out to me for support to access reasonable adjustments in their workplace has increased massively. Many comment that their employers don’t understand their needs and feel that they are trying to gain some unfair advantage over their colleagues. Others have only recently realised that their lifelong struggles are related to an undiagnosed neurodivergent condition and are desperately trying to muddle through while they wait years for an assessment. At the same time, job centres are struggling with the numbers of autistic people and people with learning disabilities who need help finding employment, many of whom have been unemployed for years and some who have never been able to secure a paid job.

But where have all these adults been hiding until now? And what has this go to do with the SEND system in schools?

Almost every adult I speak to who is struggling now is able to describe a childhood of struggling at school, failing to meet expectations and low self-esteem. Whether or not they were able to achieve qualifications, and whether or not they went onto to further or higher education, they are all able to reflect on how different their school experience and childhood could have been if they had understood themselves better and had access to support. Whilst many have now gone on to secure employment or find success as entrepreneurs, there are just as many who haven’t and who are fighting an ongoing battle to develop the skills or achieve the qualifications they need to move forward in their lives. Some are able to live independently while others have had involvement with the criminal justice system. Some have been overlooked for a promotion, stuck in the same role for decades whilst non-disabled colleagues progress through their careers, and many are still searching for the support they needed but never received as children.

The statistics around disabled adults in employment are staggering. Only 16% of autistic people are in full time paid employment compared with 80% of the non-disabled population, yet 77% of those who are unemployed want to work (2). Disabled employees receive on average almost 20% lower pay than non-disabled employees (3). The wide range of challenges facing disabled people when it comes to finding and maintaining employment include perceptions that disabled people are less productive than non-disabled people, inaccessible formats for job application forms and interviews, and concerns felt by employers that they do not know how to support a disabled person. These challenges are all contributory factors to the 29% disability employment gap that still exists in today’s society.

Employers’ capabilities to respond appropriately to disabled employees and accommodate their needs is a key part of ensuring disabled people are able to secure and remain in suitable employment. However, as the majority of employers are not adequately equipped to do this, access to additional support in the workplace can often depend entirely on the individual knowing what they need and having the confidence and ability to self-advocate. So we get stuck in a vicious cycle. Young people with disabilities leave school without the appropriate employment skills and without having received the necessary support to develop vital skills in communication, independent thinking and problem solving. Yet these are the skills that may be most useful when it comes to accessing the support they need to succeed at work. If every adult who is struggling with work due to a lifelong disability now had been able to access support at school, achieve qualifications and develop the life skills necessary to succeed in employment, would they still be facing the same challenges they’re experiencing today?

This may seem a simplistic approach yet, whilst school support can’t solve the entire problem, we have to recognise the risk we face by not providing adequate support for children and young people with SEND in schools. Without access to adapted learning in an environment that suits their needs, how can we expect them to achieve academic success? Without access to additional support in the classroom and essential therapeutic interventions, how can they grow up to secure employment, be part of their community and achieve positive outcomes in their personal life, relationships and long term health?

What happens if we continue to fail young people with SEND during their school years? And what can we learn from current and past experience to help us move forwards? We see the evidence in the adults who have already left the education system without ever receiving the support they needed. As a result of failures in the system, too many people have been forced to enter the adult world with poor academic outcomes, poor mental health, low self-esteem and limited ability to cope with the demands of independent life. We see the increased need for adult support services, with longer waiting lists for physical and mental health intervention on the NHS and a growing pressure on the welfare system. The scale of the problem, both for children and adults, is immense.

This may be only one piece of the puzzle. Not every disabled or unemployed adult required SEND support as a child, while a lot more needs to be done to create equal opportunities at work. School support also needs to reach beyond preparing children and young people for the workforce. Despite this, research has shown time and again that early intervention is vital for positive long term outcomes. Whether our focus is on the outcomes of one individual or the broader national perspective, failing to fix the SEND system now is going to lead to an even more extensive crisis in the future.

…

(1) https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/gillian-keegan-admits-send-system-isnt-working-well-anybody

(2) The National Autistic Society (2016) The autism employment gap: Too much information in the workplace

(3) https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/news/explaining-disability-employment-gap