Dr Mic Carolan takes stock of current SEN provision.
It’s fair to say that JUST STOP OIL has benefitted from a million more column inches compared with the quagmire that is SEND assessment and provision. If you are an influencer, a pop star or a media person you can just declare that you are on the autistic spectrum, but it is not the same for a pupil in primary school with communication issues or struggling to make sense of print or finding catching a ball or holding a fork a major hurdle. We are rightly aware of the overall national distaste for fox hunting, leading to protests and bans but we are unable to conceptualise the SEND chaos into one symbol. We have wheelchair users in soap operas, we have neurodiversity in detective programmes, we have the challenge of illiteracy in scenes of prison.
Consider the enormous impact of the heroic Robbie Burrows campaign with his friend Kevin Sinfield for MND; it was not just about money it was awareness, inclusion, identity, commitment.
I conducted some research during the pandemic, highlighting the stresses experienced by women carers during the assessment process for their children subsequently on the autistic spectrum. When our younger son was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of seventeen we experienced similar stresses: ignorance, helplessness, bewilderment and fear. Those women were heroic in their search for information, support and diagnosis.
The now woolly anachronistic academic arguments of the 1980s by university lecturers and professors that desired a world in which difference was not recognised did much harm. Like the secrecy of the 1950s for male homosexuals trying to avoid the direct spotlight of vigorous intrusive police actions (my Irish Catholic uncle was arrested), this fortunately was replaced by enlightened and informed legislation. Imagine the arrogance of an academic with several degrees arguing that we ought not to use the phrase ‘special education’ as if referring to additional needs or intellectually different might solve children’s struggles. I was once told by a teacher in a secondary comprehensive that ‘only thick people teach thick kids.’
Clearly the diminution of local authorities and the growth of free schools and academies have changed the complexity of effective SEND planning but it can still be achieved with vision and goodwill. I have been privileged to work with several schools ranked consistently outstanding, and more essentially loved by children, parents and carers. A surplus high school, previously PFI, has been altered to make exceptional secondary Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC9 provision in local authority A, in another a completely new purpose designed primary ASC provision has been built by the local authority B. The historical position in which we find ourselves is not party political, all politicians appear to ignore parents, skilled practitioners and support groups and charities. The assumption is that it is someone else’s problem and without bringing together effective campaigners and theorists and medical statisticians we will lurch about in the dark. There are excellent advocates for people with specific disabilities, SCOPE, sense, RNIB, Mencap, Autism Awareness (random groups) but we are not in the Dickensian era expecting church groups or philanthropists to provide for those in our society who face multiple challenges. This is a societal issue, a collective responsibility. Many years ago, during the Toxteth riots a mother told me ‘You don’t know what it’s like living in a tenement and having a child who is different.’
The data available by accurate research will predict the assessment demands in a given population. Developmental data ought to be readily available. For example ‘sense’ indicates that there are 23,379 children and young people aged 0-18 identified (2022) as deaf-blind. That provides the data needed for assessment, sensory methods of teaching, speech and language therapists, teachers skilled with children who have complex learning difficulties. Local authorities once worked in cooperation with neighbouring boroughs to provide economy of scale. The data available for Autism is rich and concerning. Beyond Autism indicates that of the population with an EHCP, over 31% have autism listed as their primary need (currently over 103,000 pupils), and just 30% of adults on the spectrum are economically active. These few examples demonstrate the detail and data-rich information openly available. Given a team of research graduates and representatives of parents and carers alliances, I believe that we might provide the minister and parliament with the basis of an honest SEND policy.
Mic Carolan
Dr Mic Carolan has been a teacher, researcher, inspector, seconded assistant director and head teacher during almost sixty years of working with vulnerable young people.
