By Lauren Higgs Thursday, 21 April 2011
Be the first to comment
Children with emotional and cognitive learning difficulties are being abandoned under government plans to overhaul special educational needs (SEN) provision, according to the teaching union NASUWT.
Report found teachers regard training on SEN as less important than access to specialist support. Image: Phil Adams
The claim came as the union published its interim research report into teachers’ experiences of the SEN system and inclusion.
Teachers warned that the government’s SEN green paper seeks to redefine special educational needs as purely physical and medical, which could leave children whose needs relate to emotional, cognitive and social factors with little or no support.
The report also finds that teachers regard training on SEN as less important than access to specialist support, from professionals such as educational psychologists.
Effective inclusion of pupils with SEN in classrooms is dependent on the availability of support from teaching assistants, the report claims.
But the coalition government is putting this at risk because of its austerity measures and the decision to abandon the work of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body, teachers said.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said parents are likely to view the government’s plans for SEN as a cynical and callous attempt to cut costs.
"Children’s special needs don’t just disappear because a government decides to change the definition of who qualifies," she said.
"The views expressed by teachers in this interim report cast doubt on the effectiveness, appropriateness and viability of many of the other strategies proposed in the coalition government’s SEN green paper. The cause of SEN cannot be advanced in the context of the coalition’s austerity measures."
She added that children and young people with SEN rely on teachers being given the time to work with them, schools being able to access specialist advice from professionals and in-class support from teaching assistants.
"All of these are either being cut or removed as the deep and savage cuts bite in local authorities and schools," she said
Teachers warned that the government’s SEN green paper seeks to redefine special educational needs as purely physical and medical, which could leave children whose needs relate to emotional, cognitive and social factors with little or no support.
The report also finds that teachers regard training on SEN as less important than access to specialist support, from professionals such as educational psychologists.
Effective inclusion of pupils with SEN in classrooms is dependent on the availability of support from teaching assistants, the report claims.
But the coalition government is putting this at risk because of its austerity measures and the decision to abandon the work of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body, teachers said.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said parents are likely to view the government’s plans for SEN as a cynical and callous attempt to cut costs.
"Children’s special needs don’t just disappear because a government decides to change the definition of who qualifies," she said.
"The views expressed by teachers in this interim report cast doubt on the effectiveness, appropriateness and viability of many of the other strategies proposed in the coalition government’s SEN green paper. The cause of SEN cannot be advanced in the context of the coalition’s austerity measures."
She added that children and young people with SEN rely on teachers being given the time to work with them, schools being able to access specialist advice from professionals and in-class support from teaching assistants.
"All of these are either being cut or removed as the deep and savage cuts bite in local authorities and schools," she said
