{"id":154,"date":"2011-11-16T12:59:25","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T12:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/?p=154"},"modified":"2021-10-18T08:26:24","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T08:26:24","slug":"investigating-the-special-education-system-2-what-the-data-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/2011\/11\/investigating-the-special-education-system-2-what-the-data-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigating the special education system 2: what the data shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tweet<\/a><\/span>This summer, the Department for Education (DfE) provided a\u00a0statistical breakdown of special education system<\/a>.\u00a0The data throws up some interesting points, here\u2019s two:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The number of children granted statements of special educational need has decreased steadily over the past four years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Statements of special educational need, which are notoriously difficult to obtain, outline a child’s needs and specify how these should be met. They are legally binding documents which enable parents to hold Local Authorities (LAs) to account. Given that Ofsted has criticised teachers using the term SEN too liberally (many SEN children do not have statements), it is interesting that the numbers of parents successfully obtaining statements is decreasing. Is it harder for parents to convince LA of their children\u2019s needs? If so, what does this tell us about Children\u2019s Minister, Sarah Teather\u2019s \u00a0plans to scrap the statementing system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While on average around 69% of statemented children are placed in mainstream schools, there are huge variations between LAs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Cornwall nearly 90% of statemented children attend mainstream school, a figure which has remained fairly constant\u00a0since 2006. This contrasts significantly with LAs such as Leicester and Hertfordshire, where around 60% of statemented children receive mainstream education.<\/p>\n

But variations in specialist provision\u00a0aren’t merely a symptom of the rural or urban nature of communities. Rather, the DfE data also demonstrates variations between LAs within London.\u00a0While in Kingston upon Thames the proportion of statemented children taught in mainstream schools has grown steadily to 83% in 2010, in Havering the same figure remains at 54%.<\/p>\n

I plan to follow up these two points by researching:<\/em><\/p>\n