CURRENT ISSUES IN

EDUCATION: SPECIAL
EDUCATION NEEDS SUPPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................................................................3
Thematic Analysis..............................................................................................................4
Previous Situation of Special Education Needs Support:..............................................4
Present Situation of Special Education Needs Support:...............................................6
Future Implications of Special Education Needs Support.............................................7
Gaps for Further Research:...............................................................................................7
Conclusion:........................................................................................................................8
References:........................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Special educational needs are associated with different kinds of learning support to the
persons who has learning difficulties or disabilities that impose hindrance to the learning
process. This issue has been a matter of concern for the government because there is a
growing number of persons with learning difficulties who need to be handled with
effective care. The main focus of this assignment is to analyse the existing sources of
information to find out the current condition of the process. The government has
adequate arrangement for providing care to the challenged people, but there are some
gaps in the existing provision of support. Although there are appropriate arrangements
for support to the persons with special educational needs, there is lack of
consciousness among the parents and relatives of the challenged persons. In this
assignment public and private sources of information will be analysed to find out the
current condition of the process and existing gaps will be identified appropriately in this
case. The research question in this study is What is the current condition of the special
educational needs support of the government as well as the private sector? There are a
lot of children with learning difficulties who need special education. The UK government
provides special education needs support to the children with various kinds of
disabilities with the Children and Families Act 2014 (Carrig, 2014). Firstly, they assess
the needs of the children and other persons and they provide their support accordingly.
Moreover, they have also reformed the special educational needs support and
incorporated it with the EHC plans. EHC is a unified plan that addresses the special
needs of the children by taking into account issues like education, health care and
social needs (Council of Europe, 2016). Local authorities have extended their
supporting hand to the children with SEN and arranged consultation with the parents to
address their issues in special educational needs. The budget to provide proper care to
those children is allocated swiftly by the authorities of the government.

THEMATIC ANALYSIS
For this research, the researcher has identified three themes that will support the
outcome of the research. These three major focus of the research will be the previous
situation, present condition and future implications of special education needs support
system of UK. Appropriate documents will be analysed to find out appropriate
information about the whole process.
PREVIOUS SITUATION OF SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS SUPPORT:
Previously, the UK government provided support to the children with special educational
needs under the Education Act 1996. It was also amended with the associated
regulations in this sector. There was also a statutory code of practice that would ensure
some affirmative actions to the persons with special educational needs (Cooper and
Jacobs, 2010). Three levels of interventions were provided to the pupils of educational
institutions. Firstly, there was a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) in the
school who identified the students who will fall under the school actions process and
they would be provided with affirmative actions to address their needs (Cullen et al.,
2012). Then, the school authority would call for external services if they found that they
were unable to provide the students with adequate services. A statement was provided
to the authorities who would be able to understand the situation according to the
statement.
In the previous situation, the focus of the government and other local authorities was to
provide support to the school-aged children. The school had to appoint a member of the
staff as a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) (Desforges and Lindsay
2010). Primarily, the local authority was responsible for identifying the children with
special needs who will be provided with SEN support according to their needs.
Individual assessments of the child were conducted to understand about the condition
of that child. The needs of the child were addressed in a statement of SEN which would
be reviewed by the local authority (Cullen et al., 2012). The parents of the children
would have the liberty to select a preferred school that would be suitable for the age,

aptitude and ability of the child. Several academies comply in accordance with the
Academies Act 1996. The children would also have gone through the Learning Difficulty
Assessment (LDA) under the Learning and Skills Act 2000. The primary goal of this
process was to assess the level of learning difficulties with the children who did not
have statements of their difficulties but they needed special needs support.
Concerns were raised about the operation of the SEN systems during the time 19972000 (Giangreco and Doyle, 2007). The Commons Education and Skills Select
Committee addressed concerns about the confidence of the parents about the SEN
system. Various issues were identified in this case that include transfer of statements,
role of local authorities, placement decisions, school admissions and equal access to
children. The Labour Government tried to identify factors that would improve the
confidence of the parents. Wide range of proposals were given to improve the system.
The government considered a wide range of options to improve the whole process
(Douglas et al., 2009). Firstly, the government provided the liberty of decisions to the
parents so as to which educational setting would be the most suitable for addressing the
needs of the children. Then the implications for more funding would be assessed by the
government to ensure a high quality service to the children with special needs (Farrel et
al., 2010). They also wanted to prevent unnecessary consideration of special schools
for children who would be able to fit in the regular schools. There was also
consideration about the support of post-16 age to ensure their success in the working
field after their education.
The primary idea about the consideration of the reformation of the system was to
remove bias towards the inclusion and to improve diversity and the range of schools to
provide support to the children with special educational needs (Giangreco and Doyle,
2007). Moreover, a number of legislations were also formulated to address the pitfalls
and gaps of the previous process. The major legislation in this regard is the Children
and Families Act 2014 (Cooper and Jacobs, 2010). There were some changes that
were invoked in the act which included assigning definitions and duties to the concerned
personnel to identify the children and other young persons who have some special
needs. Education, healthcare provision and joint commissioning would be integrated

locally as well as the mainstreaming of special education needs to the education

process. Personal budgets for the young people to address their special needs was also
set by the authority.

PRESENT SITUATION OF SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS SUPPORT:

The revised code of practice of the SEN provided some definitions of SEN that referred
to the difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made at
that person. A school going child will be labelled as child with learning difficulty if he or
she has a significantly greater learning difficulty than the majority of the rest of children
of the same age (Council of Europe, 2016). Children will also be presumed to have
disability if they are unable to use the facilities that were generally provided to the
children of the same age in the mainstream schools. The special educational provision
refers to the educational or training provision additional to or different from the
provisions offered to the mainstream schools and the students of the same age
(Dockrell and Lindsay, 2015). A child will fall under the special education needs section
if he or she has some or most of the criteria that were stated above. The SEN used in
the codes of practice include learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD) which was
confused earlier.
However, the types of support that are provided to the children with special needs vary
greatly. The government has identified two broad levels of support that include SEN
support and Education, Health and Care Plans. Primarily, SEN support are provided to
the children at pre-schools, schools and colleges (Blatchford et al., 2009). The SEN
support for children under 5 years age include a written progress check of the child
when it is 2 years old, aged between 2 to 3 years old and the time when the child is in
the first year of primary school. The authority would make reasonable adjustments to
the needs of the child and provide special support to the child (Carrig, 2014). Some of
the care that would be given to the children with special educational needs include
special learning programme, extra help from teachers or other staffs, working in smaller

groups, monitoring in the class or after-class period, assistance in class activities when
they are taking part, special encouragement in their activities, support in communication
with other children etc. The young individual of 16-25 years of age would need to make
a contact with the schools or college authority before starting the course.
There were some significant changes in the present system that the previous system.
These changes were introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014. The code of
practices covers the children and young adults ranging from 0-25 years of age (Council
of Europe, 2016). The major focus of this document was to ensure the participation of
the young adults and children to the regular process. Higher emphasis was provided to
the generation of effective outcome for the children or young persons with special needs
(Douglas et al., 2009). The joint planning and commissioning of services were directed
to ensure a close co-operation of services in education as well as health and social
care. More complex needs of the children were also addressed in this case which will
help them to ensure their active participation.

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS OF SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS SUPPORT

The present code of practice will be applicable till 2018 and the viability of the process
will be assessed throughout the time. The future of this sector would be the active
participation of all the stakeholders of the process including parents, families, school
authority, government, local authority etc. The parents and the school authorities would
be empowered to ensure the best outcome from the process (Cooper and Jacobs,
2010). The codes of practice will be reviewed in the future to meet the changing
requirements of teaching, curriculum and a wide range of policies would be formulated
to improve the process (Desforges and Lindsay 2010). The physical and mental
conditions both would be emphasized by the authority to ensure the best outcome from
the process. The whole system would work in harmony to get the desired results from
the process.

GAPS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH:

The major gap of the research was the scarcity of resources and information from the
similar sector (Council of Europe, 2006). There are not much documents that provide
specific ideas about the present situation of the process. The government has
established a code of practice in this case, but there are not many evaluation reports
that would help to understand the implications of the process (Dockrell and Lindsay,
2007). The researchers have to go to the school authority, parents and the children to
gather data about the progress of the process which is a difficult task. Preparing a
report on the progress of the process is also a complex job. It consumes a lot of
resources which can be overcome with appropriate support. Therefore, more support
should be provided from the side of the government and the local authorities to ensure
best outcome from the process.

CONCLUSION:
At the end of this discussion, it can be said that the special education needs sector has
some pitfalls which need to be eradicated by the collaboration between the government
and all the stakeholders of the process. The confidence of the parents should be
attained by the government to ensure the most desired outcomes from the process.
Government has established a wide range of activities to support the special education
needs sector. If the full potential of these children can be used, it would be more
beneficial for the countries. Therefore, more support of the government and the private
sector is needed to ensure the best outcome from it.

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