A wide-ranging review of special educational needs provision by Oftsedconcluded that many children would not be identified as having SEN ifschools focused on improving teaching and learning.
Ofsted said the term SEN was used too widely. One in five of the 1.7million school-age children in England is identified as having SEN.
Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said, 'Although we saw someexcellent support for children with special educational needs, and ahuge investment of resources, there needs to be a shift indirection.
'It is vitally important that both the way they are identified, and thesupport they receive, work in the best interests of the childreninvolved. Higher expectations of all children, and better teaching andlearning, would lead to fewer children being identified as havingspecial educational needs.'
Ofsted visited 228 nurseries, schools and colleges in 22 localauthorities and carried out detailed case studies with 345 children andyoung people with SEN and disabilities.
In areas where the formula funding for schools took into account thenumber of children with SEN, this gave 'an obvious motivation forschools to identify more such children', the report said. Some schoolsbelieved that identifying more children with SEN would improve theirOfsted inspection score
The number of children diagnosed with SEN who require extra support butwhose needs are not considered severe enough for a statement of specialeducational needs has risen from 14 per cent in 2003 to 18 per cent in2010. The number with a statement has dropped from 3 per cent to 2.7 percent over the same time period.
- A longer version of this story is at www.nurseryworld.co.uk