Ofsted says special educational needs ‘biggest issue’ for schools

Special educational needs and disabilities (Send) is the “biggest issue” affecting schools in England, Ofsted’s chief inspector has said.

Sir Martyn Oliver told the education committee that the Send system’s high costs and poor outcomes represented a “lose-lose situation”.

Government figures for the 2023/24 academic year showed more than 1.6 million children had Send, an increase of 101,000 from 2023.

Sir Martyn said the inspectorate had a duty to support the government in its plans to provide for Send children.

In December, the Department for Education (DfE) announced £740m of funding to increase the number of places available for Send pupils in mainstream schools.

“I think we can direct schools to be more inclusive and reward those that are doing the difficult job,” Sir Martyn told MPs.

He said the new report card inspection system – to be introduced in September after the scrapping of one-word judgements last year – would “recognise” the work done by schools to be as inclusive as possible for the increasing number of Send pupils in mainstream education.

One-word judgements were removed following the death of head teacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life following an Ofsted inspection which downgraded her school to “inadequate” due to safeguarding concerns.

It was regraded as “good” soon afterwards.

The DfE previously said it wanted to look at introducing an annual review of safeguarding in schools.

Sir Martyn told MPs safeguarding should be separate from the rest of the inspection process as it is “not a judgement”.

But he said an annual Ofsted visit for every school would cost £45m per year.

“It’s really expensive, and [with] tightening public finances I think it’s right that we ask ourselves, ‘Is this the best spending of the money?’

“If you said to me now, ‘Do you think children safeguarding in schools is the burning bush?’ My answer would be no.

“We do not see safeguarding as the biggest issue in schools. I would say that, by far, the needs of Send children is a much bigger need.”

Ofsted also inspect local area partnerships between schools and local authorities to see how well they work together to improve the experiences and outcomes of Send children.

Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s national director for regulation and social care, said there was a need to “join the dots” to avoid situations where individual schools were outstanding but local authorities were not making progress.

Ofsted completed 38 area-wide inspections on Send in the last year, MPs were told, with 12 councils found to be failing, 16 inconsistent and 12 positive.

Sir Martyn said area report cards looking at education, health, care and leadership would help root out systemic failings.