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SEND 48 Point Plan Day 5

Day 5 Summary of The Education Committee 48 Point Plan

So let's start with the more positive aspects from The Parliamentary Education Committee's 48-point plan. It presents a comprehensive and positive vision for the future of SEND education, focusing on strengthening the current system rather than pursuing a disruptive overhaul.

The plan is commendable for its unwavering commitment to protecting statutory entitlements for children, ensuring support is not contingent on a formal diagnosis. It ambitiously seeks to create a fairer, more consistent experience for every child by setting clear national standards for resources, expertise, and equipment in all schools, thereby promoting genuine inclusivity within mainstream education.

Furthermore, the committee's recommendations are both practical and forward-thinking. Proposals to increase and inflation-proof funding, mandate specialised SEND training for headteachers, and embed robust accountability measures demonstrate a serious commitment to sustainable improvement. The emphasis on early intervention through routine screening and a more flexible, realistic post-16 pathway for students highlights a child-centred approach designed to provide the right support at the right time and set all learners up for long-term success.

Now for the less palatable areas.
Despite its ambitious scope, the committee's report is frustratingly vague on the crucial details of implementation, leaving its 48 points feeling more like aspirational goals than a concrete action plan. The recommendations, such as increasing funding and conducting a comprehensive review of its allocation, are laudable but repetitive, echoing long-standing concerns without proposing new, specific mechanisms to achieve them.

The report fails to address where the significant additional funding required for these reforms will ultimately come from, creating scepticism about its financial realism.

The plan also appears to over-rely on the existing system, which it admits is failing, proposing enhancements rather than the fundamental rethink many stakeholders believe is necessary.

While promising greater accountability, its suggestions for a new inspection framework and inter-departmental cooperation are burdened with the same "corporate speech", offering no tangible guarantee of change.

Critically, the success of the entire proposal hinges on complex collaboration between education, health, and local authorities—a well-documented point of failure in the past—without a compelling new strategy to ensure it will work this time

What is needed is a clear, bold and properly funded plan. This is not it. Our children, with SEND, and without, deserve better. We could have this too, but it needs people to believe in real hope and real change that can be delivered by a socially just education system. On current known policies, there is only one that will deliver this for our kids, that'sThe Green Party. 

Fact Check Me

Greens pledge A* education offer   - Green Party https://share.google/T81xT1Z3yaXshNlPz

Education Committee - Summary - Committees - UK Parliament https://share.google/jAgPOXluH9HcMsvDt

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