Sarah Teather MP

Minister of State for Children and Families

Department for Education

Sanctuary Buildings

Great Smith Street

London

SW1P 3BT

(Insert Date)

SEN Progress and Next Steps Document

Dear Sarah,

I am writing on behalf of The Communication Trust following the publication of the Government’s SEN Progress and Next Steps documents

As you will be aware, the Communication Trust is a coalition organisation bringing together nearly 50 voluntary and community sector organisations with expertise in children’s speech, language and communication. Supported by the Department for Education, BT and other funders, the Trust’s projects involve improving the understanding of the children and young people’s workforce of speech, language and communication needs and promoting relevant resources for practitioners working in Early Years, Primary and Secondary education.

The Trust welcomes the Government’s drive towards joined up approaches and efforts to ease the journey for children with SEN and their families, thoughour members havesome specific concerns about the effect of some of the changes on the 1 million children and young people in the UK with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

Our major concern is that the new proposed ‘clearer definition’ of SEN does not inadvertently exclude children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), whose difficulties may be “hidden”. Despite being the most prevalent childhood disability, identification and understanding of SLCN remains poor; many parents and members of the workforce do not have a good grasp of what constitutes typical development and therefore struggle to identify children not reaching those norms. Children with SLCN are therefore often missed altogether or misinterpreted; parents and the children’s workforce often see what they understand; poor literacy, poor attainment or poor behaviour but they may not notice the SLCN difficulty underneath such as poor understanding, vocabulary or conversational skills.

We are also concerned that many children with SLCN will then be reliant on ‘the local offer’ to meet their needs. For an area of SEN not universally understood by commissioners and universal practitioners, the local offer represents a huge risk for our children. The make-up of the ‘local offer’ appears at present to be a matter for local determination, and whilst we appreciate the government’s commitment to localism, we fear that without clear criteria, the ‘local offer’ will perpetuate the post-code lottery for SLC services. We know already of services to children with SLCN that are no longer being commissioned and of changes in the make-up of speech and language therapy services potentially impacting on children and their families. It is difficult to see how it willaddress the current problem of waiting times for children or assist teachers and other practitioners who struggle to access educational psychologists, speech and language therapists or SEN advisory teachers. In practice, we know that schools do not refer children to depleted SLT services and therefore the true representation of children’s SLCN in some areas is not accurate.

Consortium members would also like to seeclarity from the Department for Education on the links between assessment for statement of SEN and assessmentfor an Education, Health and Care Plan. While we welcome the requirement for joint planning and commissioning, we regret that it now appears that statutory accountability for funding EHC plans will not be extended to health and social care partners.

As a coalition of nearly 50 voluntary organisations with expertise in speech, language and

communication, we understand intrinsically the unique role that the voluntary sector plays. We are glad this has been championed in the report and would be pleased to meet with you and your officials to discuss ways in which we could help deliver the reforms, particularly around the development of the local offer as it relates to speech, language and communication.

If additionally you would be willing to meet with our members please do get in touch and we will make the necessary arrangements.

Yours sincerely

Wendy Lee

Professional Director

Cc: Janet Grauberg, Department for Education