In March 2022, the government published a green paper on the future of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) system in England. As such, a public consultation was undertaken to understand the response of young people, their families and sector professionals to the review’s proposals.
Catch22 provides alternative and special full-time and part-time education for young people aged 4-18 years old displaying a wide range of complex barriers to education, including those who are excluded or at risk of exclusion and those with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
We run a community of schools split organisationally into the Catch22 Multi Academies Trust and independent schools (Catch22 include).
Our experience running alternative and specialist provisions for children and young people makes us particularly well placed to respond to the government consultation on the SEND and alternative provision system in England.
Core recommendations
Catch22 supports the government’s proposal to end the “postcode lottery” that children in need of SEND support face by developing a new set of national standards. Some of the recommendations included in our response to the review were to:
- Stabilise funding and resourcing thresholds so that schools can plan for SEND support with a more secure, certain and long-term approach.
- Demand that careers support is prioritised in specialist and alternative provision schools with dedicated careers advisors and a focus on working with post-16 destinations to ensure they are flexible enough to accommodate reasonable adjustments required for the individual to perform.
- Strengthen the requirement for Education and Health Care Plans (EHCPs) to be completed with a target based approach, in which interventions are articulated by need.