Campaigning for improvements to the SEN system

Getting the right support through the special educational needs (SEN) system is crucial for children and young people with autism. 

By lobbying on legislation in Parliament and working with the Government, we try to make sure the system works more effectively for these children.

We work closely with other organisations, and we are a key member of the Special Educational Consortium (SEC).

Great Expectations

The Government's Green Paper on SEN, published in March 2011, proposes major changes to the system of support for children with SEN and disabilities. Our Great Expectations report demonstrates the experiences of over 1,000 families of children with autism in 2011 and makes recommendations about what needs to change to make the system work.

• Read our full response to the Government's Green Paper consultation here. 
• Read our briefing for MPs here.
• You can keep up-to-date with the latest developments on the campaign on our 'Education update' blog.

Victory on legal aid for SEN cases

At the end of 2010, the Government announced a shake-up of the legal aid system, including big cuts to the budget. This would mean that SEN cases would no longer be eligible for legal aid funding. We worked with SEC to campaign to keep legal aid for SEN. In June 2011, Justice Minister Ken Clark stated clearly that he had decided to protect legal aid for SEN cases. Read more about this on our 'Education update' blog.

Education Bill 2011

On the 15 November 2011, the Government’s new Education Bill received Royal Assent, formally ending its debate period and turning it into law.

The NAS has been campaigning to influence the Bill and highlight its impact on people with autism since its first debate back in February. Since then, we’ve been working as part of the Special Educational Consortium (SEC) to push for amendments to the Bill, and we’re pleased to have made several major breakthroughs with them.

In October 2011, we successfully persuaded the Government to change their position on direct payments. Initially, we were worried that an amendment to the Bill would mean that if families accepted a direct payment, the local authority would no longer be obliged to provide the services outlined in the child’s statement. A revised version now makes it clear that local authorities cannot neglect their statutory duties in this way.

In another key victory, we managed to convince the Government not to remove the requirement for schools to co-operate with other services. An amendment tabled by Lord Hill, Lord Laming and Baroness Walmsley reversed the Government’s decision, and schools still have a duty to work with other services to improve children’s well-being locally.

We’ve also had assurances from the Government relating to exclusions – they will issue statutory guidance telling schools to consider the underlying causes of the child’s behaviour, including unmet SEN, and to avoid excluding a student with a statement of SEN wherever possible.

We also received assurances from the Government that they will take steps to significantly improve the system that lets parents make complaints against schools, which will now be handled via the Department for Education.

We’re pleased with the progress the Bill has made, and are grateful to all the campaigners, MPs and members of the House of Lords who’ve supported us as well as our colleagues at the SEC.

Victory update: October 2011
Following pressure from The National Autistic Society and other charities, the Government has backed down on removing the requirement for schools to co-operate with other services to make sure children's needs are prioritised.

As the Bill goes through Parliament, we have been working hard with colleagues in the Special Educational Consortium (SEC). As a result of our efforts, the Government has tabled an amendment to the Bill removing the clause we were particularly concerned about.

This means schools will have to work with other services in their area and co-operate to improve children's well-being locally.

Academies Bill 2010

This Bill enables more schools to become academies, free of local authority control. We were concerned that academies would not have to make the same provisions for children with SEN. Working with SEC, we gained amendments to the Bill which mean that children with SEN will continue to have protections in academies.

SEN private members bill

In May 2009, we worked with John Bercow MP to take forward our SEN and disability private members bill to try and improve support for children with autism and other SENs at school. Together with our work with the Lamb inquiry into parental confidence into the SEN system, we secured a commitment to put a new duty on Ofsted to report on SEN provision during school inspections and to introduce a new right of appeal for parents where statements aren't amended at annual review. Both of these were introduced through the Children, Schools and Families Act 2010. Read our report on the Bill here.

SENCOs

In our 2006 make school make sense campaign, we expressed our concern that schools' special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs) did not have to be trained teachers or have any training in SEN. As a result of lobbying by us and other organisations, they now have to have qualified teacher status and all new SENCOs are trained, including in autism.

make school make sense

In 2006, we launched our first-ever campaign, make school make sense, to improve support for children with autism at school. You can read the report here.