Government warns LEAs not to write vague statements

IPSEA welcomes the Department of Education and Skills (DfES)'s warning to local education authorities (LEAs) to specify the provision needed by children in their statements. LEAs were warned not to use bands of funding alone or to leave deciding on provision to the school -- many parents who contact us face these problems in their children's statements. We reprint below the letter the DfES sent LEAs in July.

The DfES letter

To all Chief Education Officers

31st July 2003

Dear Colleague,

Blanket policies in specifying and quantifying provision in children's statements of special educational needs.

The Department has received a number of complaints that authorities are operating, or planning to operate, blanket policies of never quantifying special educational provision in children's statements.

In many cases these complaints are made against a background of changes to authorities' funding arrangements. In some cases, authorities propose setting out the child's special educational needs in detail in Part 2 of their statement but specifying special educational provision in Part 3 by referring solely to a particular band of funding from their local system of calculating funding or a sum of money. In other cases, it is proposed that provision should be left open to the school in terms of options, for example, a particular number of hours support from a support assistant or a pro -rata amount of time from a Support Teacher or some equipment, without specifying the provision to meet the child's individual needs.

In our view, by having blanket policies to issue statements which do not specify provision clearly and in detail or never quantify provision, authorities would be acting in a way that is inconsistent with the statutory provision in Section 324 of the Education Act 1996 and Regulation 16 and Schedule 2 of the Education (Special Educational Needs) (England) (Consolidation) Regulations 2001, which requires provision to be specified in terms of "any appropriate facilities, equipment, staffing arrangements and curriculum …" and the advice in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (2001) paragraph 8.36 and 8.37 which make clear that special educational provision in children's statements must be specified clearly and in detail and normally quantified.

You may find it helpful to see the enclosed copy of the recent Court of Appeal judgment in the case of The Queen (on the application of IPSEA Ltd) and the Secretary of State for Education and Skills. I would draw your attention to paragraphs 14, 15 and 17 in particular in which Lady Justice Hale notes that:

"… the statement clearly has to spell out the provision appropriate to meet the particular needs of, and objectives identified for, the individual child" (paragraph 14):

and

"… any flexibility built into the statement must be there to meet the needs of the child and not the needs of the system." (Paragraph 15)

"It remains the case that vague statements, which do not specify provision appropriate to the identified special needs of the child, will not comply with the law." (Paragraph 17)

It is important that the authorities comply with the statutory requirements regarding specifying special educational provision in children's statements and I should be grateful if you would bring this letter and the enclosed judgment to the attention of staff within your authority with responsibility for drafting statements of special educational needs and their colleagues responsible for funding.

Yours faithfully

ANN GROSS
Head of Special Educational Needs Division

By having blanket policies to issue statements which do not specify provision clearly and in detail or never quantify provision, authorities would be acting in a way that is inconsistent with the statutory provision ...

"… any flexibility built into the statement must be there to meet the needs of the child and not the needs of the system."

It is important that the authorities comply with the statutory requirements regarding specifying special educational provision in children's statements and I should be grateful if you would bring this letter and the enclosed judgment to the attention of staff within your authority with responsibility for drafting statements of special educational needs and their colleagues responsible for funding.