A year listening, a future advocating: Improving SEND provision in Blackpool
As the school year ends, I’ve been thinking about everything I’ve seen in our schools this year. I’ve visited most of the schools in my constituency over the last academic year and met brilliant teachers, classroom staff and school leaders. And I’ve spent time with children in classrooms right across Blackpool South. It’s one of the best parts of my job.
Some of the visits that stuck with me the most were to our three SEND schools – Highfurlong, Woodlands, and Park Academy. Last week I was lucky enough to see the kids at Park perform their summer show. Their confidence, humour and talent blew me away. Just check out Miley, who played Dorothy in the video below! If you ever needed proof that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can thrive when they’re given the right support, you’ll find it in schools like these.
But not every child in Blackpool gets that chance.
Over the past year, I’ve seen how our primary schools have stepped up to fill the gap in SEND provision. Inclusion units, also known as specialist provision learning units, are now up and running in most primary schools across town.
These are dedicated spaces for children with SEND. They’re quieter, calmer and better resourced with specialist staff. They help kids who would struggle in a mainstream classroom and they let children stay part of their local school with their friends.
On a visit to St John Vianney a couple of weeks ago I was so impressed with the way the inclusion unit staff and senior leadership team spoke about their unit. They don’t see the unit as a financial strain or an added stress, but as an absolute gift to be able to care for these special children.
They are fully part of the school community – adored by pupils across the school. And the results speak for themselves with several of the children in the unit, some who arrived non verbal and in nappies, integrating into the mainstream classroom in September.
But when children can’t be integrated into a mainstream provision, there’s a real concern across all schools about where these children will go once they age out of these units. Mainstream secondaries aren’t set up for them. Special schools are full. There’s no real plan. And it’s leaving too many families in limbo.
It’s starkly apparent that Blackpool’s SEND needs are more intense than other areas and I’ve asked teachers at all schools why they believe this is. There are some common answers. Yes, we’ve got better diagnosis now but that’s not the full story. Cuts to early years support, a rise in poverty and extreme deprivation in Blackpool, more premature babies surviving but with complex needs, families moving to Blackpool looking for a better life and the pandemic hitting our kids harder than most all adds up.
But we don’t have the full picture. There’s no in depth research on Blackpool’s unique situation and data is patchy. Meanwhile schools are filling in the gaps and council services are stretched. Families struggle to get the basic support their children require.
In the new school year, I’ll be working with local SEND teachers to design a proper survey. This will be more than a box-ticking exercise. It will help us build a clearer picture of what’s going on in Blackpool so I can walk into Parliament with facts, stories and real evidence to enable me to advocate for the resources we need.
The last government left behind a SEND system that was failing children and families. Their own Education Secretary called it “lose, lose, lose” and shadow ministers have admitted they “didn’t do enough”.
Families were made to fight for support their kids were legally entitled to. EHCPs (Education, Health and Care Plans) were delayed or denied. Services were cut. Specialist teachers left the profession. Local authorities including ours were pushed into ‘Safety Valve’ deals that focused on saving money, not helping children.
Since Labour came into government, we’ve started to rebuild trust between families, schools and government. We’ve put £1 billion into high needs support, invested £740 million to create thousands of new specialist places, including in mainstream schools. This includes £1.56m for Blackpool.
We’ve also scrapped Safety Valve deals and moved to proper, whole-system reform, set up a new Neurodiversity Task and Finish Group to drive inclusion across the country, invested in training so more teachers understand how to support children with autism, ADHD and other needs, expanded early speech and language support and rolled out tech lending libraries to help SEND pupils access the tools they need
But we know this is just the start and real reform needs to be shaped by the people who live it. Families need someone to listen, understand and act and that’s what I’m going to keep doing in Blackpool South.
This year I’ve seen the potential in every child and the challenges that come when the system doesn’t meet their needs. We need to build a system that works for every child. One that brings services together, provides support early and that families don’t have to fight. And it needs to be designed with the people who know the system best – parents, carers, teachers and children themselves.
I’ll be back out in schools in September and I’ll be working with SEND leaders to build a fuller picture of the challenges we face because our town, and every child in it, deserves better.
