(MENAFN- The Conversation) A new report from social mobility charity the Sutton Trust shows that children from poorer families are more likely to have special educational needs. It also shows that children from wealthier families who have some kind of special educational need are more likely to get support.

Unsurprisingly, middle-class families are more likely to spend money on private reports or diagnosis. They have the cultural capital to fight for and successfully gain an education, health and care plan (EHCP), the legal document that outlines the additional support a child should receive.

Our research explores the academic achievement of children with special educational needs and disabilities over time, the support they receive, and how this varies according to where they live in England. We've also explored how this connects with other factors, such as class, and whether children live in poor or wealthier families.

Our results suggest a patchy system where a child's support and how well they do is influenced by local authorities, schools, and families.

The current system for special educational needs support dates from 2014. The Children and Families Act promised a more inclusive system that put children and families at the heart of special educational needs support. The act provides for“ordinary available provision” or“school support” for most children who need additional help. Statutory provision – EHCPs – is available for those with greater support requirements.

A patchwork system

A decade on, evidence from Ofsted inspections and the Care Quality Commission, England's regulator of health and social care, shows a patchwork system. There are large disparities in how the reforms have been implemented. There's also variation in the quality of special educational needs provision and services across local authorities.

Our research has investigated how these disparities affect children. Specifically, we looked at trends in how children with special educational needs and disabilities performed in assessments at different stages of their education – and if they took the tests at all – over the period 2010-11 to 2022-23. This allowed us to evaluate trends from before and after the 2014 Children and Families Act, as well as examining geographical differences.

We've found that the numbers and proportions of families requesting (and gaining) statutory support – EHCPs – has increased in all local authorities.

Increasing numbers of families are appealing to the special educational needs and disabilities tribunal. The tribunal allows families to challenge a council's decision not to allocate statutory support or the provisions on the EHCP. Appeals are usually successful. Our ongoing research has found that local authorities with the highest appeal rates are predominantly clustered in Greater London and the south of England. Local authorities with wealthier demographics have higher, and increasing, rates of appeal to the tribunal.

There are differences between local authorities in the number and proportion of students with special educational needs who participate and achieve the expected standard in statutory assessments. However, those differences are driven by differences in pupils' characteristics and variation between schools within local authorities.

In general, London boroughs perform well. There is a cluster of poorly performing local authorities in the East Midlands and east of England. Here, the percentage of pupils with special educational needs meeting the expected standard in the phonics check was below 40%. The average performance in the key stage one assessments was below 28%.

We found that 60% of the variation between local authorities is due to population characteristics, such as the primary needs (for example, autism) of children with identified special educational needs. However, 40% of the difference cannot be explained by these population factors.

Our ongoing research suggests that this may be the result of significant variation between schools within local authorities. This highlights the importance of school environments in driving children's participation and academic achievements.

Overall low performance

Despite the spatial differences, though, even in the best performing local authorities far fewer children with special educational needs reach expected levels of achievement than their peers.

A smaller proportion of children with special educational needs are taking statutory tests. Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock

Our results so far show that the achievement gap between pupils with identified special educational needs and their peers has not narrowed over time. There has been no progress on key metrics such as the phonics screening check (taken at age five or six) or in the results of the statutory tests taken at key stage one.

Importantly, fewer children with identified special educational needs and disabilities are even taking part in these statutory assessments. For instance, our ongoing research suggests that the percentage of pupils with identified special educational needs completing the phonics screening check in year one (typically at age five or six) has declined. In 2011-12, 92% of children with special educational needs took part. In 2023-24, this had fallen to about 85%.

This declining participation risks makes the challenges and needs faced by these children invisible in the national data. This may mask the true scale of how many children are not achieving expected levels.

Children's experiences are a postcode lottery, with the most influential factor being the school children attend. Our findings call for a fundamental re-examination of inclusion itself in England's schools. However, what meaningful inclusion looks like – and how resource-strapped schools can be equipped to deliver it – are central questions for finding a viable path forward.

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