Good morning.
Today is publication day for a Wor Room research paper into suspensions and the Special Educational Needs system.
It’s the culmination of a project which began about a year ago, and has been supported throughout by Mark Hadfield of
. Mark is included as a guest author on this post.He’s provided input and been a sounding board as I picked through public data, stats from Freedom of Information requests, and reached out to parents for their insights on how suspensions have impacted primary-age children with SEN.
You can now read the full paper here.
It was sent earlier this week to the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, as well as the Early Education Minister Olivia Bailey, and North East Mayor Kim McGuinness. Every North East MP has also received a copy in their inboxes.
The headlines are:
Suspensions have doubled in the North East (up 103%) since 2014/15, compared to 69.7% nationally
Of the nearly 3,000 suspensions at primary school age in the region in 2022/23, 83.1% went to children with recognised SEN
At a local authority level, South Tyneside saw the highest proportion of SEN suspensions (88.9%) and Gateshead the lowest (73.3%)
There is also huge variation in local authorities meeting the 20 week statutory deadline for decisions on Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), with figures ranging from hitting the target in 1.9% of cases in County Durham and 6.5% in Newcastle, up to 86.9% in Gateshead.
“Every time my child was suspended, I felt deep shame. I felt that it was my fault as a parent, that I was to blame for my child’s behaviour.”
Despite the rise seen in the figures, the use of suspensions still tends to go under the radar.
A big part of that is the stigma that’s attached to them, meaning parents don’t necessary talk about their struggles with schools and the system openly.
What you can see when you get down to school or year group level data is a huge variation in how suspensions are applied.
Some schools use suspensions with primary age children quite often - the highest number for a school in Newcastle is, for example, Gosforth Junior High Academy with 381 since 2014/15. At the other end of the list, there are three Newcastle schools, including West Newcastle Academy, who have not issued a single suspension in that time.
At a year group level, while suspensions are more likely as children get older, the proportion going to SEN pupils goes down. So, in North Tyneside from 2014/15 to 2022/23, 77% of suspensions in Year 6 went to SEN pupils, but 94% in Year 2, 90% in Year 1 and 92% in Reception.
Some schools also buck that trend of more suspensions as children get older.
While the numbers are quite small - again lookign at North Tyneside specifically - eight of King Edward Primary School’s nine suspensions over the period came across Nursery, Reception and Year 1 - so when children were aged between 3 and 5 years old - and just one at Year 6.
Similarly Southridge First School - which caters for children between Reception and Year 4 - where seven of a total of nine suspensions were in Reception and Year 1, with one in Year 2 and one in Year 3.
“There is a focus, in some contexts, on punishment - this completely ignores or misunderstands his special needs.”
You can quite quickly see the huge variation across schools which might only be separated by a few miles.
The parents I spoke to told me a lot of that comes down to culture, and whether a school values things like attendance and minimising disruption (persistent distruptive behaviour is the reason behind half of suspensions) over the wellbeing of SEN pupils.
In our own experience with our son, the first switch to a punitive approach came before any referrals for external support had come back, and before anything beyond what was offered as frankly low-level additional support from a teacher and teaching assistant.
The sense we were left with was of being out there on our own, with a head teacher who wasn’t interested in getting into the dirty work of playing the system to get what was needed.
Lots of others came back with similar stories - one talked about “jumping through hoop after hoop” trying to get EHCP. Another talked about being in the dark, with “no idea of what should be happening, when, how”. Another said “I felt like I had to persuade the system of my son’s disabilities, even post-diagnosis”.
“I’m angry, helpless, exhausted, frustrated. I almost had a breakdown and had to give up working in the end. My body couldn’t take a job I hated and the issues at home.”
Something which can often get lost in the dialogue around all this is the huge impact it can have - emotionally and otherwise - on the SEN pupil and their family.
In doing this research, I heard from parents who had lost homes and jobs because they needed to change their circumstances or because their child being out of school so much meant they couldn’t hold them down.
I heard about young people in full-blown mental health crises before support finally arrived.
And I heard about friction with schools, with local authorities and with employers.
All of which said to me that we don’t just need reform of the system, we need a wholesale mindset shift.
The SEN reforms which are due to be set out in the Schools White Paper later this year will follow the direction of travel the Government has already set, which is towards more SEN places in mainstream schools, and an aim to make those schools more inclusive.
I don’t know how you do that without HUGE investment, and without a culture war with schools, teachers, Ofsted and everyone else to redefine what education looks like, especially at primary age.
One of the key elements of the reform which has already been whispered about is the removal of EHCPs for children in mainstream schools. This is where they are needed the most, as they are legal documents which set out the pupil’s needs and how to meet them.
In a mainstream setting those adaptations are crucial - the thing is, they are expensive. I don’t think I’ve seen a single EHCP for a pupil with sensory needs which doesn’t talk about a ‘nurturing environment’, lower staff-pupil ratios, quiet or low-light spaces. That’s just really, really difficult to achieve in a mainstream school where space is at a premium. It’s why so many SEN pupils become corridor kids, as they can’t stand the classroom, and they become dysregulated and disruptive.
The paper offers some recommendations, including:
Centring the voice of parents and caregivers, who are the ones who know their children best
A mindset shift towards wellbeing, not rigid measures like attendance and attainment
Better information sharing, with parents and caregivers, but also between agencies
Better SEN training as standard to help teachers recognise what pupils might be dealing with
Employers offering greater flexibility and understanding to help ease the economic burden of navigating these challenges
There’s a huge amount more which can and will be said about this, as I really feel like I’ve just scratched the surface.
But, I hope it helps contribute to the debate, and gives a chance for parents and caregivers to be heard, because it can be a lonely and difficult place to be.
Yesterday I sent the paper to those who had contributed to or supported the research, and I reminded those who are going through it supporting an SEN child that they are remarkable.
They really are - and if that’s you, you are too.
Please read the paper, and share it with anyone you think would benefit from reading it.
If you want to discuss it more, you can find me on arlen@arlenpettitt.co.uk.
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