Pauline Holbrook, Head of SEND, SSAT reflects upon the key issues raised during the webinar on 14 September 2022.
Funding or rather the lack of it was clearly the major concern for those on the webinar. All agreed that teaching assistants deserved to be paid appropriately and that if they were able school leaders would like to pay more than the offer currently being considered by unions. School leaders recognise the importance of teaching assistants within the special school sector. It is not uncommon for around 85% of the workforce in a special school to be teaching assistants.
So, when the media talks of mainstream settings reducing the breadth of their curriculum or cancelling enrichment activities, due to the unfunded pay award for teaching assistants what they are failing to report on is the devastating impact it is having in the special sector. If there is not an urgent and financially sufficient response from the Government, there is potential that some special schools may not be able to deliver what they are required to by law, and it is also likely to impact negatively on operational safety. The impact of this will be immense not only on the learners within our schools but also on their families.
Where schools have been able to accrue money, this has been done to invest in the quality of education offered to their learners. Unfortunately, governors and trustees around the country are making decisions they would rather not be making to release these strategic accruals to cover increasing costs. Even those schools who have accruals this is only a short-term sticking plaster as unlikely to last for more than one academic year.
The other financial drain is the increases in energy costs. As with domestic bills schools are facing massive rises. This again is more acutely felt within the special sector due to needing to keep ambient temperatures higher for non-ambulant learners, running of expensive equipment including hydro pools etc. It was interesting to hear that some schools are looking to invest some money is sustainable energy production, whilst others were denied a conversation around this during planning of a free school with DfE. Others have or are looking to appoint bid writers to bolster their income whilst others are looking at hiring more of their facilities to generate income.
We are still to hear the outcome of the consultation on Green Paper but if as we suspect special schools will be asked to support mainstream schools with training etc this has to come with appropriate funding. Our coffers are running on empty or will be very soon.
For too long the Specialist sector has experienced the consequences of a failure to fund or fully understand and value what we do. This is the case across the whole 0-25 system and all the different provider types within it.
