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Parental Confidence in the Special Educational Needs System

About this study

This is a study of parents' experiences of the Special Educational Needs system. You can read the findings here.

About the Special Educational Needs system
The system assesses a child's special educational needs and, if appropriate, issues a statement of the help a child should have. Parents/carers can appeal decisions at a tribunal.

We set out to understand parents' experiences of the system from beginning to end. Our report offers insight into perceived problems with Special Educational Needs provision and what makes the system work well for some parents and not for others.

We also look at the experiences of parents from lower socio-economic neighbourhoods, and of foster carers and social-care professionals with responsibility for children.

Potential policy impact

This report will inform future changes made by the government to the Special Educational Needs framework.

It has fed into the Lamb Inquiry, which is investigating how parental confidence in the Special Educational Needs system might be improved.

You can read the final report from the Lamb Inquiry here and two interim reports here and here.

Method

This is a qualitative study which involved in-depth interviews with heads of SEN services from local authorities, and parents and carers of children with special educational needs. This study consisted of two stages.

The 1st stage

The first scoping stage included a short literature review plus interviews with senior local authority staff responsible for special educational needs services.

The 2nd stage

The second stage involved interviews with parents, foster carers and social-care professionals.

We selected this group from the same local authorities that we approached during the scoping stage of the study.

Parents and carers who accepted a letter invitation to take part completed a short screening phone questionnaire that determined their eligibility and willingness to participate in an in depth face-to-face interview. We judged a person to be eligible if they had experience of all the different parts of the Special Educational Needs system.

Collaborations
We conducted this research in collaboration with Ian Palmer from Lind Associates and Dr Janet Read from the University of Warwick.

Related study

You might also be interested in our study 'Special Educational Needs Disagreement Resolution Services: National Evaluation'.

Of interest: