- The Catholic Education Service (CES) is the
education agency of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of
England and Wales. The Bishops’ Conference is the permanent
assembly of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales and the CES,
as an agency of the Bishops’ Conference, is charged with
promoting and securing education on behalf of the
bishops.
- We are responding to the Consultation on the
Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill dated
15th December 2016. We appreciate the extension of the
deadline for responses to 3rd March 2017 and note that this was
necessary to enable respondees to consider the draft Additional
Learning Needs Code (February 2017) (referred to in this response
as the 2017 CoP).
- The CES welcomes the broad principles of the
Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill,
recognising in it the fundamental principles that underpin Catholic
education. In particular, we welcome the desire for
inclusivity inherent in the term ‘additional learning
needs’; the focus on listening to children/young people and
their parents/carers; and the development of a system that should
be simpler and less adversarial.
- Our main concern is the lack of any reference within
the 2017 CoP when meeting the educational needs of a child or young
person with additional learning needs, to take account of the child
or young person’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural
development. This is particularly relevant to parents and
children/young people who would wish to access a faith based
education for their children or themselves, as appropriate.
We are particularly disappointed to note that the 2017 CoP does not
reference parents (and, of course, children and young people) being
entitled to state a preference for their child to attend a
denominational mainstream maintained school and/or make
representations for their child to attend a denominational
non-maintained special school or independent school. We note
that the current Special Educational Needs Code of Practice for
Wales issued in 2002 provides, at paragraph 8.65:
-
“The LEA should consider very carefully a
preference stated by parents for a denominational mainstream school
and representations made by parents for a denominational
non-maintained special school or independent
school…”.
We would strongly suggest that this paragraph (or a
similarly worded paragraph) is retained and incorporated in the
2017 CoP; inclusion of such wording would allow parents (and
children/young people) to state their preference for a faith based
education for their children (thereby going some way to meet their
child’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
needs), but would also entitle parents to state any preference they
may have that their child does not attend a denominational
school. We are of the view that those using the 2017 CoP,
particularly parents, children and young people, will find the
reference to faith based education a useful reminder of their
important rights to state a preference for the type of education to
be received by the child or young person.
- As indicated in our previous response to the Draft
Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill dated
[16.12.15] we are concerned about the potential workload increase
for schools. If all children who currently have a SEN or ALN,
alongside any other child whose ‘special educational
need’ may be at a relatively low level, are included in the
identification for an Individual Development Plan, potentially
there is greatly increased bureaucracy for the school, Local
Authority officers and others. If a much wider group of children
are to benefit from Individual Development Plans there needs to be
a recognition that the implementation will need increased
resourcing. If this cannot be avoided, funding would have to be
found to service the increased workload.
- We are also concerned about partnership working with
Local Authorities, given that Catholic schools are not maintained
community schools. If a Catholic school needs the help of a Local
Authority to assess and plan provision for a learner with
additional learning needs, and the Local Authority is unable, or
unwilling, to provide that help, schools may struggle to meet the
needs of identified learners.
- Whilst we are of the view that it is a positive
development to extend the scope of support for identified learners
to age 25, we remain concerned about the funding for such
support post-19, particularly in terms of FE provision and possible
apprenticeships.
- In conclusion, the fundamental purpose of the Bill is
one we fully support, seeing in it key principles of universality
and inclusivity at the heart of Catholic education. However, our
main concerns lie in the fact that the 2017 CoP removes the current
reference to the right of a parent/child/young person to exercise a
preference that the child/young person attend a denominational
school in order to receive a faith-based education, as well as the
lack of clarity in respect of funding to allow the
Government’s vision for a fully inclusive and equitable
education system to become a reality.