Non-maintained Special Schools: Motion to 2021 AGM

Proposed by Carl Howes, seconded by Joseph Redford

Motion 2: Non-maintained Special Schools

Neurodivergent Labour notes that:

– Over the last few years, there has been a notable increase in media reports of non-maintained special schools being rated “inadequate” by Ofsted, most recently the case of Acorn Park School in Banham, Norfolk. A string of one star reviews for Acorn Park can be found on Google from parents and students alike. Often, such schools are only assessed as “inadequate” after emergency inspections are called. Low expectations are a recurring theme raised in Ofsted reports of non-maintained special schools rated as inadequate.

– Despite non-maintained special schools ostensibly being run on a “not-for-profit basis” as per the Non-Maintained Special Schools (England) Regulations 2015, many are in fact run by large for-profit companies that are often owned by equity firms, such as Outcomes First Group and Sovereign Capital.

– Non-maintained special schools accept referrals from local education authorities, who then cover the tuition for students. Local education authorities are frequently charged excessive amounts per student per academic year, paying fees on par with the most prestigious private schools in the country, as an example as of 24th May 2021, Leaways School in east London was charging LEAs no less than £53,000 per pupil. As of October 2021, Acorn Park was charging LEAs £62,500 per pupil.

– Non-maintained special schools have been found by Ofsted and local media to have engaged in practices that are psychologically damaging, such as the usage of spit hoods at Baston House as revealed by Autism Eye, and the usage of secluded areas described by Ofsted as “akin to an unfurnished prison cell” that “pupils are not allowed to leave until staff make it possible” as described in the September 2017 report for Hillcrest Shifnal.

– Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South, said of the revelations regarding Acorn Park: “These parents and children are far from alone. As an Education Select Committee report on SEND education put it, thousands of others are caught up in a nightmare of “bureaucracy, buck-passing and confusion” in a system that “breeds conflict and despair”.  And it’s the whole system that’s progressively been allowed to fail for years and nurtured to ensure the buck gets passed around to everyone except back to this Tory government. Ultimately, the trail for this local school and County Council failure leads to Downing Street.

For over a decade, this government has been starving SEND education and local authorities of resources. The most vulnerable children are paying the highest price for Tory cuts. They’ve done this at the same time as demotivating and forcing out committed and hardworking staff by imposing completely inappropriate and punitive market principles onto schools.

We’ll be back here over and over unless we grasp the need for profound and systemic changes to special needs and mainstream education. Sadly, I can’t see that coming without a change of government because from their reluctance to provide school meals for the poorest to the huge recent cut to Universal Credit, this lot show absolutely no empathy with or concern for people less fortunate than themselves.”

Neurodivergent Labour resolves that:

– Non-maintained special schools, left unaccountable and in a state of de facto privatisation, have been shown to be untrustworthy when it comes to the education of neurodivergent students.

– This situation is causing psychological damage to countless neurodivergent children and adolescents who have been excluded from the mainstream education system and left with no choice but to attend these schools, in addition to harming their education.

Neurodivergent Labour therefore:

– Calls on all councils, particularly Labour controlled councils, to bring all non-maintained special schools under local authority control without delay.

– Calls on the current government and/or the next Labour government to place an indefinite moratorium on the creation of new non-maintained special schools, and to abolish the category altogether.

– Expresses solidarity with all neurodivergent students and their parents in their struggle against discrimination in the education system, and in particular discrimination within the special school system.