Local authorities and free school owners are not taking their responsibility to provide schools with resources, so that schools can in turn provide pupils with the support they need. The criticism comes from the Schools Inspectorate in a new report.
The problem of insufficient support for pupils in need recurs constantly in the Schools Inspectorate's audits, year after year. "Remarkable", writes the authority in a report to the government.
For example, teachers report to the headteacher that certain pupils need special support, but the reports are left pending because the pupil health team does not have the time. It also happens that questions about adaptation and special support are passed back and forth between teachers, pupil health, and the headteacher. Adaptation is added to adaptation in the daily work in the classroom, when the pupil rather needs special support. Pupils can wait for their rightful support until year 9, according to the Schools Inspectorate.
The authority notes that there are schools that work well with support, but that some local authorities and free school owners do not provide their schools with sufficient resources – the level of ambition is too low. This can, for example, manifest itself in the fact that the governing body only occasionally buys in services in the form of a school nurse, psychologist, or counsellor. The consequence is that the work with support has to be solved as best it can by each individual teacher.
Against this background, the Schools Inspectorate writes that it welcomes the government's establishment of an inquiry to propose how pupil health can be strengthened and how the work with support measures can be improved.
According to the Education Act, a pupil has the right to extra adaptations in the ordinary teaching, if there is a risk that the pupil will not otherwise meet the knowledge requirements.
If extra adaptations are not sufficient, the headteacher shall investigate the need for special support. Special support can involve group or individual tuition and/or a support person.
