More support needed for those accessing residential schools

The Children’s Commissioner has issued a report discussing the views and experiences of children in residential schools.

The report focuses on children’s views of being placed in residential schools and considers what recommendations should be made to the Department for Education (DfE) about the use, monitoring and maintenance of residential schools. In particular the report considers the implications for children’s rights.

The main findings

The report highlights that the decision to seek, and place, in a residential school is a difficult one for parents and families. What makes this worse is the finding that support for parents and families is “uneven” and that much more support is needed in a timely, sensitive and consistent manner.

Why is this relevant?

For children with complex special educational needs, residential school may well be considered. For those children who require 24-hour provision, or an education which can only be delivered in a residential setting, residential school may well be the only option.

The use of residential schools does seem to be decreasing. The number of children in a residential school has gone from 8700 (in 2005) to 6000 (in 2014). The report does acknowledge that it does not have figures from independent residential schools. As such, it is possible that there has been a notable increase in the number of pupils attending independent residential schools rather that those maintained.

Characteristics

Over three quarters (75%) of pupils in residential schools are male. The significant majority of residential schools are secondary rather than primary.

The most common special educational needs within residential schools is Behaviour, Emotional and Social Difficulties, accounting for nearly a third (29%). Autistic Spectrum Disorder accounts for 18% and Hearing Impairment 14% of the residential school population.

Again, it is not possible to gather an entirely accurate picture of all children attending residential schools because these figures do not include those attending independent schools.

Children’s rights

The report notes that the use of residential schools can be complicated. Not only are there issues of education law, in terms of whether the placement is suitable and whether the local authority should pay the fees, but also potential conflict with fundamental rights.

• Right to best possible outcomes
  The Children and Families Act 2014 requires that children are educated so that they achieve their best possible outcomes in education, health and care. This now creates a complicated mix of issues. It may well mean that a compromise may have to be met when considering residential schools as it is possible such placement may help with best educational outcomes, but not best social outcomes, or vice-versa.
• Deprivation of liberty
  Caselaw has found that the use of a residential school may be unlawful deprivation of liberty. A person is deprived of their liberty if they are under continuous supervision and control and they are not free to leave. Such deprivation of liberty can only be lawful if it is sanctioned by the Court of Protection or if it is in line with the strict provisions of s25 Children Act 1989.This poses a difficulty in that many parents may well have to seek permission from the Court of Protection to be able to place a child or young person in a residential school.
• Right to engage in the community
  The significant issue here is the distance that children and young people may have to travel to get to school. The average distance from home to a residential school is 51 miles. This means that children will be disconnected from their ‘home’ community.

Highlighted problems

The total number of residential schools in the North East, North West and Yorkshire have, combined, fewer residential schools than the South East region alone. This means that children from these areas face a higher risk of having to travel significantly further to a suitable residential school. It also means that their local authorities have to be convinced to fund additional travel costs and parents have to fund costs to and from schools much further away.

Linked with the differing levels of schools available, the Commissioner does specifically highlight the problems of reintegrating children into their communities when it comes to leaving their residential school at 18/19 years. For children who are placed the other side of the country to their ‘home’ local authority, this will only be worsened.

The Commissioner’s report also highlights that children, particularly younger children, feel home-sick and unhappy about being placed away from home.

Recommendations

The key recommendations are:

• Better monitoring of residential schools is needed;
• National quality standards should be introduced to replace the current ‘minimum’ standards;
• Children should be enabled to engage in the creation of their support package, including decisions about schools;
• More data reporting is needed, especially in the independent sector;
• “Poor and inconsistent support” from placing local authorities must be addressed;
• The difficulties that schools face in obtained external support must be addressed.

Other substantive recommendations are also made.

Conclusions

Part of the difficulty with obtaining the timely, sensitive and consistent support that the Commissioner has called for is that it requires local authorities to be ‘on board’ early on.

The Ministry of Justice recently reported that appeals to the Tribunal were at their highest ever level, as were rates of success. No doubt, some of those appeals will be to obtain residential schools for children. Until such a time as local authorities are willing to accept their duties without Tribunal intervention, there will never be a complete delivery of timely, sensitive and consistent support for families.

It is rather of concern that the Children’s Commissioner was unable to access data about the age, characteristic or even numbers of children in independent residential schools.

The Children and Families Act 2014 requires that parents, children and young people are central to the decision-making process. This is particularly at 16 when a child may take complete command over the decision-making process. In light of the concerns highlighted here it is difficult to see just how this principle is to be achieved without significant changes.

We previously wrote that more specialist support resulted in significantly better prospects for children with special educational needs. It is concerning that the children with the most significant needs, requiring residential placement, also seem to face the most significant education, social, personal and legal difficulties.