Stop outdated sanction-led behaviour policies in schools and residential settings for children and young people!

All children deserve to receive outstanding education and care and yet neurodivergent children and young people in the UK schools and residential homes are being punished, isolated, suspended and even expelled from education because their autism, sensory needs, anxiety, ADHD, or mental health needs are not understood or met. 

We urge schools and other settings to implement a therapeutic behaviour approach as a statutory expectation nationwide and believe that all schools would benefit from a full-time Educational and/or Clinical Psychologist in every mainstream school.

Children with additional needs have been let down time and time again by an education system that lacks resource, training and understanding, and by behaviour policies that sanction behaviours that are beyond our children’s control. Despite overwhelming evidence about the positive outcomes from a more therapeutic approach, outdated sanction-led behaviour policies remain in our schools, and continuously let children down.

The mental health needs of our young people are much worse since COVID than the Government acknowledges. Yet, parents have been threatened with police action or had communication blocks imposed where they are trying to advocate for their children, and families have been left traumatised and isolated. 

Many parents and carers have had to fight for years to access resources and support for their young people, and often only with the help of specialist third sector organisations like Great Minds Together who have helped and guided parents to navigate this complex, challenging and difficult system - which begs the question, how many children and young people are falling straight through all of these gaps? 

Even if the new government could reduce diagnosis time down to two years, a great deal of trauma can occur over a 24-month period, and in the time leading up to even beginning the diagnosis process. We are depriving our children and young people of sufficient access to education and failing them in the most systemic way possible. 

The Educational psychologists that are required to deliver the care plans in schools are under-resourced and there are no current means to increase the number with very few place been allocated this year. The latest figure for children waiting for an autism assessment alone is 157,567* (that we know of).  These figures do not add up and children will continue to be failed if this isn’t changed. 

We know schools are already underfunded, with only statutory work for special educational needs and disability being provided by the local authority, some schools are now required to commission their own educational psychology service - which they don’t have the funding to do. With some schools only able to allocate funding for 2 children per year for an Educational Psychology assessment. 

We urge the government and education leaders to consider the important role of Educational Psychologists and the positive impact this can have in schools to ensure that mental health services are available for those in need, but most importantly for the children of our country.

Needs that are left undiagnosed and unmet are likely to worsen and cause significant damage to our children’s’ mental health, which then further impacts their physical health, putting additional pressure on our NHS services later in life. Unmet needs are frequently manifested in the Tier 3.5 Crisis Intervention programme of Great Minds Together. 

 Many of these cases could have been prevented had the correct support and resources been in place early on, many of these cases start with having unmet and/or unidentified needs at school and children who struggle to cope in the school or residential environment. The impact of this total lack of knowledge, understanding and behaviour policies only works to exasperate their needs, not help their needs.

We urge the Education Department to review the educational psychologist resources in schools and behaviour policies in schools and residential homes and look at how we can better support our children and young people in schools and across all care settings. Implementing a therapeutic behaviour approach as a statutory expectation nationwide and allocating a full-time Educational and/or Clinical Psychologist to every mainstream school will significantly reduce costs in other areas on the system including social care and the NHS and most importantly it will help schools and residential homes meet the needs of our children more effectively. 

The time to act is NOW as the current education and care system is depriving our children of sufficient access to education and care and failing them. What does this mean for the country’s future?