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Special Needs Resourcing in English Schools
BESA, the education trade association in the UK, and nasen, the UK’s premier special needs association, have announced the release of their annual research report on resourcing for special needs in English schools.
The ‘Special Needs Resourcing in English Schools’ research explores resource provision and suitability, difficulties in teaching, sourcing and purchasing SEN resources and budgets and expenditure. The basis of the study is made up of over 300 head teachers’ and SEN coordinators’ responses from all over the UK.
The research shows that a third of sampled primary schools do not have a specific budget for special needs resources. This compares to a mere eight per cent of secondary schools. This is shown in primary school spending as some SEN coordinators indicated that as little as £150 per annum was available. The research also showed that computer hardware used for special needs pupils in primary schools is almost exclusively purchased using the ICT budget.
However, the research also shows that secondary schools are almost twice as likely as primary schools to feel under resourced in SEN resources.
Ray Barker, Director of BESA, said:
“Our research shows that funding for SEN resources is currently very inconsistent at both the primary and secondary level. Few schools have specific SEN budgets so spending is often allocated to different budgets, such as ICT.”
Lorraine Peterson, CEO of nasen, commented:
“It is interesting to note that this research reflects issues that a number of our members have been drawing to our attention recently, that is, that secondary school teachers have a difficulty in sourcing age-appropriate printed and software resources and that there is a specific difficulty in locating reading books that are interesting to students that have a reading age below seven.”
The BESA ‘Special Needs Resourcing in English Schools’ research is available free to BESA members
For further information telephone: 0207 5374997
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