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Schools misdiagnosing children with special educational needs

Thousands of children are being wrongly diagnosed as having a special educational need, when they require better teaching or pastoral care instead, claims a report by Ofsted.

A wide-ranging review of special educational needs provision by Oftsed concluded that many children would not be identified as having SEN if schools focused on improving teaching and learning.

Ofsted said that the term SEN was used too widely. One in five of the 1.7m school-age children in England is identified as having SEN.

Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said, ‘Although we saw some excellent support for children with special educational needs, and a huge investment of resources, overall there needs to be a shift in direction.’

'With over one in five children of school age in England identified as having special educational needs, it is vitally important that both the way they are identified, and the support they receive, work in the best interests of the children involved. Higher expectations of all children, and better teaching and learning, would lead to fewer children being identified as having special educational needs.’

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