6th October 2011 - Secantor Speakers Draw on Education Sector Experience at the NASS Annual Conference

Secantor has significant collective experience within the education sector and drawing on this, Miles Carter and Tim Waine spoke recently at the Annual Conference for NASS (National Association of Independent Schools and Non-Maintained Special Schools, NASS website ) on "How schools can improve performance in a changing (and increasingly challenging) environment".  The seminar was very well received and prompted some stimulating discussions on a range of issues that Independent and Non-Maintained Schools are currently facing.

The conference is spread over 2 days and was a great success and amongst other things, Claire Dora, NASS CEO, used the conference to launch a Baker Tilly report NASS had commissioned which indicates that independent and non-maintained special schools can provide services for children with Special Educational Needs at lower costs than Local Authorities.

The report has found the cost of non-maintained and independent special school (NMISS) provision is between £102,000 and £112,000 per student per year, compared to a cost of £118,000 for local authority education, care and health provision. The report has also suggested that NMISS schools are capable of offering better outcomes for students - including better physical, health and educational outcomes, along with the increased likelihood of students being able to live independently or requiring reduced amounts of care.

The study is believed to be the first of its kind to be conducted, due to local authority costs often being hidden through being split across departmental budgets for education, health and social care, transport, and funding of school infrastructure.

Claire Dorer, chief executive of NASS, said:

"Ministers challenged us to present evidence that our schools were not a more expensive option than Local Authority provision. We rose to this challenge and can now demonstrate that our provision is often cheaper than the Local Authority alternative. It is important that this report now forms a stepping stone to ensuring a level playing field between the non-maintained and independent special schools sector and local authority schools."

"We know that parents have had roadblocks put in their path when they have attempted to place their children into non-maintained and independent special schools. This needs to stop. The Government now needs to conduct its own research, and make sure that local authorities are putting every option on the table for parents and their children."