Podcast News, Dale Pickles, Episodes
*Special Episode* Who will be SEND?
Questions, Not answers on the reform ahead
Following his previous reflection on the white paper, Dale Pickles, Managing Director and Host of the SENDcast, has recorded his latest thoughts…
Who Will Be SEND? Questions, Not Answers on the Reform Ahead Dale Pickles, Managing Director, B Squared
England’s SEND system is on the cusp of its most significant reform in a generation – but one crucial question is going largely unanswered: who will actually be SEND under the new framework?
Dale has written another thought-provoking paper – and again he’s recorded it too, so you can take it in without having to work through 34 pages of reading. He unpacks the quiet but profound shift hidden within the proposed move from four areas of need to five areas of development. The SEND register has long been used as a catch-all for children who need help – not all of whom have genuine special educational needs. The reform is set to separate those two groups, with major implications for children, families, schools, and SENCOs.
This paper explores the four distinct populations affected by the changes, what the removal of Cognition and Learning as a category really means, why mental health is being repositioned as a universal concern, and how the familiar SEND vs non-SEND data comparison is about to become meaningless.
Crucially, Dale argues that this reform is not about removing support – it’s about making sure the right support reaches the right children, honestly described.
Essential reading for SENCOs, school leaders, and anyone who cares about what happens to the children the system has always struggled to see.
He is always open to conversations, so feel free to get in contact with your thoughts.
Here are the timings for the different sections:
Section
0 – Introduction: Why this piece
1 – A Story You’ll Recognise
2 – The Two Overlapping Circles
3 – Who Is on the Register, Really?
4 – What the Reform Actually Does
5 – The Four Populations
6 – The Data Reconfiguration
7 – Changing the Language
8 – The Child’s Experience Revisited
9 – What Needs to Be True for This to Work
10 – What This Means for Schools Now
11 – Closing
Starts  
0:01:37
0:05:28 
0:09:35  
0:16:48  
0:27:09  
0:47:57  
01:02:53 
01:09:21
01:21:58
01:34:18
01:40:49
01:47:02
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Read Dale’s “Who will be SEND?” document
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Previous special episode
Fixing a Broken System: Response to the White Paper
Dale published his response and reflections – not just on the White Paper and the consultation itself, but also on what they mean in the wider context of the current SEND system, the Curriculum and Assessment Review, and the new Ofsted Inspection Framework.
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