Submission to the Education Select Committee Inquiry on Solving the SEND Crisis

In this submission in January 2025, The Bell Foundation elaborated on the relationship between English as an Additional Language (EAL) and SEND and the importance of having targeted, integrated support in place for pupils who speak EAL and also have SEND.

Our submission addressed the challenges schools face when identifying SEND in children who are new to English or in older learners who arrive late into the school system, and how these might be addressed.

We also explored the efficacy of various tools and assessment currently used to identify multilingual learners who also have SEND and what changes may be needed to best support these learners.

We recommended that schools:

• Roll out a whole-school approach to EAL and SEND provision which ensures that all needs are reliably and accurately identified, and that sustainable support strategies are put in place for both language and special needs

We also recommended that the Department for Education:

• Considers the development of statutory guidance for EAL and mandatory training for EAL coordinators to ensure that the needs of those children who have both SEND and EAL are appropriately addressed
• Develop and issue a standardised SEND screening tool designed for use with children who have EAL to limit occurrences of misdiagnosis