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"Publishing his latest report into pupil behaviour, Sir Alan called for teachers
to be given more help and support to identify pupils with SEN earlier.
Pupils with SEN are more than nine times as likely to be permanently excluded
from school that their peers, and over three times more likely to be
persistently absent.
Sir Alan said: "It is my view that there are countless examples of exemplary
work in our schools. I applaud the staff and pupils concerned. It is also my
view that there is also too great a degree of variation of performance and that
were we able to reduce this, the effect on children, teachers and school would
be profound."
Schools secretary Ed Balls said: "I'm grateful to Sir Alan for this review
which is about preventing bad behaviour before it happens.
"Today's report is the latest step in our ongoing review of SEN and disability
issues. We want to make sure that every child, including those with special
educational needs, should have the opportunity to reach their full potential and
that we intervene early to tackle the barriers to progress so we can keep young
people on the right track.
"We know there is some excellent work going on in our schools to support
children with SEN, but teachers have told me that they need help in being able
to identify children with SEN earlier and quicker."
Christine Blower, Acting General Secretary, of the National Union of Teachers
(NUT) said: "Alan Steer has done a great service to schools by identifying and
tackling the causes of unacceptable pupil behaviour.
"He is also right to identify the lack of consistency in SEN support systems.
However, the key issue for the vast majority of schools is not that they are
under- or over-identifying young people with SEN but whether schools are being
given additional high quality support for those children."
A review is under way into how local authorities are complying with their SEN
duties.
Ministers have announced that from this September, all new special needs
co-ordinators (Sencos) will be required to be both qualified teachers and
receive additional training.
Those already in post must qualify by 2011."