Technical support
- Article 6 of 15
- EducationInvestor, April 2012
Special education has been an increasingly fruitful area for education tech firms. But funding changes could make life difficult
Successive UK governments have agreed for decades now that those born with special educational needs (SEN) have a right to extra help to enable them to benefit from the education system. Cerebral palsy, visual and hearing impairments, dyslexia, autism, learning difficulties - whether the children have physical disabilities, cognitive disabilities or developmental orders, governments have largely mandated that extra funding be made available to assist these pupils to learn.
Even in the last few years of austerity, this funding has largely been preserved, with the government particularly keen to ensure those with complex difficulties are helped. But as its green paper of last year, "Achievement For All", made clear, what form this funding is going to take, who it goes to, and potentially even the sums available are set to change.
Lorraine Peterson, chief executive of the National Association of Special Educational Needs (NASEN), says that the current system provides three main streams of funding for SEN. "All schools will get an amount of money into their delegated school budget earmarked for SEN by the local authority. There's additional money for pupils called School Action Plus, which is for those pupils with special needs who are getting some kind of external support. Finally, there's funding for those with a 'statement'." A statement is a legal agreement of the difficulties a child with more pronounced SENs has, the level and the type of support needed for the child and the funding from the local authority needed to achieve that. This statement and its provisions follow the child throughout his or her development, rather than being specific to a particular school.
On top of that funding, there have also been additional sources of funds, including fundraising by parents and schools, as well as government schemes intended for the less well off, such as Pupil Premium, and capital funds such as school building-programme Building Schools for the Future (BSF). While the latter programme has now finished, companies such as SpaceKraft, which creates technology and learning areas for SEN children, have been benefitting from the investment in classrooms, with some BSF schools now only just being constructed, according to MD Michael Richards. Traditionally, much SEN money might have gone on support, such as an individual support worker, as well as accessibility provisions for both the pupil and the school. However, the targets for SEN spending have been changing over the past few years to encompass other areas as well. According to Abi James, head of product development at iansyst, "Schools have been in investing more in technology. Schools used to considered accessibility to be ramps and doors, but now it's about if children can go online, whether they can use a mouse or a keyboard, and in the move to e-learning, to ensure child have the ability to use those resources."
As well as an acknowledgement that children with SEN need to be able to access technology for communication and to accomplish everyday tasks, there's been an acknowledgement of the value of technology as part of teaching. "ICT is really good for SEN children since it gives them a personalised learning environment," says Ray Barker, director of the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA). "If you succeed or fail onscreen, for example, no one knows and that can give kids confidence. But teachers also get a real sense of where kids at, they know when kids haven't grasped the subject and can work around that."
The Renfrewshire-based Isobel Mair school uses Smart interactive whiteboards and tables from Steljes to work with its children. The only special school in the authority so the recipient of steady funding, it's just moved into new buildings and installed the equipment in every classroom. Sarah Clark, the deputy headteacher, says the school uses the boards and table to create multi-sensory material for the children to involve them in teaching and interest. "We'll look at whatever technology we think is the best fit for the child."
In common with other many teachers that work with children with SEN, Clark says that the school has been increasingly investing in iPads and apps for the iPads. Many, including iansyst's Abi James, believe that iPads and other tablets are more natural tools for interactivity with children than laptops are. They can also be cheaper than the 'ruggedised' and saliva-proof laptops that many schools previously invested in, which can cost thousands of pounds, and even those with physical difficulties can use them with the addition of head pointers and/or wheelchair mounts. Some schools are wary of letting children with poor motor control or emotional issues use iPads, but Clark says that the sub-£20 Otterbox Defender cases for the iPads are sufficient. "They're very sturdy and it would take considerable effort or maliciousness to cause damage. We had one boy throw one of them and it was fine," says Clark.
However, iPads aren't the be-all and end-all of school ICT for SEN children. "The iPad touchscreen has fundamental problems for the blindness market," says Mark McCusker, chairman-designate of the British Assistive Technology Association (BATA) and CEO of Texthelp Systems. "How do you screen read? There are all sorts of issues. The iPad does have accessibility functions but they're kludgy and never work - it's an area unsolved and with no clear direction."
Rachel Jones, head of education at Steljes and chair of the British Council for School Environments (BCSE), also argues that to a certain extent, the tablet is just "part of the zeitgeist". "A few years ago, if you'd given schools touch technology, they wouldn't have known what to do with it. Now, there's an increasing expectation that it's part of the core business of the school."
And while apps for iPads and other tablets are an area that McCusker describes as one of the few parts of the ICT market that are "approaching red hot", he warns that the business models are still evolving. "Some guy may have sold a million apps for $1 each, but for each one of those guys, there's 999 who didn't." Texthelp is currently developing less featured packed app-versions of its existing products, with the aim of creating a product suite of apps. But at the moment, he says, everyone is looking for a winning business model.
The ominpresence of the Internet and the 'cloud' are also making themselves felt in the SEN market. Even if one iPad or laptop is damaged, its settings and software can be restored from the Internet. Accessibility preferences from a home computer can be synchronised with a school computer. Says iansyst's Abi James, "Learners will be able to get access to text documents in an accessible format whenever they need it, wherever they are. Pupils with learning difficulties can now use the assistive technology that they use on their PC across all devices, enabling them to study, prepare documents, send emails or texts, or hear web content read aloud from their smartphone or tablet."
Texthelp's McCusker also points to the benefits of web-based SEN applications. "Cloud technologies are making assistive software accessible to anyone, anytime, anywhere, and in a format that reflects the needs of the user. Suppliers must remember that today's learners do not just use a PC. Many pupils are equipped with a wider range of technology than ever before and use PCs, laptops, iPhones and iPads, each for different purposes." However, there are several warning signs for SEN funding and buying, not least in the government Green Paper. There is a move, for example, to 'split off' those with learning difficulties from children with more complex needs, and to reduce funding for the former group. "Cynics say it's an easy way of saving money since if you're not SEN, you need to apply for funding," says BESA's Ray Barker.
The Green Paper also signals a move away from funding SEN needs through statementing towards directly giving families of children with SEN the money to invest as they see fit. This marks the continuation of a more general move by the government away from funding local authorities towards funding schools and individuals. One of the results of that move has been the disappearance of SEN technology experts from local authorities as they leave to run their own consultancies, says Steljes's Rachel Jones. "The route to market is changing."
The result is that SEN co-ordinators in individual schools are becoming the originators of purchasing decisions, something that's reducing the number of big-ticket purchases that could be made through economies of scale across authorities in favour of smaller purchases, she adds. Problematically, NASEN's Lorraine Peterson says that SENCOs' knowledge of technology can be variable. "Some are very IT-savvy. Some bury their heads in the sand." Ali James of iansyst says that the problem can be even deeper in some schools, where even IT-savvy SENCOs have to work through the central ICT department to procure products so need to raise awareness there as well.
With a move to family budgets, SEN companies are also going to have to start marketing in very different ways. If statement funding does shift to families, it should also fan the flames of the apps-market, given there will be a much bigger potential market to sell to. But many families are going to be unaware of SEN technology is available.
Nevertheless, this is still a potential opportunity, says SpaceKraft's Michael Richards. His company is changing its product portfolio in anticipation of the switch to family budgets so that there will be professional and home versions of the products. "When you're marketing to thousands of people, that's a dramatically different proposition. But if parents see the professional item in the school, they might want something similar for the domestic environment." The company also has a new website to target the home market.
The results of the government's consultation on the Green Paper are expected to be announced soon, which should at least reduce the uncertainty that's been causing some schools to pause in their SEN buying over the last year or so. Schools are also looking at purchases that can take advantage of other changes in government spending, such as increases in the Pupil Premium, which will, for example, allow them to invest in products that can help those with below-average reading skills - and children with literacy issues, such as those with dyslexia. But while funding should stay the same as before, even while other school budgets decrease, where and who it goes to could soon be very different propositions, something that companies will need to be poised to take advantage of.