GovWire

The SEND futures discovery phase is a 2-year pilot that aims to examine the viability of conducting a large-scale longitudinal study to gather evidence on the experiences and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England.

We conducted face-to-face and online fieldwork with year 8 pupils with SEND and their parents. We ran a number of experiments on engagement with the survey.

The methodological report outlines the design and findings from the first year of research, including a detailed look at response rates and the effectiveness of measures such as incentives, survey length and additional interviewer training.

The report on lives at age 12 to 13 demonstrates the potential of the study to produce evidence on:

• pupils with different types of SEN
• being in mainstream or special education settings

The report includes a selection of topics covered in the surveys:

• peer relationships
• bullying
• wellbeing
• independence

A simple summary of key findings from the research with young people with SEND aged 12 to 13 has been published by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).

Easy read and BSL summaries will be published on this page.