SCHOOLS should cut the number of teaching assistants looking after children with learning difficulties and employ more specialists, the schools watchdog concluded yesterday.

Assessing education in mainstream and special schools, Ofsted inspectors said that children with special needs who were taught by assistants “were less likely to succeed than those who have access to experienced, qualified specialist teachers”.

Only 8 per cent of those in mainstream schools were taught in special classes or received resourced and appropriate education for their needs, according to the study.

The report comes weeks after the Education Select Committee found that many of England’s 1.5 million children with special needs were being failed by the education system.

The MPs said that the system of supporting pupils with special educational needs was “not fit for purpose” and often left parents locked in a war of attrition with local authorities to get help for their children.

The report Inclusion: Does it matter where pupils are taught? insisted that mainstream schools with additional experienced specialist teachers were “more successful in achieving good outcomes for pupils academically, socially and personally”.

However the inspectors criticised these schools for relying too heavily on teaching assistants for children with special educational needs, who “did not ensure good quality intervention or adequate progress by pupils”.

During their inspection of 74 schools they also condemned the lack of agreement on how to measure good progress in children with learning difficulties, as well as the fact that statements, which were difficult to come by, were no guarantee of quality. “A statement of SEN [special educational needs] usually generated additional resources, but even if this guaranteed the quantity of provision, it did nothing to determine the quality of provision or outcomes for the pupil in any type of setting,” the authors wrote.

In 2004 the Government advised councils that “the proportion of children educated in special schools should fall over time”. As a result almost 60 per cent of all pupils with statements of SEN are taught in mainstream schools.

Lord Adonis, the Schools Minister, said that the Government was investing £1 million in improving training for teachers to deliver quality SEN provision and that it would look at the case for further funding.

“Ofsted highlight the need for improvements in some areas of SEN provision. We know there is more to do,” he said. “The areas the report identifies as needing further work are priorities for us and we will address these in our response to the Education and Skills Select Committee report into SEN later this year.” Lord Adonis said that SEN remained a high priority and that as a result the Government had increased local authorities’ spending from £2.8 billion in 2001-2 to £4.1 billion in 2005-6 on SEN and an estimated £4.5 billion in 2006-07.

However David Willetts, the Shadow Education Secretary, said that the report should make the Government “think again about its automatic assumption to inclusion”.

“The Government is trying to drive children with special educational needs headlong into mainstream education. But this report shows that many special schools do an excellent job,” he said. “It is not inclusion that matters, but the quality and training of teachers. The Government should stop its headlong rush into inclusion.”

Pupil Referral Units were the least successful of all the settings visited.

Explore Education

• Schools

• GCSE and A Level

• Good University Guide

• Sunday Times University Guide

• Student

• Young Times

• School Gate

Times recommends

• University black hole as applicants surge
• Students to be offered 'no-fee degrees'
• 'White flight' causing school segregation