Our market
SEN is certainly a niche market, and even in mainstream schools it is often quite low down in the pecking order, with SEN departments tucked away, SEN staff who are often part-time and/or peripatetic, and SEN budgets which are often the first to get hit by cuts within a school’s overall budget. Part of the reason for this is that quite often the needs of each child with learning difficulties may be different, requiring Individual Education Plans (IEP) to be created, and a high level of specialist care and teaching to be provided, in turn leading to low staff to pupil ratios. In recent years there has been a push from central government towards a more inclusive policy for education meaning that increasingly SEN students are being integrated into mainstream schools. In some cases, this form of inclusion has lead to the unintended creation of a ‘special school’ within a mainstream school. Frequently an important factor for our members is that, when considering a new product or service, development costs can be high and production quantities small, leading to higher than expected selling costs where economies of scale are hard to achieve, and the inevitable effect on a school’s budget. BESA Special Needs Working Group members have a real role to play in producing resources to support government agencies and their policies, as well as professional associations, within SEN, even if the production of these resources may sometimes not be strictly commercially viable from the outset. As a result, where government funding can made available to assist in development and/or production, this may turn out to be not only a key deciding factor for the supplier making commercial decisions, but also a life-changing opportunity for learners who will be able to receive and use that product or service.
Professional Development
With the demise of many quangos and other support agencies, as well as the reduction in numbers of Local Authority advisers, the group feels that there is a perceived danger that professional development needs for teaching and support staff in education, and SEN in particular, may suffer further through a reduction in spending and focus from central government, given the current economic climate. For SEN, there is a real opportunity for this impending vacuum to be filled by
BESA Special Needs Working Group members, who in many cases already provide a level of professional development through advice on the optimum use of their products, and could provide a far more comprehensive service with appropriate funding.
Export
Although the target market for these products and services is mainly in the UK, BESA Special Needs Working Group members are increasingly found to be servicing and supporting international demand, as in many parts of the world the UK is seen as being a leader in this area
The increasing use of our products and services across the globe often demonstrates in many developing countries that children with special needs really can be helped to be happy, receive a basic education, and lead fulfilled lives. The advances made by BESA Special Needs Working Group members have clearly had a positive effect on influencing SEN policies across the world.
Types of learning difficulties covered by members’ products and services
- Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
- Gifted and Talented (G&T)
- Hearing Impaired (HI)
- Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD)
- Profound & Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD)
- Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD)
- Social, Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD)
- Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) includes dyslexia, dyspraxia etc
- Speech & Language Therapy (SaLT)
- Visually Impaired (VI)
Generic product areas covered by BESA Special Needs Working Group members
- Publishing
- ICT
- Multi-sensory environments
- Classroom resources
- Teaching aids (often subject-specific)
- Assistive technology (AT)
- Symbol sets
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