Published: December 14, 2020
Written by: Sarah Martin-Denham
My passion is qualitative research that creates better knowledge and understanding of the lives and experiences of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families.
The research I have carried out is fundamental to developing knowledge and understanding of children’s multi-faceted needs to allow them to achieve better holistic outcomes in and out of school. As a researcher, my interests are how we can use innovative research methods to capture the authentic voice of children, caregivers and professionals in relation to barriers and enablers to schooling.
I qualified as a primary school teacher, from the University of Sunderland in 1996. I worked for seven years in an infant school and then moved to Further Education. I am neuro diverse, and I think this drives me forward to carry out the research and to work with special educational needs co-ordinators.I now work within the School of Education as a researcher and a programme leader for the Post Graduate Certificate National Award for SENCOs.
With my IRP award, I was given 10% additional RSA. I was also given funding from the UK Research and Innovation Strategic Priorities Fund* to have a research assistant for three months. With this, I have produced two policy briefs and a journal article with Jacob Donaghue. I have also applied for funding from the National Institute of Health Research.
Aim: The aim of the research was to examine rate of school exclusions categorised ‘other’ across 153 Local Authorities (LA) in England in 2017/18. Method: This research utilised school exclusions and pupil population data published by the Department for Education and Office for National Statistics. The rate of exclusions was calculated and presented on using choropleths for fixed and permanent exclusions. Conclusion: The research highlighted how 20% exclusions nationally fall under the miscellaneous category of ‘other’ and some LAs reported rates as high as 67%.
Policy brief 2: Martin-Denham, S. and Donaghue, J. (2020) Out of sight out of mind? Managed moves in England.
Aim: The aim of the research was to establish the prevalence and success rates of managed moves in England and to document the reasons for managed moves being unsuccessful. Method: We sent Freedom of Information Requests (FOI) to 149 LAs who were educational authorities for their area and asked them questions on whether the LA recorded managed moves and how many pupils were successful/unsuccessful on their managed move. Conclusion: The findings show that less than half of the LAs held any data on managed moves, and approximately a third were able to report the number of managed moves over the last two years. This raises important questions on the effectiveness and justification for the managed move protocol as there is a lack of data.
“My passion is qualitative research that creates better knowledge and understanding of the lives and experiences of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families.”
Journal article: Martin-Denham, S. and Donaghue, J. (2020) The impact and measure of adverse childhood experiences: Reflections of undergraduates and graduates in England. Journal of Public Health, final amends.
Aim: The research also aimed to explore the usefulness of measuring perceived levels of trauma to distinguish non-traumatic from traumatic ACEs from 156 graduates and undergraduates in England.
Subject and Methods: This article shares findings from an online questionnaire of 156 graduates and undergraduates which sought to capture and describe the range of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) participants were exposed to before the age of 18, including those not associated with the ACE study survey (Felitti, et al. 1998). The research built upon the original study with the inclusion of open-ended questions to capture any additional ACEs participants felt they experienced.
Results: This distinction was used to investigate whether the inclusion of additional ACEs and the exclusion of perceived non-traumatic ACEs significantly affected the participants overall ACE score. A Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test found a significant difference between ACE scores (z = -5.84, p <.001, r = -.33).
Conclusion: The analysis suggests the ACE survey did not capture the range of adversities experienced by this sample and suggests that an open-ended approach should be considered for future ACE measures.
The policy briefs have been circulated to the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England, Department for Education and the Cabinet Office Behaviour Insights Team as well as national funding organisations (such as Administrative Data UK). Conversations have been held via email to discuss how to amend policy and the capturing of administrative data sets so that less children are categorised as ‘other’ as the reason for school exclusion and to share ideas of improving accountability of managed moves so that children and young people become visible.
The next steps within my research is to continue to create an evidence base to ensure that the policies implemented positively support children and families of children with special educational needs and disabilities and those exposed to school exclusion and childhood adversity.
The beneficiaries of my work are children and families and Government departments as it highlights inadequacies in systems and processes.
I have applied for funding with local and national stakeholders to the National Institute of Health Research Funding. This will be to link education, health and care administrative data sets to better support understanding of the multi-faceted needs of children across a population.
Sarah Martin-Denham is passionate about supporting trainee, practising teachers and other professionals in meeting the needs of all children. She is Module Leader and Academic and Personal Tutor on BA (Hons) Primary Education with QTS. Learn more about Sarah Martin-Denham in her staff profile.