Environmental predictors of educational outcomes for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). (Ref 4690)

The PhD offers an exciting opportunity to work with linked administrative data (see https://www.adruk.org/) to examine important questions that have relevance to the health and education of children with SEND. Specifically, the PhD will use existing data from the Growing up in England (GUIE) dataset as well as other datasets to examine environmental predictors of outcomes for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in England.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to develop the precise research questions that their PhD will address with guidance from the supervisory team. Over 1.5 million children in England have SEND. Only 45% of children with SEND achieve the expected level of attainment at GCSE by age 18 (compared to 82% of children without SEND) and children with SEND are also more likely to be excluded from school (Timpson, 2019). Research has focused on child and school-level predictors of attainment in children with SEND. For example, Humphrey et al. (2013) found that factors such as school inclusivity, school attainment, behaviour, age, sex and attendance predicted attainment in children with SEND.

This PhD research will draw on newly linked administrative datasets to examine how children's wider environments can support positive educational and health outcomes for children with SEND. There is some initial evidence that home and local environments might be important. For example, access to nature impacts behavioural development in children with ADHD (Amoly et al., 2014) and home ownership is associated with child attainment, after controlling for a broad range of factors (Lien et al., 2008). To date though, this research remains relatively scarce. This PhD therefore provides a unique opportunity to drive forwards this important area of research.