Thousands of children are being failed because of the “inequitable” special educational needs system, MPs have said.
In a damning report the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says too many families are struggling to access support their children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) “desperately need”.
Over the past nine years, the number of young people receiving SEND support in state schools has increased by 140,000 from 1 million to 1.14 million. Budgets have not kept pace, leading to a “crisis” in the system.
Children with even more complex support needs are legally entitled to education, health and care (EHC) plans, and the number of these obligations has more than doubled, increasing by 140% to 576,000.
Local authority spending on SEND has consistently outstripped government funding, leading to substantial deficits in council budgets.
Representatives of the chief financial officers of 40 councils in England, the SCT, estimate that rising demand and costs have resulted in SEND deficits of £4bn among English councils, projected to grow to £5.9bn this year.
This increase is not unusual, with similar rises seen in other high-income countries, but the committee notes that the Department for Education could do more to better understand the reasons behind the rise.
In response to today’s report, Cllr Roger Gough, children’s social care spokesperson for the County Councils Network, said: “While government has committed to reform, it is vital that it is done quickly and correctly. Both councils and families can ill-afford to wait.
“We need the government to set out a comprehensive reforms package and begin to implement them within the next 12 months, including immediate clarity on how government intends to address councils’ deficits.”
Eats into wider schools funding
A recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on education spending in England found that despite an expected fall in pupil numbers in coming years, forecasted increases in spending on SEND are projected to undo any resulting savings.
The IFS report found that increased spends were already eating into school budgets, with more than half of the increase in school funding between 2019 and 2024 explained by growth in high needs SEND funding.
As a result, an 11% real terms increase in funding over the period only equated to a 5% increase in mainstream school funding per pupil.
Luke Sibieta, research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told Sky News: “We’ve seen rapid rise in the number of pupils with the most severe special needs over the last 6-7 years.
“Numbers have gone up by around 70% and funding has gone up by 60%, so it hasn’t met the rapid increase in numbers.
“That puts mainstream school budgets under real pressure. With half the budget going towards educational needs, the amount left over for extra resources elsewhere in the system will be quite small.
“It’s a picture of rapidly rising demand that just soaks up any funding increase really quickly.”
Postcode lottery in services
Beyond the funding crisis, the Public Accounts Committee’s report highlights serious issues with the current standard of SEND services available in different parts of the country.
They describe a postcode lottery of services, with the quality of support varying significantly between council areas.
In 2023, only half of education, health and care plans for high support needs children and young people were issued within the legal 20-week limit.
Families in neighbouring local authorities could experience very different EHC plan waiting times, with 71.5% of EHC plans written on time in Lambeth compared to 19.2% in neighbouring Southwark.
Parents are also increasingly appealing EHC plan decisions, with the number of appeals more than doubling from 6,000 in 2018 to 15,600 in 2023.
Nearly all (98%) of these were found either partially or wholly in favour of the parents, which the Department for Education recognises as poor value for money and contributing to families’ low confidence in the system.
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“Lost generation” of children
The inquiry report concludes that a “lost generation” of children could leave school without having received the help they need without urgent reform of the system, and lays out seven key recommendations.
These include working with local authorities as a matter of urgency to develop a fair budget solution to the immediate financial challenges facing many as a result of SEND related overspends.
They also call on the government to set out the provision which children with SEND should expect, and how schools will be held to account, as well as earlier identification of SEND and improved teacher training, within the next six months.
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Commenting on the report, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Teachers have described navigating the current system as ‘spinning plates on a roller coaster’. Recommending that a plan of action is in place to resolve the lack of provision, support and resources is clearly good to see.
“The High Needs funding system is fundamentally broken. With EHC plan numbers continuing to rise the current shortfall in SEND funding will only continue to grow.”
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