SEND Again

Blog 57 makes no apologies for featuring two posts on SEND education in the build up to the release of the White Paper.

Addressing the SEND Crisis in Norwich and beyond

The failure to address the needs of SEND pupils

In this blog Ian Duckett an Andrew Lock look at factors causing the SEND crisis and highlight the negative role some academies play in the system through their admissions policies. Ian is a member of the SEA NEC, a teacher, NEU activist and writer. Andrew is Secretary of Hellesdon and Drayton Labour Party

Research and reports

In November 2025 Alice McDonald MP for Norwich North produced a report, Living with SEND: Local Perspectives from Norwich North (https://alicemacdonald.org/send-in-norwich-north/). Her report was a consideration of the problems with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)provision in Norwich North It contained a detailed overview on solutions to problems around SEND provision, many of which are generalizable, namely:

• Streamline the process for accessing SEND assessments and support;

• provide additional training and resources for educational staff;

• improve communication between families and service providers;

• strengthen transition support at key stages of education and life;

• invest in mental health services tailored to SEND families;

• support and expand local community and peer-led initiatives.

The NEU ( https://neu.org.uk/latest/library/send-crisis) raises concerns about the SEND system in England, describing it as “broken” and “failing” children with special educational needs and disabilities. The NEU’s report indicates that the number of children with an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) has more than doubled from 240,183 in 2015 to 575,963 in 2024, driven by needs such as autism, ADHD, social, emotional and mental health difficulties, and speech, language and communication needs. Despite this increase, the NEU claims there has been no consistent improvement in outcomes for children and young people with SEND, despite increased government funding for high needs education.

The Francis Review (2025) is broadly concerned with curriculum and assessment, but does focus on SEND at various points in the Review. Building a world-class curriculum for all has by now been widely discussed amongst educators, parents, and learners alike. While the review sets out to modernise and streamline the educational experience, there remain notable omissions that, if addressed, could significantly enhance the effectiveness and inclusivity of the curriculum. It is true that the Curriculum and Assessment Review 2025 explores the key considerations, but once again policy makers have failed to make radical changes to enable accessibility for SEND pupils. It sticks to the nostrum that being ‘knowledge rich’ is key whereas the focus on memorising facts puts barriers in the way. The Review does not move away either form linear courses and final examinations as the only form of assessment and neither does it recommend abolition of key stage 2 SATS. A variety of assessment methodology would be far more conducive to both the progress and the self-esteem of SEND pupils constantly labelled as failures by test after test.

The funding crisis

Last year the NEU reported that 38 LAs were on the Tory Government’s Safety Valve Programme with over 50 others identified as needing to deliver better value. This scheme writes off deficits in return for measures designed to reduce current spend, particularly around the awarding of Education and Health Care Plans. Some imaginative authorities have managed to divert funding to early intervention projects hoping his will reduce the need for ECHPs. Whether, this works out in practice remains to be seen. A further demand of the scheme is to cut expenditure on for profit private sector providers charging obscene fees of up to £60,000 per pupil and making huge profits. The Witherslack group of schools, for example made £28 million in 2024.

The SEND in Crisis Report concluded:

The vast majority of local authorities are experiencing difficulties – either they are carrying a negative balance into the following year, their last Ofsted inspection resulted in a written statement of action, or both. This rate has been increasing since the 2018-2019 academic year. In the 2018-19 academic year the median balance carried forward per pupil was a small but positive figure - about £14. By 2022-23 the median balance carried forward was -£115 per pupil, a much more substantial negative. Some LAs are now carrying negative Designated Schools Grant (DSG) balances of hundreds of pounds per pupil, amounting to a substantial proportion of the pupil premium.

A proposal to alleviate the crisis

As well as investing in staff, providing decent funding and changing curriculum and assessment, we believe that it is essential for local authorities (LAs) to once more engage with academies admissions policies and work to directly deliver more provision for SEND pupils themselves. The Tory prohibition on LAs opening their own schools prevented this happening and benefited academies and the private sector.

Chief among causes of this shocking state of affairs is that academies can and do “select out” SEN pupils at the admissions stage; second, they underfund and deprioritize SEND provision, and third, the consequences of this approach are the enormous and troubling increases in absenteeism and home schooling, both of which are highly likely to impact extremely negatively on pupils’ educational and employment outcomes. While increased funding for SEND support is both necessary and welcome, we do not consider that it is, on its own, a viable solution.

We propose, instead, that the most effective way to address this problem is to restore to LAs their key role in assessing and directing admissions policies. The current process of local fora has effectively defanged LAs and facilitated the avoidances that allow academies to push SEN pupils to the back of the queue. It is, in our view, necessary to allow LAs to use their strategic position and peerless knowledge of educational and social need in their purview, so that they can facilitate and manage admission and absence policies across the range of their schools. It is also, notably, a statutory duty that still rests with LAs. Placing LAs back at the heart of the management of schools, with equality of outcome and learners’ needs at the heart of decisions, is essential to ensuring that all schools, including academies, step up to the plate and meet the expectations of young people and their parents.

We propose that the key to this ambition is endowing the local forum with an LA nominated officer who is empowered to adjudicate on policies (informed by the data on population , relative needs and demand for SEN support that is routinely collated and verified by LAs) utilizing the powers derogated to him/her to direct changes to submitted policies that are judged as not meeting the needs of pupils.

Towards a legislative solution

This can be achieved through simple amendments to extant primary legislation. Changes to the Education Act 2002 Chapter 3, Part 3, section 19 (see appendix for suggested approach) will allow for a strengthened admissions forum; changes to the Education Act 1996 Pt 6, Ch. 1, section 412 (already, obviously, much amended, but nonetheless still suitable as a vehicle for this change -see appendix) sets out the powers of LAs to direct and monitor admissions and absence policies.

If assessed, agreed and applied by the Secretary of State for Education then these changes will work toward creating a level playing field for pupils, and ensure that all schools, including MATs, accept and educate those pupils with the most need on a fair and efficient basis. It is, further, expected that as pupils are better supported and their educational outcomes improved, then levels of absences and home schooling will fall.

Some conclusions and implications beyond Norwich North

In conclusion, we believe that academies are unwittingly or otherwise failing SEND pupils and that in order to meet the needs of those learners it is vital that local authorities are once again placed at the centre of decisions on duties on schools (as was once the case) to ensure that academies are held to appropriate standards. This together with investment in staff, proper levels of funding, and fairer curriculum and assessment would go some way to tackling the growing SEND crisis.

What’s at stake in special educational needs reform

Paty Paliokosta is Associate Professor of Special and Inclusive Education, Kingston University

A campaign – backed by celebrities including actress Sally Phillips and broadcaster Chris Packham as well as MPs – is calling on the government not to scrap or reduce education, health and care plans (EHCPs).

These provide legally binding extra support for children with special educational needs. There are fears that this will be a change outlined in a forthcoming policy paper on schools.

The pressure point for the government is how much it costs. At the moment, EHCP costs come from local authority budgets, which are too low to cover them. A significant rise in EHCPs meant that councils are racking up a cumulative deficit in the billions. From 2028, these costs will be managed by the central government budget.

Mainstream schools in England currently provide what’s called “universal provision”. This is standard support for all pupils, funded by the Department for Education.

If a child needs extra help, schools must offer targeted interventions and resources to remove barriers to learning. This comes from a local authority managed notional special educational needs budget of up to £6,000 per pupil.

If progress still isn’t happening, families can request an EHCP. This unlocks additional funding from (currently) the local authority. It can be used to pay for specialist teaching, equipment, or extra staff, or for alternative provision – education in a specialist school.

Not enough money and bureaucratic delays

The system has been in real need of reform for a good while now.

Waiting times for EHCP assessments are often painfully long. Some families say they feel treated as though they are an inconvenience. Many are fighting legal battles for support: if an EHCP is denied, this can be appealed at a tribunal, where parents are usually successful.

Without the right resources in schools to meet the needs of the children they educate, teachers say they are exhausted. Sencos – teachers in mainstream schools with the overview of special educational needs, and the people holding the fragile system together – report feeling overwhelmed and undervalued. This is not sustainable, but it can be changed.

Under the current funding system, most of the increased costs come from funding special school placements, rather than on inclusive education in mainstream classrooms. The government’s December 2025 announcement of a funding investment to create 60,000 specialist placements in mainstream schools is welcome.

To make special educational needs and disabilities provision fair and effective, better management of budgets at both national and local levels, stronger leadership in schools through a properly resourced Senco role, and comprehensive training for all teachers to support inclusion is needed.

The government has recently announced £200 million to be spent on teacher training to create a “truly inclusive education system”. This very welcome investment marks a significant shift: it recognises that inclusion cannot be achieved through structural reform alone.

It requires a confident, well‑trained workforce able to meet diverse needs early and effectively. If delivered at scale and with fidelity, this could begin to rebalance the system. It would reduce dependence on EHCPs by strengthening universal and targeted provision, and easing the need for specialist placements.

EHCPs are far from perfect, but they cannot disappear overnight without reforms that place inclusion in the heart of universal education provision with statutory protection.

However, once the system is gradually robust enough, EHCPs will be needed less and less.

Without these reforms, families will continue to fight for support without knowing whether this is the best way to have their children’s needs met. Schools will feel pressured to move pupils out of mainstream settings, and costs will continue to rise.

What works

Investment in strong local provision and workforce development can reduce reliance on expensive independent placements, improve outcomes and restore trust between families and schools.

In Kirklees, Yorkshire, schools, families and communities are encouraged to engage in mutual support and shared learning to foster collective responsibility.

Some local authorities are demonstrating what reform can look like. Haringey’s Send and Inclusion Improvement Plan (2024–2025) is built on five priorities: early intervention, meeting needs locally, providing choice, working together with families, and preparing children for adulthood.

Providing early, expert support for the 800,000 UK children with lifelong speech and language challenges would transform lives and save £8 billion annually, according to the Disabled Children’s Partnership and the Speech, Language and Communication Alliance.

Universities need to be involved more than ever, equipping teachers and Sencos with neurodiversity-friendly and dyslexia-friendly research and training interweaved in mainstream, holistic instruction that can continue through in-service training and professional development opportunities.

We’ve seen that children are being placed in costly independent schools with their fees paid by the state. Many are owned by private equity firms that have turned special education into a lucrative business. This is draining public funds at an unsustainable rate, while outcomes for pupils remain stubbornly poor.

The question now is whether the government will be brave enough to overhaul a system that has become both inefficient and inequitable, and deliver sustainable reforms, beyond one-off package funds, prioritising inclusion and early support over bureaucracy and profit.

The above post was first published in ‘The Conversation’

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