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'Some children will never be seen' – teachers' tales lay bare a SEND system in crisis

SEN
Insufficient resources, long-waiting lists, no behaviour support, no educational psychologists or speech and language therapists – teachers have laid bare the crisis in SEND funding and provision.
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A survey of more than 8,000 teachers, published by the National Education Union (NEU) during its annual conference in Bournemouth, paints a picture of an SEND system in crisis.

One respondent to the survey summed up the problems: “The current system is failing children. We do not have the resources, environments, skilled staff, or time to support these students. Funding is completely inadequate and paying to support children with high-level need has wiped out our school budget and negatively impacted all other pupils.”

The NEU survey found a lack of resources and provision across the board. Problems on the ground include:

  • Lack of a school counsellor or occupational health specialist (41%).
  • No behaviour support (33%).
  • No educational psychologist (25%).
  • No CAMHS support (26%).
  • No speech and language therapist (28%).
  • A need for more learning support assistants in school (76%).

Ultimately, 7 in 8 respondents to the survey said that the resources they had for SEND support were “insufficient”.

The Department for Education (DfE) has increased high needs funding by £440m in 2024/25 to a total of £10.5bn, which it says is an increase of 60% since 2019/20.

However, demand is outstripping supply. The number of students with Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) has risen from 240,000 in 2015 to 517,000 as of January 2023; there has been a 9% increase in EHCPs between 2022 and 2023 alone.

And overall, there are now approximately 1.6 million school pupils in England with identified SEND.

The huge increases have thrown many councils into funding turmoil. Earlier this year the Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities Select Committee warned that high needs budget deficits across local authorities in England stand at £2.3bn and are set to rise to £3.6bn by March 2025.

The F40 group of local authorities, meanwhile, has estimated that an additional £4.6bn in funding will be required each year to meet the current demand for SEND support.

The impact is clear to see. Earlier this year, SecEd reported how councils are losing 96% of more than 11,000 cases taken to SEND Tribunal in the space of a year.

A year ago, the DfE published its SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan setting out plans including new national standards for SEND and digitised and standardised EHCPs to cut bureaucracy. However, critics at the time said the plans did not go far enough, failed to address systemic underfunding, and that the proposed timescales were too slow.

The NEU acknowledges that high needs funding has risen by 90% since 2015 but says that the number of students with EHCPs has risen by 115% and that funding rises do not take into account “eight years of inflation”.

A core issue revealed in the NEU research is that of waiting times, with 56% saying they had no confidence that referrals for SEND assessment, diagnosis or specialist support would lead to a student getting the help they need.

The findings come after recent research showed just how long children and young people are waiting to receive support from CAMHS. A study by the children’s commissioner found that of almost one million children and young people referred to mental health services in 2022/23, more than 270,000 were still waiting for support at the end of the year.

Comments in the NEU research, meanwhile, laid bare problems across the board with capacity in the system:

  • “Waiting lists mean that some children will never be seen. They will ‘age out’ and join adult waiting lists.”
  • “There is currently a six-year wait in my area, meaning students don’t receive the help they need until too late.”
  • “EHCPs for children with high-level need are regularly turned down. I don’t feel any confidence any more that children (particularly those with very significant learning needs, as opposed to behavioural needs) will receive the support they need from an EHCP application.”
  • “We are drowning. The children are not getting what they need or deserve. Parents are not getting what they need. The people in charge should feel ashamed.”

One member of support staff told researchers: “Every class has pupils with SEND and most now have children with complex needs. These needs often include medical or mental health needs, but the funding isn’t available to properly meet these needs. Last year we made a loss of £7,000 per child with EHCP, meaning that resources had to be pulled from other children.”

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “The crisis in SEND funding has gone on for too long. It weighs heavily on schools that want to help but are stretched to the limit. We are seeing children spending too much of their journey through the school system without the support they need.

“Teachers and leaders are losing faith in a system that should meet need, but either can’t or won’t. Local authorities are forced to ration support to parents after a long wait and this rationing is driving up the number of tribunals.

“Undiagnosed SEND or unmet SEND need is frequently related to exclusions, and this will often come down to a lack of proper support. It is in the interests of everyone in the school community and government to resource SEND well and ensure that children’s engagement is not jeopardised simply because of cuts.

“We need to see timely access to support and a much more flexible curriculum, in order that students flourish in a well-resourced learning environment. All of that starts with a major funding commitment from government.”