Kayla Fieling, who is a cover teacher in a Multi-academy Trust in the South East of England tells me of her challenges in the classroom in helping children with SEND. “I have to be really flexible and adaptable as a teacher. Often, I’m coming into a class and I don’t know what all the needs of the children are. I’m not always given that information.” So sometimes I go into a class I don’t know what would trigger a certain child.”
The South-East of England got the third largest proportion of SEN funding since 2014 and in a majority of academic years in that time, has received above inflation increases. In September last year, Rishi Sunak bragged in PMQs last year that national SEN funding had trebled. However, Kayla was stark in her response to that. “It definitely doesn’t feel like that. Its still not enough what we’re doing. Often teachers are making their own resources. Because we have that care because we want our children to do well you do often go above and beyond. It’s very easy to get into that habit. It would be good for teachers to have a budget to be able to create more resources for children with SEND or even all children. There definitely needs to be more funding available.”
Funding across the different regions have been inconsistent in the last ten years. For example, in the South-West there was a real-terms cut of 2% in the 2016-2017 academic year but in 2017-2018, there was an over 20% increase in funding in the area. The East Midlands got two academic years of real-terms cuts between 2015-2017, before getting a 30% increase in the 2017-2018 academic year.
Despite getting the biggest share of funding at 18% of the SEN budget, London got consecutive years of real-terms cuts amounting to 4% and then 6% before getting a 7% increase for the 2018-2019 academic year. Between 2021-2023 there were real-terms SEN cuts across England of 5% before an 8% increase (1.3% increase in real terms with inflation into account.) On this inconsistency, Kayla states “It is difficult for schools to plan ahead because of not knowing what budget they will get and it affects their long-term planning.”
Psychologist Dr Sona Kaur, who is involved in diagnosing neurodiverse children from across the country concurred with Kayla’s experience as a teacher based on clients she’s worked with across England. She put down the extra pressures not just to funding challenges, but an increase in diagnosis of children with SEND. “ I’ve spoken to teachers and teaching assistants. They spoke of increase in SEND children in a kind of classroom environment where they’ve struggled to the point where it’s impacted their mental health.”
In 7 out of the last 9 academic years in the East of England, they have experienced above inflation increases in SEN funding. Nadia, a former school head and primary school teacher is based in Norwich. She now runs her own business coaching headteachers and states despite the statistics showing on overall increased funding, something doesn’t quite add up for her. “What my clients tell me is that they rarely get a match for what they spend on the child or what they should spend on the child. For example, if a child needs to get 1:1 support for a teaching assistant, that is a minimum of £20-25,000. Generally, the school will have to fund all of that and they will only receive about £16,000. If they choose to fund that they have to start taking money out of the curriculum budget and the training budget. There aren’t many areas left to take things out of.”
On the flipside of this is the experience of Amy Allen, Managing Director of Senploy, an SEN job-board. She is based in Chesire and has had mainly positive experiences of SEN provision, particularly her in 7 years’ experience at the Seashell Trust.
“I had my first insight into special education there and it was absolutely amazing. What they do there is work with children and young people who have severe and complex learning disabilities and difficulties. The curriculum helps enable these children to live their best life. People send their children from all over the country to that trust.”
Despite the North-West receiving the second highest share of the funding between 2014-2024, it also experienced the most years of real-terms cuts in this time. Amy was surprised at this, given the amount of SEN jobs in the region continuously increasing. Amy states that despite parents wanting the best for their children and sympathising with the fight they have to get the support they need, she believes people in society as a whoile need to recognise there is a limited amount of funding everywhere. “I think there are funding issues with everything. You look at adult social care. There is lack of funding across the board and unfortunately a new initiative might be introduced but that might mean robbing another pot. We don’t live in a society where there is an endless amount of money.”
Given her role at Senploy, her expertise lie in the types and amount of vacancies currently in SEN roles. This is where she also sees another positive. “The types of positions that are now open within the schools are the likes of pastoral care. There has been a 20-fold increase in 2 years in the number of pastoral-related jobs advertised on Senploy. It’s a massive shift towards the focus of mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.”
It’s not just the type of roles used in SEN that have changed. One of the biggest reforms to SEN in England under the Conservative government was replacing Statements of Special Educational Needs with Educational Healthcare Plans (EHCPs). This was intended to improve rights for children and young people by streamlining the assessment process to create a single plan, bringing about personal budgets and intended to give families greater control over how funding to meet their child’s needs is spent. It usually involves a health professional, the parents and the school the child is at.
Amy states transferring students from Statements to EHCP’s was adminsitratively a “bit of a nightmare”. However, she does believe they are better than the previous system. “They are far more wide reaching. They incorporate far more than just statement of need. They’re inclusive. They talk to all parties in regard to what is the best approach for your child. Its not just an opinion or view of one person. Its actually a holsititic viewpoint of a multi disciplinary team and you have the right to request the school you feel your child needs to go to.”
However, Nadia has a different view of them and states how difficult the process has been for her personally. “ It is very difficult to understand who is accountable.” Her son had all sorts of health issues defined in his Statement, but they were no longer there in his EHCP. With frustration, Nadia states “They profess to hold health services to account as well as schools. It has became much more complicated and challenging for parents to ensure what is in those statements. I think it is a massively bureaucratic process.”
Like Nadia, Kayla is also concerned about the bureaucracy of the EHCP process. “There are so many people involved that it can be a slow process completing it. There could also be a lack of communication between all the people that are involved. Getting an EHCP plan seems to take a very long time. It needs to be a much quicker process.” She also points out that parents could have their own barriers in navigating the process like having English as a second language. However, Kayla does conclude that it is good it is holistic with all the different agencies involved.
Dr Kaur also sees big challenges with EHCPs, stating the length of time they take and how difficult it is for children who just miss out on getting them. “To be honest, part of it is one of the issues we’re having as a society now. A lot of higher functioning individuals need a different kind of support. That kind of knowledge and support is not being provided in schools where SEND is not being seen as an individual need. She states that everyone’s needs are separate and at different levels but that isn’t reflected in EHCPs. She notes that if someone has an autism diagnosis a lot of people assume they are entitled to an EHCP plan which they’re not necessarily because they can be seen as high-functioning in certain subjects but socially they might be struggling. She emphasised the need for more individualised plans.
Celia Whittuck who is a Senior Associate in the Education Law Team at IBB Law, believes that in principle well drafted EHCPs are excellent and enable children to access the support and be precise in terms of the support required, who should provide it and for how long for. She also notes the decrease in time from 26 weeks with a Statement to 20 weeks with an EHCP in terms of how long a child should wait before getting a plan. However, in practical terms, it isn’t as straightforward. “EHCPs are sometimes not precisely drafted, and it is very difficult for families to then force Local Authorities to provide the support required. An overhaul of the EHCP will then be required which usually involves yet another battle with the Local Authority.” Her work with many clients shows that some Local Authorities are failing to comply with the statutory timescales to issue EHCPs within 20 weeks. She puts this down mainly to funding challenges and the fact that the amount of children being issued EHCP has more than doubled recently. Quite starkly she states “The EHCP system has become overloaded. Local Authorities aren’t able to cope with demand.
An interesting development with EHCP plans is that the government signed a contract last year with a firm that will help local authorities reduce the amount they are spending on EHCPs by 20%.
When I ask Amy about whether she was aware of the story, she appeared to be but understandably is wary about the way the media present things: “I am cautious about what to believe in the media. Reducing the number of EHCP by 20%? You can’t take EHCPs away from someone. You’ve got that for life.” She states that she is for saving money but not to the detriment of children and young people getting what they deserve and need.
Nadia doesn’t appear surprised when I put the story to her and does seem angry about it. “You can’t reduce the number by pretending they are not there. It doesn’t surprise me because it is a big financial mess.” However she does theoretically agree that if there were practices in place in schools and health services then fewer EHCPs may be needed. “Given that isn’t the case, we need EHPs for parents and children to hold professionals to account.” She is adamant that this proposed plan won’t work unless money is being put into schools. She believes that many headteachers would be angry with this proposal.
Dr Kaur also appeared very concerned at these plans. “What cost is this going to come at? Because something is going to give and my worry is that by implementing this are we limiting the support and making it less tailored to the individuals. That’s my worry.” She is also concerned that whilst this plan may increase knowledge in mainstream because of the early intervention aspect, there is still a need for special schools. She is concerned this could put more pressure on an already overworked teaching profession, which could lead to burnout, lower morale and have a negative impact on children. “Some children are going to be really disadvantaged by this shift.”
Like Amy, Celia has a more diplomatic response to the story around potential cuts to EHCPs but is wary about the government being largely financially motivated. “I cannot comment on any such contract. What I will say though is that it was clear to me in the Government’s SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper that the intention was to improve mainstream provision for students and, thereby, reduce the number of EHCPs necessary.” However she is suspicious this would amount to more cuts.
Government changes to EHCP and overall SEN funding are just one part of a complicated picture in regard to SEN in England. From her experience at working in recruitment, Amy believes schools are having difficulties with recruitment strategies in SEN and relying a lot on agency staff, which are costing schools more money employing teachers directly. “I think some schools may not be efficient with their recruitment strategies which means they have to react quickly and pay higher rates to agencies. However, she is quick to praise the work agencies do. “Agencies are my main clients so its not about them. They are doing a great service. Agencies are amazing because they deliver the staff when needed.”
Other issues in the SEN system according to Dr Kaur include long waiting lists for diagnosis and EHCP plans. In particular she raises a case of a young person who was waiting for 3 years to get a diagnosis. “They were living with their nan and grandpa and they had full rights over them. They had waited over 3 years to get a diagnosis but this young person struggled so much, it led to the nan being on long term sick leave. Its very challenging while they had to get support coming in from outside. They’ve been waiting on the EHCP plan and all they are told is if the child is having their meltdowns and are struggling, call the police or take them to A&E. it’s a real struggle.” She is very clear that a lack of funding is key to issues like this. “The little support that is out there is being spread out and so many don’t have access to a diagnosis.”
Given all these issues with SEN in England, I asked my interviewees whether there are examples of other countries that England could look to to improve our system. Nadia states from what she has heard from her family in Spain, young people with autism in particular aren’t culturually considered a problem as they are in England. She states there appears to be more of a community commitment to engaging and including anyone with autism in both these countries. She also states that “schools are better imformed on how to support young people with SEN. I think that comes from local policy makers having a greater commitment.” This does appear to be the case, where inclusion in mainstram schools is seen as the default.. Dr Kaur told me that in Finland they have better early intervention and indvidualised support plans as well as extentive teacher training in SEN. When I looked this up, it does appear that individualised support plans are a key part of SEN provision in Finland
With the general election fast approaching, I asked my interviewees what their message were to the Conservatives and Labour on SEN policy going forward. Whilst Amy praised the Conservatives idea of new free special schools, her question was “How are you going to resource these schools?” In regard to Labour, she emphasised the need for joined up thinking and was concerned that Labour’s policy on VAT on private schools would mean that students going there who had SEN provision may not be able to go there in future and there may well be more strain on mainstream state schools. Keir Starmer has recently stated that students with EHCPs would be exempted from these VAT charges.
Nadia does have more faith in Labour because of “their historical moral compass around less advantaged people.” However, she also believes the narrative needs to change around people with SEND as she does not see them as being less advantaged. Indeed she goes on to say, “I think we are not making enough of their advantage to society. Let’s stop seeing them as a problem and start including them because society is missing out in a big way.”
Kayla’s key message to both political was for them to listen to the needs of children with SEND. “They should go and speak to them and ask them what their experience is, as well as teachers, parents and schools because on both sides I think they are out of touch with what the day-to-day reality is.” Kayla was also keen to ask them to make the SEN process less bureaucratic. “On the one hand the Department for Education are saying they want to cut down on teacher workload but on the other hand, there are a lot of processes we need to go through in supporting children with SEND.” An interesting suggestion she put forward was EHCP plans being on a portal so that “everybody can see where everyone else is at in the process of it all. So it is a lot more streamlined.”
Dr Kaur us keen to emphasis expanding the support that services get. Like Nadia, she believes SEND children need to be included more. Specifically she said that inclusive practices need to be promoted in school, particularly in helping tackling bullying of SEN children. She also stated that early intervention within teacher training was key “because neurodiversity is huge now and we need to get that training done much earlier on.” Like Kayla, she believes politicians need to collaborate and work with various stakeholders involved. She goes on to say that we need “consensus based solutions that involved educators, parents, advocacy groups and experts in the field of special educational needs.” She also states that raising public awareness of neurodiversity was key to getting public support for policy reforms.
Celia’s message to Labour and the Tories is for them to “stop trying to change the existing system.” She believes although it is currently broken, it needs more money and expertise to make it work. Like Dr Kaur, Celia also advocates for better training. “We need proper training to teachers/schools about the provision of support for those with additional needs and how to identify them.” She also believes more training is needed for teachers and schools about the EHCP process and empowering those involved in the assessment process to recommend specified provision for individuals. She believes this will “avoid the need for families to get their own privately funded experts to provide much needed information.” Celia also believes in training of case workers in Local Authorities to draft EHCPs. In order to reduce the timescales of EHCPs, Celia also wants the employment of more staff in Local Authorities and to enable them to spend time listening to families. As Dr Kaur pointed out the huge waiting lists for diagnosis as a problem, Celia would also like action to reduce the waiting lists.
Although neither Tory or Labour spokespeople responded to the above policy suggestions that I put to them directly, this is what they have both said on special educational needs in their manifestos. The Conservatives have stated that would deliver 60,000 more school places and a further 15 new free schools for children with special educational needs. Interestingly, Labour did not give specific numbers in regard to SEN education but appeared to back some of what the interviewees of this article said by stating they would improve inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools. They also stated they would ensure special school cater to those with complex needs and that admission decisions will account for the needs of communities and require all schools to co-operate with their local authority on school admissions and SEND inclusion.
If the polls are correct, Labour appear on course for a thumping victory next week. Although they have given nice platitudes, the fact they haven’t given specific funding commitments to the SEN system will probably be of great concern to many in the SEN community. If in the unlikely scenario the Tories get re-elected, they appear to have a clearer plan to fix a broken SEN system they have overseen for fourteen years.
Whoever wins on the 4th July has a big job in fixing an SEN system that although has some of the right principles in place, it practically is falling short of the needs of all SEND children. The funding also needs to improve across England and be more consistent so that we get rid of the postcode lottery that is currently in place and we make sure no SEND child is left behind. From the articulate concerns raised above by teachers, headteachers, psychologists and experts in SEN Law, the system clearly needs to improve to make sure everyone with SEND gets the best start in life and can fulfil their potential with support that encourages their different way of learning, thinking and contributing. Rather than a system that sees SEND students as a problem to be dealt with.
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