More children with special educational needs should get the care and support they need in schools and other mainstream settings without the need for a statutory plan, say councils.
More children with special educational needs should get the care and support they need in schools and other mainstream settings without the need for a statutory plan, say councils.
It comes as a new report commissioned by the Local Government Association reinforces the case for reforming the SEND system and areas of consensus about where this is needed.
There are currently around 434,000 children in school with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), a legal document provided by councils outlining a child’s needs and the support they will receive.
The LGA, which represents councils, is calling for an overhaul of the current system, where while in some cases an EHCP will be appropriate, for most children they will get the support they need in schools, without needing an EHCP.
The new report, Reform of the SEND system: What might the next stage look like and how can we build consensus? by Isos Partnership, says “the hollowing out” of non-statutory SEND support – and reduction in wider support services for children, young people and families – has made it imperative to secure an EHCP and ensure accountability for its delivery.
It follows regional and national workshops with young people, parents and carers, and leaders of health, education settings and local government that discussed how the SEND system is not working and could be reformed.
It said the system was “not working well for anyone in it” and at its most extreme, causes “long-term misery, stress and hardship for young people and their families”.
The workshops heard directly from young people and system leaders, with consensus about the need to create a more inclusive system.
It was agreed there needs to be a much, broader “core” of support for all children and young people who need it, which would require significant investment in the Spending Review to build the capacity of settings and services to provide this. This support offer would also need effective accountability and redress for families.
Measures for reform, which must be co-produced with children, parents, and carers, could include:
- Two pillars of reform: the first pillar relating to building values, culture, practices and support capacity; the second legal rules and parameters. Without alignment between the two, the system would become “inherently unstable”. The report authors are clear that while reforms of both pillars are necessary, they recognise there are differing views about the second.
- A national vision, that sets out foundational values and national expectations of what an inclusive system should look like. This should include how we train a workforce, design buildings, create curricula and fund provision.
- A focus on a more inclusive approach in the early years. Ensuring support from education, family and therapeutic services in the early years could be life-changing for children and families, preventing issues being left to escalate as a child gets older.
- Developing a workforce to address the shortage of practitioners ensuring they have the right training and skills.
- A breaking down of “age-old” barriers preventing joint working across education and health services, to enable an integrated and holistic approach to supporting children, young people and their families.
The LGA says the findings underline the urgent need for the Government to act and set out a programme of reform in the upcoming Spending Review.
Cllr Arooj Shah, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said:
“There is no doubt that the current SEND system is not working and is not meeting the support needs of children and families.
“We fully recognise that these workshops will not represent the views of everyone, nor that there was a full consensus on all the matters discussed, however they have been invaluable in setting out what the SEND reform agenda could look like.
“This should be an inclusive system where an EHCP is not necessary, with a workforce that has the capacity and right skills, and investing in early intervention.
“Councils stand ready to work with government in tackling these challenges. But we have to ensure the voices of children and their families are heard and acted upon.
“We must the end the adversarial nature of the current system, where no child should have to fight for a statutory plan. Instead we need a system whereby children get the right support at the right time, and is not left behind.”
Sarah Clarke, CoChair of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF) said:
“Reform is inevitable—but it must be carefully sequenced and co-produced with those it impacts most. True change will only come when children, young people, and families are fully supported, not through reduced entitlements, but through a system built on accountability, inclusion, and trust.”
Rob Williams, Senior Policy Advisor and SEND lead for school leaders’ union NAHT, said:
“There is widespread agreement that the SEND system does need reform, but it is critical that any reform is accompanied by significant investment, to create a needs-led system, rather than a resource-limited one.
“In order to ultimately reduce the number of unnecessary EHCPs, capacity in all sectors would have to increase through significant investment, so that SEN support can be easily provided by schools, and wider services in health, social care, without the need to implement a formal plan. If the necessary support was easily accessible for all pupils, an EHCP should become increasingly redundant for many.
“That would mean addressing the insufficiency in core school budgets, addressing the high-needs black hole in LAs, addressing the undercapacity in specialist support services, and placing the responsibility to meet children and young people’s needs equally across all sectors and not just on education, schools and LAs.”
Cllr Tim Oliver, Chair of the County Councils Network, said:
“The current SEND system works for no-one: young people are not being supported effectively, too many families wait too long for support, and councils face spiralling and increasingly unsustainable costs.
“We know that reform is coming, but considering the growing SEND crisis government can ill-afford to get this wrong. The proposals in today’s report from the Local Government Association, building on our joint research last year, outline a sustainable path forward with greater inclusion within mainstream schools and early years at its core.
“What we are advocating for is not a reduction in support or entitlement, but instead a system where all children’s needs are supported as close to their home and community as possible, and those with specific needs supported via specialist help.”
Notes to editors
1. The report builds on last year’s report Towards an effective and financially sustainable approach to SEND in England, which found educational attainment amongst children with SEND had not improved since the introduction of landmark reforms in 2014
https://www.local.gov.uk/publications/towards-effective-and-financially-sustainable-approach-send-england
2. Since the 2014 reforms of the SEND system, the total number of children and young people with EHCPs – which set out the level of statutory support individuals are eligible to receive - has risen from 240,183 in 2015 to 575,973 in 2023/24, an increase of 140 per cent over 10 years. A further 1.2 million children in schools are identified as requiring SEN support below the level of a statutory EHCP, up from 990,000 in 2015.
3. Children with EHCPs have seen performance flatline, or decline, across key educational milestones over the past decade. At the end of primary school in 2022/23, only 8 per cent of children and young people with EHCPs achieved the expected level in reading, writing and mathematics – exactly the same percentage who achieved that level in 2016/17. At the other end of the age spectrum, only 30 per cent of young people with EHCPs achieved Level 2 by age 19 compared with nearly 37 per cent who achieved this level in 2014/15.
4. In 2015, councils SEND related expenditure was £4 billion, with this forecast to reach £12 billion by 2026. High needs deficits – where the cost of providing support outstrips the SEND budgets available to councils – are projected to rise to £5 billion by 2026.
(Source: Towards an effective and financially sustainable approach to SEND in England – Isos Partnership)
4. Councils can currently keep spending deficits relating to SEND off their main balance sheets under a temporary accounting measure known as “statutory override”. This is due to end in March 2026. If the override ends as planned with no alternative method for addressing deficits, 53 per cent of councils responding to the survey, responsible for SEND provision, say they will not be able to set a balanced budget in 2026/27, rising to 63 per cent in 2027/28 and 65 per cent in 2028/29.
(Source: LGA)