Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) reform: Parliamentary briefing

The SEND system has reached crisis point. Despite record levels of investment and the high rate of assessment and identification of needs, there is no clear evidence that outcomes for children have been improving. Across some measures they are declining. Reform of the SEND system is needed urgently and is unavoidable.

• More children and young people than ever are being identified with SEND, with the number of Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs) increasing by 165 per cent since 2014.
• Demand for specialist provision has also risen sharply, with a 65 per cent increase in pupils in state-funded special schools and a 165 per cent rise in those placed in Independent and Non-Maintained Special Schools since 2014.
• In 2023/24, 99 per cent of appeals to the SEND Tribunal were upheld. Councils are required to implement these decisions even when the associated costs are unsustainable.
• Despite increased national funding to reflect the growth in EHCPs and specialist provision, local authorities continue to run deficits in their high needs spending and are facing a financial cliff edge.
• There is little evidence that the increased identification of SEND and placements in specialist provision have narrowed the academic attainment gap between pupils with SEN and their peers.
• Any discussion of SEND reform must also consider home-to-school transport. LGA research indicates that SEND transport expenditure has increased substantially, rising from £644 million in 2015–16 to over £1.7 billion in 2023–24. Councils are consistently overspending on this service, diverting funds from other priorities to manage the growing financial burden.

In the summer of 2024 the Local Government Association and County Councils Network (CCN) published independent research, Towards an effective and financially sustainable approach to SEND in England. The report sets out proposals to transform support and outcomes for pupils with SEND and to place the system on a secure financial footing. 

We welcome the Budget announcement that the Government will absorb SEND costs from 2028/29. The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficits, however, represent a substantial ongoing fiscal risk to councils in the absence of a plan to address them when the statutory override ends in 2027/28. Resolving this issue is essential to enabling the wider reforms the SEND system needs.

The forthcoming Schools White Paper should be used as a platform for councils to co-design with government an effective and financially sustainable approach to SEND. We are advocating for a system that delivers early identification of need and increases levels of mainstream inclusion. 

Our proposals put inclusion at the heart of every part of the education system. Achieving this depends on listening to and acting upon the lived experience of children, young people and parents/carers, and on co-designing solutions with them, alongside: 

• a national ambition for inclusion: based on the foundational principles of promoting inclusion in education and in preparing young people for adult life, and that all aspects of education policy and practice should be recalibrated to support these principles.
• a national framework for additional needs: clear guidance to define the support mainstream settings should provide and promote best practice to drive standards.
• rebuilding mainstream capacity: more children should access timely support without needing statutory assessments, including a new core offer of multi-disciplinary services.
• policy reform to support inclusion: curriculum, qualifications, accountability, workforce development, leadership and infrastructure will be redesigned to underpin inclusive education.
• cross-government workforce strategy: a multi-disciplinary plan to define the skills and roles needed to deliver inclusive education and wraparound support.
• transitional funding: made available to councils during the reform process to maintain the existing SEND system and ensure capacity in mainstream schools.
• An exponential rise in diagnoses of SEND:  nearly one in five pupils (1.7 million children, an increase of nearly 100,000 since 2024) now receive some form of extra support for SEND. While we welcome the Health Secretary’s review on the growth in diagnosis, it must consider the full range of environmental and societal factors that can contribute to children’s overall wellbeing.

The LGA asks for your support in raising these proposals in Parliament to ensure that SEND reform delivers for children and young people.

Suggested parliamentary questions

• To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase early identification of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
• To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the availability of multi-disciplinary services for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in mainstream schools.
• To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to address Dedicated Schools Grant deficits before the statutory override ends in 2027/28.
• To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of long-distance Home to School Transport on the wellbeing of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
• To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures will be introduced to monitor whether Special Educational Needs and Disabilities reform improves educational outcomes for children and young people.

Application for Westminster Hall Debate

• That this House has considered the costs of SEND provision for local authorities.
• That this House has considered inclusion for children with SEND in mainstream schools. 

Louis Flood, Public Affairs Adviser
Mobile: 07860 924548
Email: [email protected]