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SEND emergency: Unviable system will end in lost generation of children without reform

15 January 2025

With outcomes for children stalled, families’ confidence undermined and two-fifths of local authorities staring down bankruptcy, PAC report issues urgent warning.

Evidence of postcode lottery for support as Govt urged to better respond to rise in demand.

A lost generation of children could leave school without having received the help they need. In its report on support for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN), the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today issues an urgent call for Government to take action to improve a system which is failing the families who need it, and putting almost half of all councils in England in danger of effective bankruptcy within 15 months. 

Map showing the percentage of new EHC plans issued within 20 weeks in 2023

The PAC finds that too many families struggle to access desperately-needed SEN support, with a system inherently favouring parents and carers better able to navigate an often chaotic and adversarial process liable to produce marked inequalities. The report highlights a postcode lottery with massive variation across the country in families’ wait times for EHC plans (see national heatmap above; national and regional heatmaps posted on X). Even families in neighbouring local authorities have markedly different experiences - 71.5% of EHC plans were written on time in Lambeth, while only 19.2% were in Southwark. Areas with particularly poor performance can be seen in the South, South-West and East of England.  

In the course of the PAC’s inquiry, Government attributed lengthening EHC plan waiting times to increasing demand. But the Department for Education (DfE) does not fully understand why demand for support has increased, undermining its ability to deliver it. A further 1.14m children since 2015 receive SEN support in schools (a 14% rise since 2015), while demand for EHC plans has soared by 140% since 2015. The DfE must improve its understanding of demand, before setting out how it will provide support more efficiently.  

The DfE admitted to the PAC that it has not looked hard enough at the barriers to encouraging inclusivity in mainstream schools. The report recommends DfE should, within six months, set out the provision which children with SEN should expect, with an articulation of how inclusive education will be achieved, and how schools will be held to account. Earlier identification of SEN, and improved teacher training and continuous development are also key to delivering inclusive education. SEN performance data should also incorporate factors other than academic attainment. 

As well as not delivering outcomes for children and families, the Government was unable to provide to the PAC any potential solution to the critical and immediate financial challenges facing many local authorities due to persistent and significant SEN-related overspends. The system also remains unviable with current piecemeal interventions doing nothing to provide a financially sustainable system, which poses an existential threat to the financial status of some local authorities. The situation if left unresolved risks undermining the finances of local government across England. As a matter of utmost urgency, the PAC calls on Government to work with local authorities to develop a fair and appropriate solution. 

Chair comment

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Urgent warnings have long been issued to Government on the failing SEND system from every quarter. This is an emergency that has been allowed to run and run. Families in need of help have been forced to spend precious energy fighting for the support they are legally entitled to, and local authorities to bear an unsustainable financial burden.  

“The fact that 98% of cases taken to tribunal find in favour of families is staggering, and can only demonstrate that we are forcing people to jump through bureaucratic hoops for no good reason. It is long past time the Government took action matching the gravity of this situation. And yet our inquiry found no sense of urgency amongst officials to do so.   

“The immensity of this situation cannot be overstated. As a nation, we are failing countless children. We have been doing so for years. At the same time, we are creating an existential financial risk for some local authorities, caused by that same failing system. This report must serve as a line in the sand for Government. Every day that goes by for families not receiving the right support is another day closer to a lost generation of young people.”  

Further information

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