I am very grateful for this parliamentary review because the funding difficulties for SEND children in mainstream schools have been dire for the last couple of years, but we are now reaching a total crisis.  I have supported three separate schools as a SENCO over the last seven years and have seen the same problems in each setting.  These are outlined below. 

Financial Difficulties for Schools

School funding has decreased in real terms over the last 14 years [see School Cuts for further details].  In addition to this, schools have had to contend with a huge rise in energy costs and issues with maintaining buildings past their intended life.  

Local authorities (most with a deficit budget) are under pressure to reduce their costs, which inevitably means cutting their funding for schools through refusing or reducing EHCPs.  Schools are often unable to cut any further costs or increase their income.  There is therefore a pressure on schools (because of their deficit budgets) to reject children who need or have an EHCP by saying they ‘can’t meet need’.  (The alternative is accepting additional debt because the EHCPs are not appropriately funded by the LAs):

• A child with an EHCP for full-time, 1:1 support in my area (Westmorland and Furness), would receive £14,790 funding from the LA (plus the £6,000 notional fund from school).  However, I have documentation from the Local Authority which proves that their funding is calculated on 2015/2016 salary data NOT what it actually costs in 2024 and it has never been increased since that time.  This ignores the 46% inflation since that time.
• The actual cost in 2024 for a level 3 teaching assistant is £27,787 (incl. the £6,000 ‘notional’ school fund.  This means that, rather than paying the notional £6,000, school pay £12,997 to make up the actual, genuine cost:

In addition, it takes up to 6 months for schools to receive the top-up funding from the LA towards EHCP costs so the school has to cover this until the EHCP comes through; this increases their deficit. 

A significant irony of this is: as a direct result of SEN-friendly schools being underfunded for SEND by the LA, we have to accept deficit budgets (or reject the children). This means that we have to borrow money from the LA and then pay the LA interest (on the loan that wouldn’t have been necessary in the first place if we had been appropriately funded)!

Staffing issues for schools

These financial factors are having a knock-on effect for all children, but particularly for SEND children because schools are increasingly reporting deficit budgets this year, which result in the loss of any ‘extra’ staff in order to attempt to save costs.  As a result, the average class of 30 children is likely to have at least one EHCP, four children at ‘SEN support’ level; plus an increasing number of EAL children who need language support, children struggling with low attainment and children with a range of emotional or mental health problems.  All of these children need nurture and individualised support but there are NO additional adults in the average classroom anymore, only the teacher.   [2023 Gov SEN data from: Special educational needs in England, Academic year 2022/23 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk).  The new data will undoubtedly be higher].  The only children guaranteed to receive any support in classes are those with EHCPs.

Schools also have an issue currently with recruiting support staff for the most vulnerable children because TA/LSA salaries are so poor at around £18,500 PA and they don’t match the expectations and responsibilities of their roles (which often involve managing complex needs and being verbally and sometimes physically assaulted by dysregulated children).

Schools are increasingly ‘unable to meet the needs’ of children with EHCPs because they can no longer afford to pay for any additional staff.  (Having an EHCP does not help for the reasons outlined above; it actually costs the school more in the long-run).

Poor outcomes for SEND children

Due to a sudden increase in more complex SEN needs, EHCP assessment applications are rising at an alarming rate [72% rise in applications is reported since 2019: Hundreds of children with special needs wait a year for support in England | Special educational needs | The Guardian].  However, we are finding that an increasing proportion are being rejected at the outset by the Local Authority, without clear explanation.  The rejected applications result in delays in care for the most vulnerable children, significant additional work for school staff from the subsequent, necessary mediation and/or tribunal process and a huge impact of stress on the schools who are supporting these children without the required funding/staff.

EHCPs that are awarded, are often done so at much lower levels than those recommended in the EP/SAT (Educational Psychologist/ Special Advisory Teacher) reports that accompany them – again, meaning a significant additional cost to schools to make up the difference.  Our LA has recently started applying temporary funding too, which means we have to fight to keep the funding before the next financial year.  In addition, they have stopped telling schools how much the funding will be, or the number of hours – making it impossible to budget for.

The level of special educational needs in schools is becoming more complex and varied.  SEMH needs (social, emotional and mental health) is by far the most complex need to manage in schools and is significantly on the rise.  Due to the nature of this particular need, reduced funding/support frequently results in injury to other children and/or adults and possible exclusions (because of the incidents that are likely to happen with insufficient support).  This dangerous combination is likely to necessitate a move (for the child) to Independent Specialist Provision (which regularly costs over four times the amount of a mainstream, supported place).

Misuse of government finances

Finally, I am hugely concerned about availability of appropriate educational provision for SEND children nationally.  In our area, a full-time EHCP in mainstream school costs the LA £14,790 (although it SHOULD be £21,787 as outlined above). 

When schools are underfunded and appropriate support for a complex child is not provided, a child’s placement becomes vulnerable and can lead to the child being excluded.  If they need to be moved to specialist provision, this costs the LA c.£30,000 for an LA-maintained special school. 

However, there aren’t enough of these schools, so children with complex needs often end up being moved into independent specialist provisions – many of which are run by overseas investment companies and are profit-driven; for further detail, see these articles in Financial Times and Schools Week: Abu Dhabi plans Mid East expansion for UK special schools provider and SEND: How investors make millions from ‘bankrupt’ system.  A full-time place at one of these schools costs the LA £100,000 per annum for day-care and £250,000 for a residential place.  I think this is one of the most significant failings in current SEND practice and LA-maintained special schools need to be invested in urgently.

Summary:

The current system of SEND funding is allowing SEN children to be marginalised, side-lined or even excluded from schools where they might have otherwise flourished. This should not be allowed to continue.  Giving the LAs more SEND funding is futile because it doesn’t reach the children.  (The most recent SEND funding increase was not passed on to children in schools; it just reduced the LA debt slightly). 

My suggestion would be that:

• Any additional SEND funding goes directly to schools (and is ringfenced so that it must be accounted for). 
• SEND funding should be proportional related to the percentage of children with SEN support and EHCPs within each school.  (Small/medium schools are often seen as more suitable for SEND children which disproportionately affects their budget).
• The ‘notional’ £6,000 that schools need to find for every SEND child should be scrapped because making schools with deficit budgets find this amount for every child with SEND means that children with needs are overlooked because of financial difficulties.
• With the huge rise in acknowledging SEND in children, we need an alternative solution for the referral and assessment process for SEND.  The NHS/ CAMHS/ LA need leaner, universally agreed referral/diagnosis procedures – the quality of care shouldn’t be affected by where a child lives.  The processes should be centralised, streamlined and applied universally to save further confusion and delay.  Within this, it MUST be possible to triage the most complex cases (eg where children show violent behaviours), to give timely, purposeful solutions.  These might prevent the need for independent specialist provision by providing the right support at the right time.
• Parents need more support to help them navigate common parenting challenges and understand the SEND systems and processes available to them.  (A huge proportion of my TAF meetings with parents are requests for support and advice around managing behaviours at home).

Thank you for reading this.  If I can be of any further help, please let me know; this is a subject I am extremely passionate about and which I could contribute significant knowledge, skills and experience to.

Yours sincerely,

Kirsten Hardy

SENCO & Deputy Head Teacher