The system to support children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) in England has ‘reached crisis point’
An investigation by MPs on the state of SEN support in England has revealed ‘a system in disarray, mired in red tape, and lacking funding’.
The report from MPs on the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee warns that families no longer have any confidence in a SEN system where 98% of tribunals are awarded in favour of families of SEN children.
The Association of School and College Leaders said this week that it is ‘hard to imagine a more damning report’ and labelled the current state of SEND support as ‘truly lamentable’
The investigation found that many local authorities are facing effective bankruptcy because their spending on SEN has outstripped government high needs funding for years and has led to ‘substantial deficits’.
The SEN high needs deficit is now estimated to be £4.6bn. Its impact has up until now been deferred under ‘statutory override’ rules, but these expire in March 2026 when the deficit is set to hit local authority books hard.
In a letter to the Department of Education (DfE) and Department of Health and Social Care (DH) urging action, chair of the PAC, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, said that this ‘presents an existential threat to many councils' financial position’. Indeed, the report warns that 66 local authorites (43%) are ‘in danger of effective bankruptcy within 15 months’.
Elsewhere, MPs warn of a postcode lottery of provision, with families in many areas struggling to access SEN support, and huge delays to Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). EHCPs are supposed to be produced within a statutory 20-week period, but the report states that local authorities issued anywhere from 1% to 100% of their EHCPs on time.
It adds: ‘In 2023, only half of EHCPs were issued within the statutory 20-week period. Whether children receive support depends too much on their postcode, or how well their parents can navigate an often chaotic and adversarial system.’
The report points out that only 2.5% of EHCP decisions are appealed at tribunal, but the number has increased from 6 000 appeals in 2018 to 15 600 in 2023. And of those, a ‘staggering’ 98% of cases are awarded, in whole or in part, to parents/carers.
The problems have, in part, been driven by huge increases in the number of students with SEN. As of January 2024, there were 1.9 million children aged 0 to 25 with SEN, with most (1.14 million) on SEN support (a 14% increase since 2015) and 576 000 who have an EHCP (up 140% since 2015).
While there has been a 58% increase in the DfE's high needs funding over the last decade, this has been nowhere near enough to meet demand.
The report states: ‘Looking ahead, the gap between high-needs annual funding and forecast costs looks set to rise further, with an estimated £3.4bn mismatch in 2027/28. The DfE's current financial support programmes will have no discernible impact on these longer-term challenges nor support local authorities in managing their financial position.’
As well as long delays for EHCPs, there are also long waiting lists for specialist support, with more than 40 000 children waiting more than 12 weeks for speech and language therapy, for example.
Parents' confidence in the system has been further undermined, the MPs say, due to the simple fact that outcomes for SEN children have not improved. They also point out that while inclusive education is at the heart of the SEN system, the DfE lacks understanding about what inclusive education actually means.
The report states: ‘Outcomes for children have not improved which inevitably undermines parents’ confidence in the system. Too many families struggle to get the help their children desperately need, with long waiting times for assessments and support, and tribunal cases rising.
‘The DfE has not made clear what it means by inclusive education, a core strand of its approach, or how it will be achieved. A core aim of the Children and Families Act 2014 was supporting children with SEN in more inclusive mainstream schools, but the DfE has made little discernible progress. It has not defined or set out what inclusive education should look like.’
The MPs set out a number of recommendations which the DfE and DH must respond to, including calling on the DfE to, in the next 6 months, set out the provision which children with SEN support should expect and ‘what inclusive education means and looks like’.
Further recommendations urge the DfE to better understand the cause of rising numbers of SEN, as well as understanding the reasons for differences in identifying and supporting SEN across local authorities.
When it comes to the financial situation, the MPs say that the government must ‘urgently involve local authorities in conversations to develop a fair and appropriate solution for when the statutory override ends in March 2026, clearly setting out these plans as a matter of urgency and no later than March 2025’.
The Association of School and College Leaders is now calling for a one-off settlement from government to wipe out the £4.6bn deficit and for ‘significant additional funding’.
General secretary Pepe Di'Iasio said: ‘It is hard to imagine a more damning report. Not only are children being failed by the pressures on the SEND system, but almost half of councils are in danger of going bust because of the government's failure to get to grips with the problem despite repeated warnings over many years. It is truly lamentable.’
‘Uncertainties remain’ about impact of treatment for gender-related distress, review finds
Major uncertainties remain about the impact of puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone therapy on children and young people with gender-related distress (gender dysphoria), find two data analyses published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The findings are similar to those of the Cass review of gender identity services in the NHS published last year, which argued that the evidence for the use of puberty blockers and masculinising and feminising hormones was inadequate, with no means to gauge their effectiveness.
Puberty blockers aim to delay or prevent the onset of puberty by blocking the hormones that cause the physical changes associated with male and female gender identity. Their use is currently banned in the UK.
The researchers pooled the results of the available research on the use of puberty blockers and gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) in children and people up to the age of 26. In the first of these analyses, they assessed evidence from 10 relevant studies: three comparative observational, and seven before and after, studies. These provided very low certainty evidence on the outcomes of global function (general health, quality of life, and psychological wellbeing) and depression, or the impact on global function, depression, and bone mineral density.
On synthesising the results, there was no conclusive evidence on which to base policy and practice.
The second analysis aimed to clarify the psychological and physical impact of GAHT and included 24 relevant studies: nine comparative observational studies; 13 before and after studies; and two case series.
Both the comparative observational and before and after studies provided very low confirmatory evidence of any substantive change, with just one observational study indicating that GAHT might lower the risk of depression.
The researchers conclude: ‘There is considerable uncertainty about the effects of GAHT and we cannot exclude the possibility of benefit or harm. Methodologically rigorous prospective studies are needed to produce higher certainty evidence.’
Health and wellbeing ‘is influenced by the six environments people spend in’
People's health and wellbeing are being negatively affected by the everyday places they spend time in, according to a new report by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), A Place for Health.
Citing polling data of nearly 2000 adults, the report looks at the six environments people spend most time in: homes, schools, parks and leisure facilities, workplaces, high streets, and libraries. Three million people (5%) live in homes that are negatively impacting their health and wellbeing and only one in eight say their workplace is very good for their health and wellbeing. Three quarters of a million children are in schools that are bad for their health, according to their parent or carer. The polling data also show a clear divide across socio-economic status, and that people with incomes of under £34k are more likely to say that their health and wellbeing is negatively affected by the places around them.
The report calls for a change in how health policy is formed by looking at the six environments as target settings to improve the public's physical and mental health, which it argues will be key to reducing pressure on the NHS.
News in brief
The UK Health Security Agency is urging young people to take up the HPV vaccine in schools when offered. Latest figures indicate that uptake is stabilising, with encouraging signs of increases when people are first offered the vaccine in year 8. The NHS vaccination programme in England has been shown to have lowered HPV infections and rates of cervical cancer in vaccine-eligible women. However, HPV vaccine uptake among school pupils is still below pre-pandemic levels of around 90%.
Ofcom has published a statement and guidance on age assurance and children's access assessments, outlining what online services must do under the Online Safety Act to help prevent children from encountering pornography and other harmful content. Online providers must take action to start to comply with the new rules. Services that allow pornography must introduce processes to check the age of users by July 2025.
A report from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders has called for a national strategy to address the challenges of the eating disorder crisis in the UK. It found that there is a postcode lottery in service provision, and that healthcare providers are insufficiently trained, with people across the country facing significant barriers to accessing treatment.