A new report, ‘Support for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs’ by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has revealed the true extent to which the special  educational needs (SEN) system is failing children in England.

Salise Dourmoush, a partner in our SEN department, breaks down the unfolding SEN crisis and the report’s staggering findings.

“Sadly, we are looking at a whole generation of children and young people being let down and not getting the support they need during their education. We know that the system has been struggling for years, but it has now hit a crisis point.

“Despite a 58% increase in the Department for Education’s (DfE) high needs funding over the last ten years, it has simply not been able to keep up with demand. There has been a 140% increase in the number of children with an Education Health Care (EHC) plan in that time. In January 2024, there were 576,000 children with EHC plans in England. An additional 1.14 million children were receiving SEN support in school. This is up by 14%.

“The DfE confirms that demand for EHC plans is growing fastest for people with autism spectrum disorder, speech, language and communication needs, and social, emotional and mental health difficulties. However, the department does not fully understand why this is. This has become a significant barrier to providing the right provisions, support and value-for-money.

“Without a clear understanding for the increase and the change in demand for SEN support, and the ability to identify and support needs earlier, the system is already set up to fail.

“Sadly, we are all too familiar with the struggle children and their families have to go through to identify and get support for special educational needs. Waiting times for assessments and access to healthcare for children and young people with speech and language difficulties, autism and ADHD, for example, now run into years on the NHS, and even private providers are struggling to keep up with demand.

“Getting an EHC assessment and plan is also a battlefield that many parents face. More parents are having to appeal decisions around their child’s EHC plan than ever before, whether that is a decision not to issue an EHC plan, or about the support they are being offered in the plan.

“The numbers appealing went from 6,000 in 2018 to 15,600 in 2023. What’s more, 98% of the appeal decisions made at the tribunals went in favour of the parents. It’s no wonder people have lost faith and trust in the system.

“Even if you are issued an EHC plan, you are still likely to face a wait. In 2023, only half of EHC plans were issued within 20 weeks, but the figures vary wildly across the country creating a postcode lottery for parents to deal with.

“For example, in Leicester and Essex, not a single EHC plan was delivered in that timeframe, whereas in Southampton and Barnett, 100% of plans were delivered within 20 weeks.

“The process is exhausting, stressful and costly for parents, and their success in getting the right support for their child appears to be largely based on where they live, their ability to navigate the ‘chaotic and adversarial system’ and their personal finances.

“And the system is not just costly for families. It also places a significant strain on local authorities’ finances. For years, local authority spending for high needs has outstripped their funding and nearly half are now at risk of bankruptcy, according to the report.”

What are the recommendations?

“The PAC report makes a number of important recommendations and has called on the government for an urgent reform to the SEN system. It is vital that this happens within the next year.

“The report calls for the DfE to gain a better understanding of the reasons for the differences in identifying and supporting SEN needs across different areas and schools, and to routinely identify and share good practice. It also calls for an improve in local authority decision-making to reduce the need for tribunals.

“It recommends urgent collaboration with the Department for Health and Social Care to better understand the reasons for the increase in demand for SEN support, ways to identify needs earlier and more efficient and effective support options to reduce the number of EHC plans required in the first place.

“The report criticised the DfE for making ‘little discernible progress’ in supporting children with SEN in mainstream schools and in not setting out expectations of what an inclusive mainstream school should look like. It is calling for a clearer idea of what provisions should be expected, and the levels of resourcing required.

“It also recommends improved teacher training and continuous development around identifying and supporting children with SEN, after it found only 56% of teachers felt confident to support children with additional needs. It also pointed to the fact academic attainment is the major performance indicator at mainstream schools and urged that SEN performance data should also be used to measure success to incentivise schools.

“It is heart-breaking to witness families desperately trying to get the support their child needs, and the report is an uncomfortable read, highlighting so many failings across England. However, we hope it will act as that one final catalyst that wakes up government and drives true reform across the system so that we never have to witness another lost generation of children in our education system”.

You can read the full report from the Public Account Committee here

If you need help getting the right support for your child, contact our experienced SEN team today.