The impact on local govt. finances of the mandatory provision of Special Education Needs & Disabilities (SEND) support continues to deepen;
having received some extra financial support, councils still forecast a £10bn deficit by 2028, putting further pressure on their budgets, with cuts & more council tax rises likely to continue.
The SEND system needs a radical overhaul both in provision & funding; but it would better this was strategic than just driven by crisis!
The petition to save SEND legal rights is 3rd out of 2,192 parliamentary petitions, with over 112,000 signatures. There are just 8 days to go. Will you help save disabled children’s rights by signing and sharing. Children can sign too. #SEND #Disability
petition.parliament.uk/petitio…
I believe that the Government’s proposed SEND reforms could limit EHCPs, weaken legal rights, replace individual plans with packages, reduce appeals, and remove school choice.Petitions - UK Parliament and UK Government
My name is Anaïs and I close friends with Hanan. I am from the United States, and I help raise money for verified Palestinian families from Gaza (IG @sendlovetopalestine). I created this campaign to help Hanan and her four children survive.Chuffed
The (perverse) incentives of OFSTED's grading system are clear in the Sutton Trusts research that shows top graded schools take on far fewer students with Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) than the average comprehensive school, and also a proportion lower than the share of SEND pupils in their catchment areas.
Its rational, of course to avoid SEND students if your school is judged on both results & budgets... but socially unjust!
#schools #SEND #politics
theguardian.com/education/2026…
School leaders believe some deploy a deliberate strategy to boost grades and improve finances, new research suggestsRachel Hall (the Guardian)
Freedom News: **SEND reforms: Cuts and culture wars**
freedomnews.org.uk/2026/02/25/…
Reducing SEND provision is part of a wider fight against the disabled and the young ~ punkacademic ~ Labour’s long-awaited announcement of ‘ref…
The post SEND reforms: Cuts and culture wars appeared first on Freedom News.
The imminent announcement of the Govt's proposed reforms to Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) support system has, been (like other policies) prefigured by briefings & leaks on its policy content.
Certainly SEND proposals need clear & informed public discussion, but this process of selected leaks to the media, as always, just looks point scoring not the desire to have a reasoned conversation!
Discussion should only start when the *whole* policy package is public!
Until recently I was a panel member for school admission appeals. A lot of our caseload involved children with SEND whose current school was not meeting their needs. And too often the school they wanted was stating they had no capacity. On one hand these children had legal rights, but with no way to get the environment or teaching they need to succeed.
We have been disadvantaging them, and for too many reducing any chance of future employment. The latter is a major longer term cost but government isn't designed to pay now to save later, particularly HMT.
Short term savings by moving the goalposts, with huge personal, family and unemployment costs for decades.
#SEND
The whole #SEND process could have been designed to break disastrously.
SEND creates unconstrained demands on finite budgets. That is bound to break.
There are two possible types of solution:
1/ treat SEND assessments like most other #publicServices: as a priority ranking, rather than absolute right.
2/ devise a system where funding expands to follows needs.
Problems either way. But it's fantasy to pretend that absolute rights can be met by finite resources.
How big a problem is the funding of Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) funding?
Deficits at local councils in the SEND budgets have risen overall from £200mn in 2020-21 to £2.5bn for 2025-26, with a growing number of councils reporting they're approaching insolvency as a result.
The problem is the Govt. looks likely to try to 'solve' this issue by excluding more children from SEND support schemes, once again prioritising cost-cutting over social provision.
The announcement that funding for Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) funding would be transferred (back) to the Dept. of Education in the Autumn Budget was intended to be the first step in resolving the crisis at the heart of SEND provision - both in funding & capacity....
But as Amber Dellar concludes given the suspicion many parents already have about the operation of the SEND system, this may not yet be treated as good news.
instituteforgovernment.org.uk/…
At the budget the chancellor announced a significant change to SEND funding arrangements.Amber Dellar (Institute for Government)
Sam Freedman (in a paywalled article in the Observer, but in my paper copy) argues that without some constraint in eligibility for Special Educational Needs & Disability (SEND) student funding there is no way out for the crisis that has engulfed SEND provision.
He may(!) be right, but to make such a move would require both the sort of political leadership & reservoir of trust that this Govt. sadly doesn't have.
Meanwhile private providers are making hay while the sun shines!
As part of the Autumn Budget Rachel Reeves moved the responsibility for funding Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) funding from Councils to the Dept. of Education; which leaves the state (rather than local Govt.) holding the growing deficit due to over-spends on the constrained budget.
So, while this *might* mean funding will expand, as the Office of Budget Responsibility note, the SEND deficit will now impact on Reeves's fiscal situation!
#SEND #politics
theguardian.com/education/2025…
Councils welcome move but OBR says it is a significant fiscal risk and could lead to 4.9% real fall in spending per pupilPatrick Butler (The Guardian)
We know how hard parents can fight for their children;
John Harris' warning that the parents of children whose needs should (but often are not fully) met through the Special Education Needs & Disabilities system may be about to become the key focussed opposition to a Govt. many are increasingly seeing as cruel & uncaring when it comes to the vulnerable, makes perfect sense.
As many people have found out; don't mess with the parents!
#SEND #politics
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
From mooted Whitehall cost-cutting to the bigoted views of Reform, parents of children with special needs see the latest threats, and we are mobilising, says Guardian columnist John HarrisJohn Harris (The Guardian)
While the reform of Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) is pretty obviously required, the problem that Labour has is that any reform is likely to be seen as driven by fiscal requirements, and not the enhancement of the experience of those young people entering the SEND system.
While the problem looks like ad hoc & unevenly supported provision, the wholesale reformation of the system would be expensive & is unlikely to find Treasury support!
#SEND #politics
theguardian.com/education/2025…
Thinktank says EHCP changes are overdue, but government must convince parents that reforms are not about cost cuttingRichard Adams (The Guardian)
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9j03…
This is what we have to put up with in Derby.
#autism
#autistic
#neurodiverse
#SEND
Alan Graves says there should be a national debate on the issue but is criticised by parents.Georgia Roberts (BBC News)
After the summer recess, Keir Starmer is set to try to change the criteria for special education needs & disabilities (SEND) in schools. While the intent is also to push SEND provision back into mainstream & specialist state schools (reversing the expansion of private provision), the key issue will be shifts in eligibility for support.
We will find out whether the logic of the change can be presented as a positive improvement or becomes (again) a case of saving money.
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