I was happy to bring this debate to Parliament last week as the SEND system is failing some of the country’s most vulnerable children.
My inbox is full to the brim with parents who are concerned about the wellbeing of their child and are scared that their needs are being left unmet. One parent from Wincanton told me that their bright, intelligent child deserves to be cared for rather than being ignored by the system following a harrowing experience.
The current system is far too adversarial, it pits families against councils and schools, leaving no one satisfied. More children are being identified as having SEND than ever before. Since the landmark reforms to the system with the Children and Families Act in 2014, the number of Educational Health Care Plans (EHCP) has risen by 140%.
The mainstream education system has been unable to cope with the sheer increase in demand within such a short space of time. Under the previous Conservative Government, schools and councils faced huge real terms cut in funding, which has undoubtedly had a negative impact on the provision that mainstream schools can provide.
There has also been an increased reliance on independent specialist schools, which has put councils under huge financial pressure. Somerset Council funding for children with EHCPs in mainstream settings is about £12 million a year and, despite having a quarter as many children in independent schools, the cost is more than double, costing the council an additional £30 million per year.
Even though the Government are investing more than ever in SEND provision, it is still significantly less than the actual spend by local authorities. Government funding in the high needs block allocation has risen from £4.8 billion in 2014-15 to £9.2 billion 2024-25, but analysis has shown that the actual figure for high needs spending by local authorities is £890 million more in 2023-24 and could rise to more than £1 billion over the next two years. The statutory override on debts means that they are kept off the books, but half of the council leaders surveyed recently said that they were insolvent in three years if that was to be removed.
Funding is also unequal across the country, leading to a postcode lottery in provision. Somerset Council is part of the f40 group, which includes the poorest funded councils in the country. Somerset will receive less than £8,000 gross dedicated grant funding (DSG) per mainstream pupil in 2024-25, more than £5,000 less than the best-funded local authority in England, illustrating a massive disparity.
Rural areas like Somerset also face huge costs in home to school transport due to the sheer size of the county. The average cost to Somerset Council of transport for a child with SEND is £10,000 per year, while some individual transport arrangement cost the council over £60,000 a year.
Another consequence of failure in the SEND system is increased rates of children receiving a home education. There are around 2,000 children in Somerset receiving a home education, many of these are because the child could not cope in school.
When a child moves to receive education at a place other than a school, they are automatically deleted from the school roll and the Council are unable to receive the DSG funding for the child. Somerset Council estimates that this costs the education system between £8-10 million a year. It is also almost impossible to retrieve that money to create space for the child in the system once they are off rolled, creating a one-way exist from the system.
We must implement reforms to fix the problems inherent in the system now, as any delays will increase the cost both on children’s futures and the taxpayers purse further down the line.
The Liberal Democrats want to see the creation of a national body for SEND to fund support for those with the very highest needs. This national body could support services to identify where early interventions are needed, lowering future costs since needs are so often exacerbated due to inaction.
The new Government agrees that the system is broken, and that reforms are needed, but we are yet to see many details.
I am hopeful that this will come soon as we cannot delay fixing this crisis any longer.
We need a national body for SEND to fund support for those with the very highest needs
