Responding to the National Audit Office's report, Support for
children and young people with special educational needs,
Paul Whiteman general secretary of the school leaders' union,
NAHT said:
“Today's statistics are the catastrophic legacy of the last
government's failure to get a grip on the crisis in SEND. Despite
soaring costs and more children being identified as having
additional needs, school funding has remained largely static in
real terms. Furthermore, per-pupil funding for pupils in special
schools has been frozen for over a decade. We are dealing with a
system that, despite the best efforts of those working in
schools, is buckling under pressure and letting children down.
Children with the most severe needs, in particular, are subject
to an unjust postcode lottery, despite our repeated calls for a
national approach to high-needs funding and a set of universally
applied standards.
“The cost of inaction is measured in lost potential. Children
with SEND deserve better – a system that supports them, not one
that sets them up for failure.
“When the Conservative government published the SEND and
Alternative Provision plan last year, we were clear that while we
supported some of the measures, such as early intervention,
increasing the specialist workforce, and improving the Education,
Health and Care Plan process, these plans would fail if they were
not backed up by significant additional funding and more detail
on how they would be implemented. Sufficient extra funding was
never provided, and this data shows that councils have either
overspent or been forced to raise the threshold for support –
with many children still not getting the help they need, and
crippling shortages of vital staff, including educational
psychologists and speech and language therapists, continuing.
“The warning lights are flashing red – without proper investment,
things will get even worse, and the system may face complete
collapse. High-needs deficits must be written off, and urgent,
targeted investment is needed to stop children in different parts
of the country from being left behind. The F40 campaign, which
NAHT supports, estimates that SEND funding needs an additional
£4.6 billion a year, and we urge the government to prioritise
this at the budget.
"NAHT stands ready to work with the government to help find
urgent solutions to this ever-growing crisis.”
Ends
For children with a diagnosed need, schools should receive
notional funding per pupil per year of £6,000 for mainstream
pupils and £10,000 for children in special schools. These figures
have remained static since 2013, despite inflation.
