The National Education Union has found that SEND funding granted
to local authorities from central government since 2015 has
failed to keep up with rapidly increasing demand for special
educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision.
The number of children and young people granted an Education
Health Care Plan (EHCP – a legal document stating a child’s legal
entitlement to funding for further support for severe and complex
educational needs), has risen from 240,000 to 320,000 since 2015
– an increase of 33%. However, funding for the high needs block
(the budget reserved to fund such additional provision) has only
increased by 6% over the same period, from £5.6bn to £6bn in
today’s prices.
One reason for the rapid increase in demand lies in the extension
of EHCP provision to young people with additional needs aged
19-25 – a policy which was unplanned and insufficiently funded.
This translates into massive funding shortfalls for 93%
of local authorities across England, resulting in losses of
invaluable support staff, increased waiting times for SEN
assessment and cuts to specialist provision. You can find out how
your local authority is affected by looking at the attached data
file.
Local authorities have now reached crisis point, with 9 out of 10
facing shortfalls of thousands, or even millions, of pounds.
Several have also faced gruelling legal battles (1), as parents
of children with SEND have taken local authorities to court for
failing to provide the support their child has a statutory right
to through the provision detailed in their EHCP.
With funding increases failing to match the rapidly increasing
need, local authorities are simply unable to provide schools with
the adequate resources for effective SEND provision. As
such, a group of parents have launched a High Court legal
challenge (2) against central government’s special education
needs funding policy, demanding that government provide the funds
required by LAs to provide adequate SEND education.
The National Education Union’s campaign to increase SEND funding
won an additional £350 million to support children and young
people with additional needs.
However, central government has admitted that “more needs to be
done” (3).
Commenting on the research, Kevin Courtney, Joint
General Secretary of the National Education
Union, said:
“The funding shortfall for SEND provision comes against the
backdrop of the swingeing cuts to local authority budgets imposed
by the Westminster Government over the last 9 years which have
left many councils on the brink. Between 2010 and 2020, councils
will have lost almost 60p out of every £1 the Government had
provided for services. This is an appalling way to be addressing
the education of some of our most vulnerable children and young
people and is causing untold misery and worry for thousands of
families.”
(1) https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/court-judicial-review-send-council-1859642
(2) https://www.irwinmitchell.com/newsandmedia/2019/march/families-to-take-government-to-high-court-over-funding-for-special-education-needs
(3) https://neu.org.uk/funding/send-crisis
