Please bear with me as I lay out the basic facts for my constituents who may not be familiar with SEND. I am conscious many families will be steeped in knowledge on this while, for many others, it’s a new minefield for them to contend with. SEND is short form for special educational needs and disabilities. The rights-based legal framework for children with SEND dates back to the Education Act 1981 which enshrined in law disabled children’s legal right to an education.
In 2014, the Children and Families Act introduced three major changes to the SEND provision. The first was to extend the age range for support to 25 years. The second was to move to include anxiety and depression into its guidelines as new terminology focused on mental health, emphasising the need to support children’s emotional well-being. The third was to introduce a new system for Education, Health and Care Plans for youngsters known as ECHPs.
These changes have, in reality, had a significant impact on demand for SEND services, leading to the numbers of pupils with ECHPs surging and a very significant rise in SEND spending by local authorities.
Rising Demand for SEND
There has been, approximately, a 165% increase in the number of pupils with EHCPs since 2014 from 240,183 in 2015 to 575,963 in 2024.
Just over 1.7 million pupils in England’s schools now receive SEND support – about 1 in 5 pupils – with about 5% of all pupils getting the highest level of support through an EHCP.
Most of this increase has been driven by a rise in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses, listed as a primary need in a third of all EHCPs.
Demand for ADHD needs has risen too.
Demand for social, emotional and mental health needs has risen; as per the changes laid out, this is a natural consequence.
Demand for speech, language and communication support for children has also risen sharply since the Covid pandemic and its longer-term impact.
The Costs of SEND
Overall SEND spending has risen by two thirds since 2015 according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) driven by growing demand for support.
Local Authority spending on SEND has increased from £7.8bn in 2015/16 to a huge £13.1bn in 2024/25.
A significant part of the growth in spending has been driven by increased state spending on special schools, which grew in real terms by 31% (£900 million) between 2018–19 and 2023–24.
Last year, councils ran total SEND deficits of £1.8 billion – and, on current OBR forecasts, they will add another £2.5 billion of deficits this financial year. This is a real problem that must be addressed.
Transport to and from school for SEND pupils is also funded by local councils. In 2023/24, this spend was £1.7bn, running at more than double the amount in 2015/16.
In recent years, the costs of SEND support and services has been much more than the funding provided by central government. As this provision is statutory, local authorities have to cover the costs either by cuts to other services, hiking council tax or adding to their debt while balancing all other local needs around this challenge- fixing roads, libraries and wider school funding to name just a few.
Eight in ten councils could have faced effective bankruptcy by 2028 over mounting SEND costs (according to Local Government Organisation research) as SEND debt, which was being artificially held off council budgets until 2028, came back onto their books. The OBR predicted £14bn of SEND deficits would have been built up by councils at that point.
However, in February 2026, ministers confirmed they would spend about £5bn clearing 90% of local authority SEND debt built up by councils to the end of March this year. They have said any future SEND costs will be managed centrally by Government to avoid these huge, unsustainable costs to local councils. This is of course a welcome commitment. Balancing our children’s needs alongside wider community needs is vital and a challenge for any Government.
The hardest questions for SEND are still to be answered | Institute for Fiscal Studies
A House of Commons committee report said in its summary in 2025,
‘As well as not delivering outcomes, the SEN system is unaffordable’
Support for children and young people with special educational needs
The Current SEND System
The current rights-based SEND framework is below:
- A right to an assessment of individual needs
- A right to provision to meet those needs
- A right to attend a suitable educational placement
- That the provision should lead to clear outcomes
- Decisions should be needs-led not resource-led
- Clear route to redress via SEND Tribunals
Key Government Reform Proposals for SEND support are around:
- New legal duties on inclusion in mainstream schools
- New support via an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child with SEND
- New Specialist Provision Packages (SPPs) – determined nationally
- Changes in process to get an EHCP
- Restrictions on parental choice for school/college
- Removal of SEND Tribunal power to order a specific school/college to be named in EHCP
The government has published a Schools White Paper which includes a consultation paper setting out their proposals for reforming the SEND system. Thes public consultation runs until the 18th of May 2026 and I have provided links to the consultation and some supporting information here:
SEND reform - Department for Education - Citizen Space
Every child achieving and thriving and SEND consultation supporting information - GOV.UK
Specialist provision packages - GOV.UK
My thoughts
Families of children with SEND needs already know the system is under real strain. I see and feel the anguish many parents go through trying to get the best for their children when I meet them in my surgeries and around the constituency. It’s too hard all round. So, it's absolutely right the Government is talking about much-needed reform, and I welcome a focus on earlier intervention, investment for more speech and language therapists and evidence-led packages.
However, I know equally that parents have been left hugely anxious about what the Government's SEND reforms will mean for their children and their needs. For example, there is currently very little clarity about who qualifies for which tier/package, what support will be provided, what outcomes are expected, what funding will follow the child or, vitally, whether hard-fought support will be removed or reduced.
It is unacceptable that ministers have repeatedly failed to properly clarify whether any existing Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) will be removed from children as part of these reforms. Parents do deserve very clear answers as to whether their children's rights will be protected going forward and I will keep pushing the Government to make sure that no child who currently has an EHCP has it withdrawn. It is also important the Government clarifies how a child will qualify for an EHCP and, alternatively, what will trigger an Individual Support Plan (ISP) and what the funding is for ISPs.
As I wrote earlier, most of the increase we have seen in SEND demand has been driven by a rise in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses, listed as a primary need in a third of all EHCPs. I know we are waiting for an autism strategy from Government to replace the 2021-25 strategy. This Government has stated it will set out its position, including plans to engage with stakeholders "in due course" and that it will be considering the evidence collated by the House of Lords Autism Act 2009 Inquiry Committee. I will continue to hold the Government to account on delivering this important strategy for our children.
I am also aware we are still seeing significant increases in the numbers of children and young people identified with ADHD. Again, I know first-hand from meeting parents in my constituency that these families are facing significant challenges and the right amount of support needs to be in place to ensure their children can thrive in school. I also hear from other parents who want this support sorted for their children’s friends, teachers and community as it can be a difficult situation for often whole classes when proper support for all is missing.
While I do welcome the Government's special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms and its focus on early intervention, it is essential the long waiting times across the NHS for ADHD assessments are brought down. I am keen to work with the Government to achieve this outcome and I know my constituents will support this endeavour. Warm words aren’t enough. Ensuring that our mainstream schools and colleges can then identify those needs and put support in place early is crucial, because the earlier a child gets support and the right environment in which to learn, the greater the chance they will thrive and some of the challenges they face will be mitigated.
However, without more properly trained staff and access to the required number of specialists, simply placing more children with ADHD, ASD and other special educational needs into mainstream settings just risks letting them down rather than helping them succeed. With Labour choosing their reforms to rely so heavily on our mainstream schools delivering significantly enhanced SEND provision, it beggars belief that their workforce plan contains no mention of specialist teachers. This is clearly not fair to our hardworking, dedicated mainstream teaching staff.
There are also serious questions around funding and sustainability. The Government announced in November last year it would bring the cost of SEND provision into central government spending from 2028-29. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said at the time that the Government had not set out any specific plans on how this additional cost, which it estimates at £6 billion, would be covered. Since the Chancellor's Spring Statement, the OBR has been clear there is still no detail to the Government's SEND reforms and huge uncertainty persists. All we know is a £2bn black hole for 2028-29 still remains and cuts are coming to mainstream schools.
I am clear that where mainstream schools are taking on more responsibilities under the Government's reforms, the right funding must follow. However, that is not happening. Schools are already being stretched hugely following the lack of full compensation for national insurance contributions and unfunded pay rises. The £1.6 billion pot for inclusive mainstream provision over three years equates to roughly £24,000 per school, per year if divided evenly across England. That is, frankly, nowhere near enough for the extra work schools will have to do to write tailored individual support plans for every child with SEND. This is a mammoth burden to place on schools - one I don't necessarily think is misplaced - but £24,000 a year is not enough to help them manage it. This is not a recipe for inclusion but for disaster in many people’s views.
I must also share my real dismay that the Government has halted shovel-ready, worked-up special schools, and replaced them with a smaller pot of money and no plan. In total, 18 special and AP (alternative provision) free school projects have been cancelled, and a further 59 have been left in significant uncertainty. Together, these schools would have delivered around 10,000 much needed specialist places.
In addition, the Government’s decision to impose VAT on independent school fees risks placing further, significant pressure on the state sector, particularly for children with SEND. While ministers claim that pupils with council-funded EHCPs are exempt, the reality is that fewer than 8,000 of the 100,000 SEND pupils in independent schools have an EHCP. That leaves around 92,000 children exposed to the Education Secretary’s tax raid. If families are forced to withdraw from specialist provision, already overstretched state schools could be overwhelmed, without the necessary resources in place. This raises serious questions about whether the Government’s SEND funding is sufficient to meet growing demand and ensure children get the education they need.
Please be assured, I will engage constructively with the Labour Government on SEND reform where I believe their intentions are right; however, I will always press strongly for clarity on EHCP protections, for credible plans to deal with the funding gap, for reforms that are properly costed and funded, for reforms that genuinely deliver early support and stronger provision for children, and for families to feel their needs and challenges have been properly understood. This is no less than my constituents and all their families deserve.
