England: 18 percent of students have special needs

Oct 24, 2024, Telegraph: Special needs pupils ‘being failed on every measure’ despite £11bn [$14B] annual funding

The Government is failing pupils with special needs despite the current system costing almost £11 billion [$14B] a year, Parliament’s spending watchdog has warned.

In a damning report, the National Audit Office (NAO) said state support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) “is not achieving value for money and is unsustainable”. . . .

Around 1.7 million children at school are classified as having high needs, which includes any learning difficulty or disability that calls for tailored provision. This amounts to almost 18 per cent of all pupils in England. . . .

Kate Foale, the SEND spokesman for the CCN, said: “With councils continuing to accrue spiralling deficits and demand reaching record levels each year, reform is urgent.”