(UK) 98% of elem school principals can't provide for special needs students

May 3, 2025, Daily Mail: Special-needs crisis for 98 per cent of primary schools

Almost every primary school head has said they cannot cater to all their special needs pupils, amid warnings over Labour’s VAT raid on private education.

A snap poll of 750 heads in the mainstream primary state sector found 98 per cent do not have the resources to meet the needs of all their special needs pupils.

A third said: 'Staff have to manage extremely difficult and stressful situations in class without enough support or specialist help and resources while trying to meet the needs of all the other children too.'

Many of the children placed in mainstream settings have an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) specifying specialist provision but no such places are available to them.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary, said: 'Too many schools have children who should be getting specialist support.

'School leaders are frustrated that they can't fully meet the needs of the pupils in their care, and we know many parents are frustrated too.'

It comes after a High Court case last month revealed Labour considered exempting the 100,000 SEND pupils in private schools from its tax raid but concluded this would cost the Treasury too much.

Pupils with EHCP plans are exempted, but these make up only a small proportion of the total number of those with SEND.

'Ending tax breaks for private schools will increase investment in state education - raising £1.8 billion a year by 2030.

'Pupils with the most acute needs, including those in private schools due to their EHCP, will not be impacted by this policy. Work has already begun to rebuild families’ confidence in and reform the broken SEND system we inherited.