(UK) Oxon: Council has $99M SPED deficit; system 'broken'

Jan 15, 2025, itv: Oxford mum says SEND system is 'broken' as autistic son struggles in mainstream school

S. Central England

A mother from Oxford whose autistic son struggles at his mainstream secondary school says the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is "broken".

Leandra Hamblin's son Joshua, 11, has autism and ADHD.

His family went to a tribunal last summer to try to get him into a special school that they felt was more suited to his needs.

However, this was denied, so he started at a mainstream secondary school in September.

Ms Hamblin said: "It was very stressful, it felt like I needed to be a solicitor and learn a lot of the law.

"I had to get all the reports in order to try and prove why he needed this and unfortunately it was still not enough.

"I don't know what more they need, I think he would really benefit from being in a different setting." . . .

She described the SEND system as "definitely broken" and says "there needs to be a clearer pathway for all of us to navigate".

Education and health care (EHC) plans set out the provision of SEND support a child or young person needs.

In Oxfordshire, 53.7% of new EHC plans were issued within the statutory 20-week time limit in 2023.

Councillor John Howson, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Oxfordshire County Council, said: “We have overhauled our special education needs system in Oxfordshire in the last 12 to 15 months.

“We clearly need to be able to do more but in the end it comes down to a matter of resourcing from the government.

“We have spent something like £80 million [$99M] more than we have been allocated by the government for the SEND area and that’s sitting on Oxfordshire County Council’s balance sheet.

“We’re not going to go bust tomorrow but some councils might because of this overspend. The government has got to get the funding right.”

Today, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said too many families are struggling to access the help their children with SEND “desperately need”. . . .

Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell said: “The system we’ve inherited has been failing families with Send children for far too long – this is unacceptable and that’s why we set out our Plan for Change to ensure no child is left behind.

“These problems are deep-rooted and will take time to fix but we remain steadfast in our commitment to deliver the change that exhausted families are crying out for by ensuring better earlier intervention and inclusion.

“We are already making progress by investing £1 billion [$1.2B] into Send, £740 million [$917M]  for councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools and through our Curriculum and Assessment Review which will look at barriers that hold children back from the best life chances.”