(UK) Why a "SEND crisis"? 12% increase since 2023

Mar 25, 2025, School Management: What’s behind the SEND crisis and how can we solve it? 

https://www.schoolmanagementplus.com/send/whats-behind-the-send-crisis-and-how-can-we-solve-it/ 

All the research and statistics point towards a crisis in SEND, but there are solutions, writes Dorothy Lepkowska

There is now an overarching consensus that UK provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is in crisis.

As evidenced in recent reports, thousands of children are not at school, or missing regular attendance, because the system cannot provide for their needs.

Indeed, a study from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published earlier this year highlighted a complete lack of solutions and described the SEND system as “inconsistent, inequitable and not delivering in line with expectations”.

The Local Ombudsman and Social Care Ombudsman has published several reports detailing the outcomes of investigations in individual local authorities involving families waiting for appropriate support. The Education Policy Institute (EPI) focussed on the inequalities and inconsistencies in SEND policies across the country in its research, Identifying SEND.

In another document, Breaking down the gap, the EPI investigated the drivers of the disadvantage gap, with recommendations that wider SEND reforms were needed, including making SEND a mandatory part of initial teacher training.

Meanwhile, in its far-reaching study Who is losing learning? Published earlier this month (March), the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) sets out a number of proposals to improve inclusion, including a call for the government “as a first step…to publish a plan to radically improve access to children’s mental health and speech and language support”.

Last year, the Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, produced a report stating that provision for children with SEN was “the number one thing that needs sorting out alongside attendance to make sure our kids can go to school”.

The abundance of academic research on the SEND crisis is enough on its own to emphasise the depth of the problem, but how did we get here?

What is the cause of the SEND crisis?

The problems facing SEND are down to an accumulation of factors, many of which originated many years ago, but have never been properly addressed. These include:

Funding shortfalls. Councils are facing huge deficits, putting some at risk of bankruptcy, in their high-needs education budgets because of ever-increasing costs of supporting children with SEND. This is currently being aggravated by the financial allocations set out by the government being far below that needed by schools to function, leaving some local authorities at risk of bankruptcy.

Increased demand: According to the most recent government figures, there are more than 434,300 pupils in schools in England with EHCPs – a rise of 11.6 per cent from 2023., and there are more than 1.2 million pupils without a plan, a rise of 4.7 per cent. Overall, 13.6 per cent of SEND pupils don’t have a plan, up from 13 per cent in 2023.

School accountability. School league tables and the spectre of Ofsted inspections for the past three decades have placed schools into a competitive market, which has led inadvertently to the marginalisation of children with SEND. The pressures of accountability have resulted in incidents of “off-rolling” where pupils who are struggling are removed from a school, or encouraged to leave, so that their academic performance does not skew the overall figures.

Shortages of experienced teachers. A shortage of specialist teachers and Sencos (Special Educational Needs Coordinators) can severely disrupt the provision being offered to children with special needs. All too often in mainstream state schools, the role of the Senco is carried out by a teacher who stumbles into the post or has been asked by senior leaders to take it on. According to the National Foundation for Education Research, special schools experience some of the worst teacher shortages.

What can be done to improve SEND provision?

A nationwide review and audit of SEND provision. This would serve to determine what sort of provision is available and where. Where are the cold sports where provision is patchy or poor, and where are the pockets of good practice that might be emulated elsewhere.

Improved and stable funding. Schools need more money to improve training and facilities for pupils with special needs, including greater guidance on how to implement resource provision in mainstream schools. This might include small group or one-to-one interventions.

Raise the status of Sencos. Some experts suggest that the inclusion of Sencos on senior leadership teams would raise the status of practitioners and give greater agency to SEND departments speaking up for the needs of pupils.

Earlier interventions and more individualised support. The testing or assessment of children who might be at increased risk of having special needs, or are presenting with a potential learning difficulty, such as delayed speech, would enable support to be put in place sooner. Individual learning plans specifically target the challenges the pupil is facing.

Improved teacher training. Experts believe that the inclusion of modules on SEND in initial teacher training, followed up by regular on-the-job professional development, would help schools to meet the challenges involved in delivering an effective education for SEND pupils.

Access to a different type of education. A parents’ campaign group called Voices for Learners is calling on the Government to create new educational pathways for children with special needs, which includes online or virtual education, if their needs cannot be met in mainstream schools.

The interim report on the ongoing curriculum and assessment review, led by Professor Becky Francis, which was published last week, said it would “consider the positive impact we can make on the outcomes for socio-economically disadvantaged young people and those with SEND with the levers that are at our disposal, while remaining aware of the wider challenges the sector faces”.