Special Educational Needs system is financially ‘unsustainable’, says National Audit Office report
England’s special educational needs (SEN) system is not delivering better outcomes for children and young people; is financially unsustainable and in urgent need of reform, according to a new National Audit Office report, Support for children and young people with special educational needs.
The AEP submitted evidence to the National Audit Office inquiry in July and we are pleased with many of the recommendations outlined. None of the 60 stakeholders the NAO engaged with believed current plans would sufficiently address the problems they saw.
The report highlighted the following:
- Annual budget - rising by 58% in a decade to £10.7bn in 2024-25 - has not led to better outcomes for children with SEN
- Declining confidence in system – supporting 1.9m children - not meeting children’s or families’ expectations
- Two-fifths of local authorities face risk of issuing a section 114 notice by March 2026 - in part to SEN costs - government not yet identified solution to manage estimated £4.6bn deficit
There has been soaring demand for support for children with SEN. Between 2015 and 2024 there was a 140% increase (to 576,000) in children with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan alone. Also, schools could be incentivised to exclude pupils with SEN, which conflicts with local authorities’ duties to find children school places and ensure value for money.
The NAO recommends, as a matter of urgency, government shares plans with local authorities so that each can achieve a sustainable financial position once the statutory override ends, including how deficits will be treated and any wider financial impact on services managed.
The report concludes with nine recommendations for DfE and wider government, given the challenges facing the SEN system, including:
- explicitly consider whole system reform, to improve outcomes for children with SEN and put SEN provision on a financially sustainable footing.
- develop a shared understanding of how identifying and supporting SEN should be prioritised, including within the health system.
- develop a vision and long-term plan for inclusivity across mainstream education.
In response to the publication of the National Audit Office report, ‘Support for children and young people with special educational needs’, David Collingwood, President of the Association of Educational Psychologists commented:
"We wholeheartedly welcome the NAO report findings and its conclusion that the country’s SEND system is financially unsustainable and in urgent need of reform. We, too, have long held the view that parents have lost confidence and trust in the provision of support for children with special educational needs.
“The statistics in today's report paint a damning and shameful picture. We must never forget that behind every one of these numbers is a child, and a family, struggling to navigate a system that is consistently failing them.
“Educational psychologists support tens of thousands of children, young people and their families every year to get the help and support they need as quickly as possible but we are also being failed by the same system. Educational psychologists are spread too thinly and simply cannot provide the early intervention support that we know will make a real difference to children's lives and their education."
"The system is in crisis.
We call on the Government to urgently address these failings and ensure every child can benefit from an inclusive environment that proactively addresses their educational needs. Crucially, we also ask the Government to work with us, so we can bring our first-hand experience to bear to help inform these changes which are so desperately needed.”
