Plans for SEND delayed to Autumn, but Spending Review doesn’t include enough for widescale change

Contents

Before we get into today’s post, we just wanted to say thank you… last night, just after 10pm, we HIT OUR TARGET of 100k signatures for the Retain SEND Rights petition started by SNJ’s Rachel Filmer. We hope for a debate in Parliament on the issue!

Read on to find out why SEND change is definitely coming, but we can fight to make sure rights aren’t lost in the process…

Cash and Spend

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) says the spending review settlement for the Department for Education doesn’t seem to include enough money to carry out the kind of reform to special education needs provision the DfE says it wants to happen.

The spending review, announced on 11 June, also confirmed any firm plans for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) wouldn’t be published until the autumn, as part of a new Schools White Paper. The last Schools Bill by the previous government ended up in the bin, you may recall.

“The Department for Education (DfE) settlement provides total DEL* funding of £109.2 billion in 2028‑29. This is equivalent to an annual average real terms increase of 1.5% over the SR25 period, with £101.5 billion of day-to-day spending by 2028‑29, a 1.4% average annual real terms increase from 2023-24; and over £31 billion of capital investment from 2026‑27 to 2029-30, a 1.4% average annual real terms increase from 2023-24.”

“To make the system more inclusive and improve outcomes for all children and young people, the government will reform the current Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system. Details of the government’s intended approach to SEND reform will be set out in a Schools White Paper in the autumn. The government will also set out further details on supporting local authorities as we transition to a reformed system as part of the upcoming local government funding reform consultation.”
Government Spending Review

*DEL: departmental expenditure limits

The Education Policy Institute sent out a response to the settlement, noting that there isn’t enough money in there for the kind of changes to SEND that the Department says it wants (bolding below is for our emphasis):

Today’s announcement signals a significant cash increase in school funding. However, given that the overall budget is rising by £4.7bn in cash terms only by 2028-29, once inflation is considered, this increase leaves less flexibility for schools than they might have hoped.

“Although we will see some savings over the next three years as a result of falling pupil numbers, much of this funding has already been earmarked for existing commitments – such as the recent announcements of the teacher pay award, and the extended entitlement to free school meals. Moreover, the distribution of funds remains uncertain. With the current formula tied closely to pupil numbers, many schools in areas of falling pupil numbers may still see falls in overall budgets. The government must consider how funding is targeted, ensuring it reaches the schools and pupils who need it most.

“The most pressing challenge is the crisis in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision and today’s settlement doesn’t appear to leave adequate funding to deliver the much-needed reforms in this area. Reforming SEND provision will require investing in highly trained support staff, adapted learning environments, and consistent, high-quality training for teachers across all schools.

“The government has made the right decision to increase funding for post-16 providers to meet the growth in student numbers, and to focus on areas where economic growth is most needed. However, it is disappointing that there has not also been a commitment to provide new and targeted funding for disadvantaged 16–19-year-olds.

“It is also challenging to consider the impact of education funding, without clear commitments to also address child poverty. The Government must prioritise publishing a child poverty strategy and this should include funded commitments, including removing the two-child benefit cap, that will genuinely lift children out of poverty.”
Education Policy Institute

Join us on BlueSky

SNJ WhatsApp Channel

Why the delay?

The DfE coyly briefed the Law Gazette, “there is no SEND white paper, and therefore no ‘delay’, but did not provide a statement.” Nevertheless, rumours have abounded, fuelled by its own SEND adviser Dame Christine Lenehan, that disabled children’s rights are being considered for the bin, as if they are nothing more than an inconvenience.

The DfE may insist that was the plan all along, but from conversations with them and others, we don’t buy it. But we’re relieved at the short reprieve from bad news.

Let’s face it, legal rights for SEND are an inconvenience for local authorities’ organisations, which have been mounting a long-running, underhanded campaign via proxy, with the latest so-called research published this week.

But this doesn’t mean you can relax. It’s not gone away, but it does give us time to influence policymakers. Even though the petition, started by team member, Rachel Filmer, has surpassed the 100k mark for a parliamentary debate, we must keep sharing – we want one signature for every child with an EHCP.

We believe the strength of feeling shown has not gone unnoticed by No 10, who, it is clear, are reactive to public and MP sentiment. If you haven’t emailed your MP yet, IPSEA has a handy letter to enable you to do so. We must keep up the pressure by signing, sharing and writing. Sign the petition if you haven’t already, and please share with everyone who may also sign.

CLICK TO SIGN THE SAVE SEND RIGHTS PETITION

What does our funding expert, Matt Keer say about the spending review?

The Spending Review gives a little bit of information about the future of SEND, but not a lot. The top-line assessment from the Education Policy Institute looks correct: school funding is increasing a little bit in real terms (ie, once you’ve taken expected inflation into account), but not by much. Whatever happens with SEND reform, mainstream schools are going to be asked to do a lot more. Once staff pay rises and free school meals have taken their share, it’s not obvious where the money is going to come from to make that happen.

There is some extra money in the pot for SEND, but it’s not yet clear how it’ll be allocated and what difference it’ll make.

In the spring, the government set up a £3.5bn Transformation Fund. The fund is supposed to help modernise the state and “drive a preventative approach to public services.” Yesterday, the government announced how it’s going to allocate the Transformation Fund, and the biggest single chunk of it—£760m—will be spent on “reform of the SEND system to improve pupil outcomes.”

The Treasury has classed this £760m as ‘prevention,’ which gives you some idea of what they expect the upcoming SEND reforms to do. But it’s not yet clear how this new funding will work or how it’ll be spent. That’s partly because this funding mechanism is so new, and also because no-one in authority is yet willing to say what SEND reforms will actually mean.

What we do know is that most of this SEND “reform” funding is supposed to be spent between April 2026 and March 2027, with the remainder of it spent by March 2028. It’s genuinely hard to see how that timescale can work if the SEND reforms require big changes to the law—because that’ll take time, and implementing new SEND reforms will take longer.

Either way, we’ll be keeping a close eye on what happens with this money. Central and local government has form for blowing large amounts of money on SEND reform implementation to no effect. It’s safe to say, though, that highly-paid consultants and some of the more mercenary SEND charities will have needed to change their underwear with excitement.

But it’s also worth remembering things that weren’t announced today. School capital funding is going up, but it’s unclear how much of that will be used for specialist SEND provision over the next three years. There was nothing specific on funding health and social care that would help children and young people with SEND.

And surprisingly, there was no announcement on what’s going to happen with the huge education funding deficits that many local authorities have racked up – mostly due to the costs of SEND provision. We think these deficits cumulatively reached around £3.9 billion in April. Unless those deficits are sorted by next March, several dozen LAs are going to be in deep financial doodoo, and that’ll come round far faster than any SEND reforms can.

Promoted

Fixing SEND can’t be done in isolation

The other thing a delay tells us is that there is no “oven-ready” plan, and even if there were, this is such a widespread issue that you cannot solve it without significant reform of the rest of the education system. There is too much in how state education works that is incompatible with the wellbeing of children with additional needs.

That includes leadership culture to ensure inclusive schools can happen, zero-tolerance behaviour policies, a long-overdue boost to SEND Support budgets, infrastructure changes for accessibility, training teachers to support children with SEND—of whom there will be far more in mainstream classrooms, evidence-based guidance about mainstream resourced provision and units and ordinarily available provision, among others. And of course, council budgets need to be written off.

This seems to have been recognised by including it in a wider Schools White Paper. We can only assume that will bring with it a separate budget, as well as a public consultation on a Bill to which we will help you respond.

A “delay” has also given Helen Hayes’ Education Committee time to finish their “Solving the SEND Crisis” hearings and report back. We hope they will incorporate many of our 80 recommendations that we submitted. We’ve had many complimentary words about the content, so thank you for that. You can read a report on yesterday’s oral hearing with school leaders in the Tes here (as volunteers, we obviously can’t cover everything ourselves!)

Leave rights alone

What doesn’t need to change is the Children and Families Act and the SEND Tribunal, save for putting SEN Support on a statutory footing. If inclusion and SEND provision in mainstream are adequate, families simply won’t need to apply for EHCPs as a way to get what their child needs—this is a self-evident fact, and anyone not accepting it has a whole other agenda.

If the Government is becoming more sensitive to public anger about an assault on disabled people’s benefits, it should understand the connection with disabled children’s rights. Apart from anything else, its PIP and Universal Credit plans are counterproductive and disjointed. How can it say it wants to support disabled people to thrive while also removing universal credit from under-22s and clamping down on PIP? Disabled young people don’t suddenly go into stasis between 18 and 22. And if removing rights means they are no longer eligible for EHCPs, then how will they attend further education colleges that have no specific SEND budget of their own? And how will more profoundly disabled young people attend specialist colleges?

The Department for Education must now work closely with parent groups and sector representatives. It should also perhaps listen less closely to local government voices. A 98.3% SEND Tribunal failure rate tells DfE all it needs to know about how much local government cares about meeting children’s needs.

But we care. And you care.

Join our campaign. Find out more soon.

CLICK TO SIGN THE SAVE SEND RIGHTS PETITION

Disabled Children’s Rights are Under Attack.
We’re fighting, but we can’t do it alone: we need your help more than ever.
We’re volunteer-run, but costs are rising. To help us keep going, please consider a one-off or, if it’s possible, a regular donation.
Read more about being a regular donor here.
We use Zeffy to fundraise, which doesn’t charge us a fee, so 100% of your donation reaches us.

DONATE TO HELP
KEEP SNJ ONLINE!

Don’t miss a thing!

Don’t miss any posts from SNJ – simply add your email address below. You must click the link in the confirmation email you’ll receive to activate your free subscription.

You can also keep up with us by following our

WhatsApp Channel!

Want more? Be an SNJ regular donor!

SNJ is a non-profit and everyone who writes here does so voluntarily. We need your support to help us with costs by donating once or as a regular patron. Find out more here

About
Latest Posts

Tania Tirraoro

Founder, Co-Director at Special Needs Jungle

Founder & co-director of Special Needs Jungle. (She/Her) Autistic parent of two young autistic adults Devoted Grandma. National SEND advisor, journalist & author. Tania also runs a PR, web & social media consultancy, SocialOro Media.
She is a rare disease & chronic pain patient advocate with Ehlers Danlos syndrome.

Latest posts by Tania Tirraoro (see all)