The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has urged the government to clarify, as a matter of urgency, how it plans to support councils facing ongoing SEND deficits and the high costs of transporting children to school in taxis, coaches, and buses. This intervention follows ministers' unveiling of sweeping reforms to the SEND system, intended to make it more inclusive for children with additional needs and, in the long term, reduce costs for local authorities.
Ministers will unveil a generational overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities (Send) support, pledging 4bn to transform provision in schools in England and warning councils they could lose control of Send services if they fail to meet their legal duties. The reforms are expected to be a key policy moment for Keir Starmer and for the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson who delayed the changes last autumn after a ferocious backlash from MPs and parents.
Next week, the government is expected to announce its education white paper. It is a moment, as political correspondent Alexandra Topping explains, of high political peril. Part of the proposals will be reforms to special educational needs provision in England. And while nearly all agree that the current system is broken extremely expensive, very divisive, and failing the most vulnerable children the mood around the announcements is still tense.
Universal inclusion bases are spaces away from classrooms where children with additional needs can get support for some lessons. They are seen as a key part of government plans to overhaul special educational needs and disabilities (Send) support. Ministers have been frantically promoting a vision of a more inclusive education system, ahead of the publication of a landmark schools white paper, widely seen as the most high-stakes policy reform the government has attempted since the welfare rebellion last year.
The 17-year-old boy, known only as Y, missed out on home-based support for his autism, dyslexia and social skills to which he was legally entitled - partly due to Camden Council's attempt to overturn a special educational needs and disabilities (Send) tribunal's decision. The ombudsman ruled the council caused injustice to both the teenager and his mother - known as Miss X - who experienced "significant distress" during her struggle to get her son support.
The crisis over special educational needs and disabilities in England is not just a question of cash. Children and parents spend months and years battling for support to which the law entitles them, schools lack the funding to meet needs, and specialist provision is inadequate. An adversarial system shunts families towards tribunals that councils almost invariably lose. Tory reforms created obligations for local authorities but did not adequately fund them allowing ministers to duck responsibility.
The rising number of children receiving extra help has placed pressure on schools and councils, indicating that the current trajectory for managing special educational needs is unsustainable.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the PAC's chair, stated that the government's inaction suggests it is comfortable with the current state of local authority finances, perceiving issues as normalized.
