Education: funding crisis hits special needs

In September 2019, then education secretary Gavin Williamson launched a review of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision. A government White Paper was to follow, but has been repeatedly delayed.

It has finally appeared. Initial responses suggest the sector sees the White Paper as good on ambition, but short on how resources – and crucially expert staff – are to be found to fulfill that ambition.

Meanwhile, Special Schools staff were awaiting the eventual announcement with foreboding rather than anticipation. What is promised is a complete reform of the SEND system. Many fear this will lead to a further dilution of the entitlement of pupils to appropriate additional support when required.

The government will declare that funding for SEND increased by 58 per cent between 2014 and 2024. But over that period the number of pupils with needs beyond that provided for in general SEND provision rose by 140 per cent, to 576,000 in 2024.

Outcomes

Unsurprisingly the National Audit Office found that spending over £10 billion a year has not led to better outcomes for children, and that the money must be better spent. 

All good schools are inclusive. They work hard to meet the individual needs of all their pupils, whether it be through overcoming barriers to their learning, or providing for areas in which they may be gifted.

Many schools have developed excellent practice over the years, particularly in identifying and addressing these barriers. Most manage as best they can within their normal SEND provision and school budgets.

For a small minority of children with an exceptionally high level of need, additional provision was managed through a statutory Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. This brings with it the necessary extra funding.

School budgets have become increasingly inadequate to provide the level of funding required for its general SEND provision. Many parents of those children affected now see the EHC plan as a means of capturing the funds necessary to meet their entitlement.

The temptation for those parents is to emphasise the deficit model of their child in order to reach the higher thresholds required in awarding the EHC plan. This can only be done by the diagnosis of a recognised condition which meets the criteria for a higher level of support.

As a result, children who may have received appropriate support in the past for their identified needs now require additional labelling by an educational psychologist if they are to have these needs met.

The danger is that a system once designed to meet the exceptional needs of a small percentage of pupils whose needs could not reasonably be met within an adequately funded schools’ model, is now being overwhelmed. Consequently, some of this inflation in diagnosis is a result of the general shortcomings in school funding.

Disguise

A new survey by the Local Government Association reveals the extent of the difficulty which councils face. Currently, they can disguise the deficits that occur when SEND costs exceed the budget available by an accounting mechanism known as “statutory override”. This keeps the deficit off their main balance sheet. 

Around 95 per cent of the councils responding to this survey confirmed that their SEND budgets were in deficit. But this “override” is due to end in March 2028; deficits then move onto councils’ books. 79 per cent of the councils responding indicated they would not be able to set a balanced budget in 2028/29, with the risk of insolvency.

Much of the councils’ difficulty over this spending deficit is due to the cost of provision for pupils with the highest level of need. They require specialised staff in modified educational environments, facilities which most councils cannot provide.

Local authorities are not allowed to set up their own schools for SEND pupils. But they are legally required to make provision for any child with an EHC plan, and they are allowed to use private schools for these pupils. 

Private providers are stepping in to offer the places that councils cannot. According to a Daily Telegraph report in January, the Witherslack Group for example, which owns 39 specialist schools in England, charges up to £100,000 a year for pupils with exceptionally complex needs.

‘By failing to allocate the necessary finances the government is redirecting funding to wealthy foreign investors…’

The majority stake in Witherslack is held by Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund whose chairman owns Manchester City. Similarly, Senad Group, which runs special needs schools and other care facilities in the Midlands and Wales, is owned by the Qatari Investment Fund. Another foreign-owned operator cashing in on this lucrative market, with more than one thousand pupils at one or other of its 32 schools, is Waterslide Private Equity, a Dutch buy-out group.

By continually failing to allocate the necessary finances to schools and to councils, the government is in effect redirecting badly needed education funding into the pockets of wealthy foreign investors. Their schools employ teachers, but usually not on teachers’ pay and conditions.

Agency waste

And schools waste even more money paying agencies to recruit the large number of teaching assistants needed for SEND provision rather than employing them directly.

What should be done? Local authorities should be allowed to set up their own SEND schools and take over existing private ones – introducing teachers’ pay and conditions there. Agency staffing should be abolished.

Unless this waste is eliminated it won’t be possible to get a grip on spending. And the scramble to meet children’s needs through EHC plans will continue.

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