NAO Says SEN Needs an ‘Urgent Reform’.
The NAO (National Audit Office) recently stated that the SEN system was not financially stable. The report published by the NAO said that children and their families do not have confidence in the SEN system. This lack of confidence primarily came from insufficient capacity in schools and extended waiting times for children to receive much-needed support.
The NAO report said that SEND is not delivering better outcomes for young people. Nor is it preventing the local authority bodies from being at significant financial risk. The Department for Education has also anticipated that around 43% of UK local authorities will have deficits close to or exceeding reserves by Spring 2026.
SEN’s Need For Focused Funding
This is not to say that the whole education sector does not need more funding to ensure all students get the best possible chance at an education that allows them to flourish. However, the NAO seems to have found that SEND is an area that is in more critical need of a focused approach. They have urged the UK government to even consider a whole-system reform. This is in the hope that it will improve the outcomes for children with SEND, as well as put SEND on a more sustainable footing financially to enable this. NAO also made the statement that the Department of Education needs to develop a long-term plan for inclusivity across education.
Tackling Local Authority Deficits
There has been no identification by the government on how to tackle local authority deficits that have arisen from costs in SEND. Even the repeated savings programmes are not addressing this issue. The CCN SEND Spokeswoman proceeded to make the statement that:
‘With councils accruing spiralling deficits and with demand reaching record levels each year, a reform is urgent’.
Out of all the statements that have been made about the NAO report on the UK special educational needs system the strongest statement came from the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.
” The NAO report exposes a system which has been neglected to reach the point of crisis. With child and their families with SEND being failed on every measure. All children and young people deserve the best chance in life and the opportunity to thrive and achieve. Yet, at the moment too few are being given this chance. The system is skewed too far towards specialist provision and is overly reliant on EHC plans. This typically only benefits the families who have the resources to fight for support”
Why Is A Whole-System Reform Needed?
The NAO report informs that around 2/5ths of councils will be at risk of declaring bankruptcy by Spring 2026. This is due to overspending on high-needs budgets. The report warns that none of the steps the government has taken are enough to address the challenges the system is facing. The NAO made the statement that they ‘conclude the current system is broken’. Noting the system is unable to deliver positive outcomes for children.
This also comes with lengthy wait times to obtain sufficient SEN diagnosis. Examples of situations such as families having to wait up to 10 years for an autism diagnosis.
In-kind, many parents have taken to home-schooling, with increases in the number of homeschooled children spiking in recent months. This does not come as a surprise when SEN in public education needs much more extensive funding. Many parents state they find doctors and schools do not communicate effectively enough for diagnosis times to be reduced.