A damning assessment of SEND support

A 'damning' National Audit Office report has found no consistent improvements in outcomes for children with special educational needs and disabilities since 2019 on a background of increased demand. The report, Support for children and young people with special educational needs, describes special state schools which are over capacity and a financially unsustainable system in its current form.

The National Audit Office (NAO) estimated there are 1.9 million children and young people aged 0-25 with SEN (Special Educational Needs) in England, with 1.7 million of those people at school. The report found that educational attainment for pupils with SEN had been inconsistent – in 2021-2022 69 per cent of these students were in employment, an apprenticeship or employment after leaving school compared with 85 per cent for students without SEN – similar figures to 2018-2019.

When children and young people with SEN require extra support which cannot be met, they are entitled to specific support which is laid out in an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC) – the report found that the number of children with these plans has increased 140 per cent since 2015. Children and young people are expected to wait 20 weeks for an EHC, however, the report found that 50 per cent were waiting longer than this.

Chair of the BPS Division of Educational and Child Psychology Dr Gavin Morgan (UCL) said the report provided a damning assessment of SEND support in England – something which was driving the BPS campaign for more local authority educational psychologists.

'The growing demand for education, health and care plans is unsustainable and our current system is fast becoming a postcode lottery. Urgent investment is required to ensure that all of our schools are linked with a named educational psychologist, from their local authority, free at the point of delivery.

'Key to transforming the SEND system and outcomes for children is prioritising early intervention work, yet the report highlights the lack of focus on this to date. This is vital to preventing the needs and challenges from becoming entrenched. The government should ensure that this is a top priority to help level the playing field for all children before it is too late.'

Read the NAO report.