What’s special about special needs?

The Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, has promised a statement on Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) in the autumn.

The driver is largely money. Local authorities have retained financial responsibility for SEND during a period of schools converting to academies and the authorities collectively now have a £3.8bn overspend. That figure is projected to rise to over £5bn by the end of 2026. That’s not a typo. Within the last week, for instance, Oxfordshire Council alone announced a cumulative £130m deficit for overspending its government allocation over a number of years.

This may not be a deliberate overspend – rules relating To Education Health and Care plans (EHCPs) require councils to allocate money to pupils with given criteria specified by the EHCP – there is limited discretion. It’s the number of EHCPs which is increasing.

Lets look at the numbers. Nationally (for England and Wales) there are 19.5% of pupils on the SEND register. 5.3% have an EHCP. This means that schools have to process 1 in 7 pupils (on the SEND register but without an EHCP) with tailored learning and adjustments from within their own resources. There is a possible cost here to pupils not on the SEND register because of the time and costs involved. This is occasionally not helped by adversarial parents demanding particular treatment or adaptations for their own child. I in 5 with special needs suggests a diluted idea of ‘special’.

Meanwhile the 1 in 20 or so pupils with an EHCP will have money allocated to the school to spend on their educational and other needs. This includes mainstream schools and special schools. Not all children with EHCPs go to special schools, and just a few will be schooled at home.

These percentages have changed over time. In 2014, those with SEND were 17.9% (now 19.5%) and decreasing. Those on ‘statements’ (the predecessor of EHCP) were 2.8% and steady. So the big change is on EHCP numbers, which have almost doubled. Why?

Medical intervention for newborns means that infants who would previously not have survived now do so. Many who do so survive with more complex needs. Any special needs professional in a special school will tell you that the typical potential capability of those at the top age of the school is comparatively higher than for entry age. So there are more children living with and growing up with complex conditions. But not that many.

Secondly, getting an EHCP means getting money – from some 1:1 help in a mainstream school for a few hours a week to substantial support for care, feeding, transport etc. where necessary. There is no doubt that some parents have worked out that getting an EHCP will help their child if he or she has some difficulties in learning development by having resources attached to the child. It may be that parents are correct, or over protective or down to other motivation.

Take Autism, where figures have gone up by close to 800% (sic) over 20 years. Does this mean that there is more autism? Yes. Does this mean that we are getting better at diagnosing autism and diagnosing it earlier? Yes. Does this mean that autism is being over diagnosed? Yes. Your author does not know the split in percentages.

But the idea of over diagnosing eg autism bears some attention. An autism ‘badge’ can excuse inadequate parenting. And an autism badge can attract money if converted into an EHCP. I know of (a couple of ) examples where parents have visited multiple GPs to get a referral for assessment and then gone to assessment centres (including those touting for business within the NHS) to avoid the queue. Private assessment centres at £1000+ per autism/ADHD assessment have become a mini industry. An autism badge can also trigger (though not automatically) PIP awards – for discussion of which see the recent parliamentary U turn by the government and discussions about Motability cars.

So is the EHCP system being abused, for instance by dubious autism diagnoses? Yes. And this has consequences for genuine cases (of which there are many) as well. Local Authorities are required by law to produce EHCPs in 20 weeks. They do not. In some cases almost no plans are completed in time (Essex, Portsmouth) and 12 month waits are not uncommon. Think about this. You have a 4 year old with a deep autism diagnosis. You know early intervention makes a big big difference. You lose 12 months of social development help at a formative age as the child starts school. The child ends up with more problems and costs the local authority more as a consequence. Why? Because of unnecessary EHCP claims and because of local authorities bureaucracy, inefficiency and lack of competence. A strong statement to make? Yes. But bear in mind that parents can appeal a local authority EHCP decision to a tribunal. In 2024 and 2023 parents won 95% and 98% of appeals. That cannot suggest confidence in local authority judgements.

So your genuine case 4 year old faces a twelve month wait for a decision which has a roughly 1 in 4 of being appealed and having to wait up to twelve months for the appeal outcome.

There was a time when a special needs ‘badge’ was seen as undesirable and parents resisted their child being labelled as such. It is good that we have moved on from that. But there has been a pendulum swing – the badge seems now in many cases desired, as stated above to cover inadequate parenting and to access financial resources. The badge becomes a mechanism. But the badge also risks labelling children as victims from an early age. The long term effect of labelling a child less capable lowers the child’s expectations of themselves and what they can contribute to society.

And those who are genuinely in need? They are denied proper outcomes by a sorry system featuring ill judgement by local authorities who see the child as a cost rather than a person.

And as a footnote – there is little evidence that the over/extra spend has achieved better educational outcomes.

All figures sourced from the below.

The author has an adult child with severe learning disability.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g841zlvqdo
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england/2024-25
https://www.priorygroup.com/mental-health/autism/autism-statistics
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/send-tribunals-soar-by-55-and-almost-all-still-side-with-families/
https://www.essexsendiass.co.uk/parents-and-carers/appealing-to-the-send-tribunal-service-about-an-ehcp/send-tribunal-frequently-asked-questions/
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans/2025
 

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