ITV News: SEND schools crisis

Children with special educational needs and disabilities (known as SEND) are being failed by the education system, an ITV News ‘Spotlight on SEND’ investigation has found. 

Reported on Thursday July 25th, 2024, the far-reaching investigation combined a poll of parents of children with SEND with data gathered from more than 100 councils in England to uncover some striking – and, in many cases, shocking – statistics. 

Some of the findings from ITV News’ parents survey included: 

• 58% of children with SEND have had to take time out of school because their needs could not be met; 

• As of May 2024, 20,834 children across England were awaiting assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP); 

• 4,407 children across England with EHC plans were waiting for school places, as of May 2024. 

• 30% of parents have had to use the legal system to ensure their child received the correct provision. Of those, 43% spent between £1,000 and £5,000 to do so, while 29% spent between £5,000 and £50,000; 

• The number of parents appealing over improper revisions rose by 80% between 2021 and 2023; 

• Councils spend millions to fight parents in court, yet lose most cases.
  

Responding to the ITV News investigation, Josie Grainger-Francova, Principal of The Royal Society for Blind Children’s (RSBC) Dorton College and Education Director of the charity, said:

“While these findings are shocking, sadly, they don’t come as a surprise. There has been a severe lack of provision and funding for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities for many years, and that has resulted in unsustainable pressure being placed on the mainstream and SEND education sectors.”  

“Dorton College is the only specialist vision specialist college for vision impaired (VI) young people aged 16-25 in the South East of England. Each year, around 50% of our students come to us from previously failed placements, where the educational institution was unable or unwilling to meet blind and partially sighted students’ requirements.” 

Using a unique hybrid educational model that provides a holistic approach, Dorton College’s offer combines mainstream and VI specialist education. This enables vision impaired students to achieve their EHCP outcomes, while ensuring that their varied additional needs are met.

“We work in partnership with relevant local authorities and mainstream further education providers, so that we can achieve the best results for each student based on their individual requirements”

Josie continued. 

RSBC is calling on the new UK government to carefully consider those most vulnerable in our education system – SEND students – to ensure that enough funding and specialist provision, teachers and classroom support is provided. The charity is encouraged by the response that the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, gave to ITV News, in which she pledged that the government would fix the “broken system” and stated that it would take an approach that “is fully planned and delivered in concert with parents, schools, councils, and everyone who works with children.”  

While Ms Phillipson warned that change would not be quick, RSBC hopes to see positive action being taken regarding educational provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities soon.