| SPOTLIGHT |
The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, has called for a “radical rehaul of the SEND system” and “swift implementation of the SEND Improvement Plan” after recent data from the Department for Education showed that nearly 1.2 million children in England have special educational needs support without an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP), up 4.7% in 2022.
The Children’s Commissioner said demand for EHCPs had reached “new highs”, with the number of initial requests for an EHCP up 23% since 2021 to 114,000.
The total number of children with an EHCP has also risen, up 9.5% to 517,000.
Despite the increased demand, the number of EHCPs being issued to children has risen by only 7% this year to 66,000, according to the Children’s Commissioner.
Additionally, data published by the DfE indicates that the deadline of 20 weeks for local authorities to issue an EHCP is being met in only 51% of cases, down from 60% in 2021.
Dame Rachel de Souza said: “I am really concerned by this data, which clearly shows that demand for EHCPs has never been higher.
“We need to radically rehaul our approach to SEND, to create a system which is ambitious for every child.”
The government has outlined a package of SEND reforms which will be introduced later this year. The SEND Improvement Plan, unveiled this March, sets out new national standards which will clarify the support available to parents, and improve the number of specialist school places.
However, the County Councils Network last month warned that with the numbers of children requiring support continuing to rise sharply each year, the proposals were “not enough to stem the tide”.
Cllr Liz Brighouse, Education and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Spokesperson for the County Councils Network, said: “Despite the government’s reforms package for SEND services outlining some important changes which are beginning to be implemented, demand has continued to rise sharply with councils under extreme pressure to ensure every child gets the support they need, with 182 EHCPs starting each day on average in last year compared less than half that number in 2015.
“We remain concerned that these reforms will not stem the tide of demand that local authorities are facing, and whilst the legislative changes in 2014 were right in that they expanded eligibility and raised parental expectations, councils have increasingly been left to pick up the bill which has increased their deficits to unmanageable levels.
“Action is needed urgently to address this, and we are calling on government to fully-fund these reforms and ensure that councils do not continue to accrue significant deficits that would be impossible to pay down without insolvency.”
Lottie Winson
