MPs highlight “postcode lottery” in wait times for EHC plans and warn of “SEND emergency”

A report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities has warned that two-fifths of councils in England are in danger of effective bankruptcy within 15 months, unless action is taken to improve the currently “unviable” SEND system.

The report, published today (15 January), highlights a “massive variation” across the country in families’ wait times for education, health and care (EHC) plans, describing it as a “postcode lottery”.

For example - it found that 71.5% of EHC plans were written on time in Lambeth, while only 19.2% were in Southwark.

The report notes that areas with particularly poor performance can be seen in the South, South-West and East of England.

“In the course of the PAC’s inquiry, Government attributed lengthening EHC plan waiting times to increasing demand. But the Department for Education (DfE) does not fully understand why demand for support has increased, undermining its ability to deliver it,” said the PAC.

It added: “A further 1.14m children since 2015 receive SEN support in schools (a 14% rise since 2015), while demand for EHC plans has soared by 140% since 2015. The DfE must improve its understanding of demand, before setting out how it will provide support more efficiently.”

The report warned that despite a 58% increase in the DfE’s high needs funding over the last decade, funding has “not kept pace” with demand following the 140% increase in the number of children with EHC plans. Therefore, outcomes for children have not improved, which “undermines parents’ confidence in the system”.

The PAC noted that the Government was also unable to provide any potential solution to the “critical and immediate” financial challenges facing many local authorities due to “persistent and significant” SEN-related overspends.

It said: “The impact of these are being deferred under the temporary "statutory override" scheme, which is due to expire in March 2026. This is currently expected to cause nearly half of all English local authorities to be at risk of effectively going bankrupt.”

The report made the following recommendations for improvement:

1. Over the next 12 months, the DfE should work with others including local authorities and the Ministry of Justice to: a) better understand the reasons for differences in identifying and supporting SEN needs across local areas and schools; b) routinely identify and share good practice from better performing areas; and c) improve local authority decision-making by analysing tribunal decisions.
2. Within the next six months, the DfE must work with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to better understand the reasons for increasing and changed demand for SEN support, and then set out how it will provide support more efficiently, such as through group support, identifying needs earlier and ensuring special schools reflect value for money.
3. The DfE should, within the next six months, set out the provision which children with SEN support should expect. Alongside this, they should set out what inclusive education means and looks like. The Department should also set out how inclusive education will be achieved including through earlier identification of SEN, and improved teacher training and continuous development, and how schools will be held to account. SEN performance data should incorporate factors other than academic attainment.
4. Within six months, DHSC should set out how Integrated Care Boards will consider SEN alongside wider priorities; how its longer-term workforce plans will address current and forecast SEN skill shortfalls; and its processes, plans and targets for reducing related waiting lists.
5. Given the risks to local authorities' finances, central government must urgently involve local authorities in conversations to develop a fair and appropriate solution for when the statutory override ends in March 2026, clearly setting out these plans as a matter of urgency and no later than March 2025.
6. Moving on from its 'Safety Valve' programme, the Department must provide specific support and guidance so all local authorities can effectively manage their SEN-related spending sustainably in the longer term.
7. The Department should urgently improve its data, and then use this information to develop a new fully costed plan for improving the SEN system, with concrete actions, and clear interdependencies, alongside metrics to measure outcomes.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the PAC, said: “Urgent warnings have long been issued to Government on the failing SEND system from every quarter. This is an emergency that has been allowed to run and run. Families in need of help have been forced to spend precious energy fighting for the support they are legally entitled to, and local authorities to bear an unsustainable financial burden.”

He added: “The fact that 98% of cases taken to tribunal find in favour of families is staggering, and can only demonstrate that we are forcing people to jump through bureaucratic hoops for no good reason. It is long past time the Government took action matching the gravity of this situation. And yet our inquiry found no sense of urgency amongst officials to do so.”

Responding to the report, Cllr Arooj Shah, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said: “The Committee is right to describe the failing SEND system as an emergency, and its report reflects councils’ long-standing concerns over the need for more inclusive provision and the immense financial pressures on councils to be adequately addressed.

“It is vital the Government urgently sets out a comprehensive reform plan that ensures children and their families get the support they need and deserve.

“This must include ensuring councils on a financially stable footing, with high needs deficits written off.

“Otherwise, many councils will face a financial cliff-edge, and be faced with having to cut other services to balance budgets through no fault of their own, or their residents.”

Also responding to the report, Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell said: “The system we’ve inherited has been failing families with SEND children for far too long – this is unacceptable and that’s why we set out our Plan for Change to ensure no child is left behind.

“These problems are deep-rooted and will take time to fix but we remain steadfast in our commitment to deliver the change that exhausted families are crying out for by ensuring better earlier intervention and inclusion.

“We are already making progress by investing £1 billion into SEND, £740 million for councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools and through our Curriculum and Assessment Review which will look at barriers that hold children back from the best life chances.”

Lottie Winson