To ask you to explain SEND funding and bankrupt councils to me?

[Myanna]

I've read a few articles like this one:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/feb/05/send-costs-bankrupt-english-local-authorities

But I don't understand why the cost of funding SEND is so high that it's going to potentially/actually make most councils insolvent.

It's not like provision is generous or easy to get, from what I've read (I don't have a child who is supported).

Were these kids previously just not supported in any way by the state and was it left to families to cope as best they could?
Are these kids who previously wouldn't have survived, but now do because of better medical care and therefore need a lot of help?
Is this private equity running enterprises and charging huge amounts to local authorities?
Is it just inflation and the cost of employing people?

I really don't know much about this at all but I'm sure many on here do, so I'd really welcome your knowledge.

LA funding is also very inefficient - for example denying EHCP then losing expensive tribunals whilst the delay increases the child’s needs. Also denying EOTAS as a matter of course (as they’d rather force people to home educate which is free to them) - we had a 12k EHCP which provided very little additional support but they’d rather service that than eg: an 8k EOTAS full online school package.

Perhaps the provision needs to be adequate rather than an expensive private school that everyone else would have to pay for themselves

i think if she wants the expensive PS she should part fund it herself to make up the difference in cost to the council

No-one gets placements costing £1m for 2 places just because that is what they want. They don’t get it if such high cost placements aren’t actually required.

That's awful @MuddlingThrough1724, both your experience and what @Mumofsend says about 1 in 8. No-one does an EHCNA lightly so that is 7 out of 8 families potentially with a child who's really struggling (and then more at the refuse to issue stage) who gave up on what they were entitled to legally for their child.

We paid over £100k for private school plus thousands on assessments and therapies so while we were incredibly lucky and privileged to be able to do that, I'm afraid I consider that the LA saved a lot of money considering the EHCP my DC has for secondary costs a tiny fraction of that (and they don't do most of what it says they should anyway). But sometimes if you can get them through those primary years secondary is better as they have more strategies.

I have never put in so much work in my life at anything as I did to try to protect her from the year 6 to 7 transition going wrong.

Submitting an appeal doesn’t cost parents/YP anything.

Most don’t have representation. Legal aid, or rather legal help for appeal to SENDIST, is available to those parents (or for older DC, the young person themselves) who meet the eligibility criteria. Many aren’t eligible for legal aid. Even if they are it doesn’t cover representation at hearings. Exceptional case funding can be requested but the vast majority still don’t get it for representation at hearings.

No, parents aren’t responsible for LA costs. Rightly since LAs spend extortionate amounts of money defending indefensible cases against unrepresented parents when they know they are going to lose (or even concede at the last moment).

A proper EOTAS/EOTIS package would be far more than £8k and would include far more than online schooling.

Oh stop it!
We've got to be able to have conversations about proportionality in how money is spent without defending to dramatic manipulations like that

As a country we simply don't have the finances to not make difficult decisions about how money is spent. Unfortunately if there isn't some balance in it then inevitably resentment builds. Other public services are crumbling while some children are getting a quarter of a million pounds plus spent on their education each year.

It's not sustainable and we need to be able to talk about it. And our politicians and councils need to feel able to make the difficult decisions to balance the books

Yes of course it could.

The UK may seem like a bin fire at the moment but SEND spending is actually pretty small as a proportion of the education budget, never mind the overall government budget and the money markets are more than willing to lend to the UK government (I mean, look at some of the alternatives!)

The Guardian used to do some terrific display statistics and I used to show my students the gigantic Jupiter of money used to bail out the banks post financial crisis and the teeny little Juno (moon) sized "schools" blob.

I'm happy to have a conversation but let's not stoop to using the kind of dehumanising language that some of the politicians and newspapers are using.

It is difficult enough being a SEND parent without the regular implication that one's children are burdens on the state and not worthy of education.

This is a site for parents.

Many parents (mostly mums) have lost their jobs because of the failures of the education system.

Because my child's needs are met, I am able to continue to work as a secondary school teacher.

Although I will probably retire if the government are genuinely going to push teachers into assessing SEND needs of students.

a crude look at available figures suggests that it forms around 9% of total government expenditure - but maybe you have some more exact figures.
That does seem a pretty significant proportion

Remploy was largely govt funded I think. Last of those were closed during austerity drive circa 2010.
plus that type of production line is vanishingly rare nowadays and the employment environment isn’t exactly disability friendly. With Access To Work being slashed it’s about to get a lot harder.

So what happens when it comes to SEND strategy in other countries?

What does inclusion look like? Transport? Travel to school? Special/mainstream? Costs?

Yes the one my friend worked at was closed earlier than that. She was a secretary it wasn’t all factory work and struggled after to find suitable employment but did eventually in public sector before she died. Point was there did used to be things like this that just don’t exist anymore.

Then the statisticians should resign in disgrace as we all know FAR MORE than 1% of children are diagnosed with autism.

Far, far more.

4 in my child’s class, I see many many other children wearing ear defenders in the playground, a boy down the road from us gets into a SEN taxi with ear defenders every day (presumably autistic), our niece is diagnosed autistic, my friend’s son is currently being assessed, and I know of at least 3 other children socially.

So that’s what, only counting the ones I actually know, 10 children. And if that’s 1% then I should know 1000 children but I really don’t. I would say it’s at least 5% and probably more like 10% by the time the current waiting lists are worked through. Maybe 15.

Maybe we should just stop free education for every child.

😆

OMG the ignorance. You do realise wearing ear defenders does not an autism diagnosis make and how many autistic children in your child’s class does not speak for stats in every class.

Who the hell are you to got round counting children and how on earth do you know personal private details of children in your child’s class?

Autism and ADHD are under diagnosed and under supported in this country and SEND provision is based on need not diagnoses anyway.

They want to force parents to home educate children that cost them more

There is no way SEND spending is 9% of national government spending. Education funding in total could be that figure, possibly (although the peculiar way the UK government funds university distorts the picture).

It may be 9% of local government spending?

I suppose the local authorities are scapegoats too in a way although it's hard to sympathise given their competency and behaviour (and is some cases - Kent County Council for instance) defamatory public statements about SEND children and their parents.

Private companies own the schools and due to shortages they charge LA’s a fortune!

If they’re under diagnosed then I truly think at least half of kids will end up with a diagnosis, and if it’s ‘under supported’ then our country will basically operate as one huge support system for the neurodiverse. Such is the reach this has in the last 10 years alone.

My experience is not at all unusual. My child moved schools, it was the same at the last place.

Every other poster on here has a child with autism or ADHD and that is not an exaggeration.

In some areas it’s 30% of local spending. It is far too high - council tax is basically just becoming a social care tax, people won’t pay it if it carries on.

Don’t be so utterly ridiculous the bar is high to get an autism diagnosis,traits need to significantly impact life. You really are talking nonsense.

While at the same time pushing through the Schools' and Wellbeing Bill that will make it harder to home educate!

And with labour shortages in all sorts of sectors so we as a nation could really do with parents able to work not stuck at home muddling through KS3 Maths.

You couldn't make this stuff up.

It doesn’t matter how high the bar is, the fact is many many children are reaching it. Ask any teacher how many autistic children are in their (mainstream) class, they’ll all tell you at least 2 and more like 3/4/5

I think autism and ADHd are reasonably well supported in the UK and many have EHCPs

my autistic dn lives abroad and there is no state SEN provision so his education is provided paying school fees