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.

Incorrect. I suggest you educate yourself.

Autism support in the UK is facing a critical crisis, with many autistic children, young people, and adults struggling to access necessary services despite having a legal right to them. While the law mandates support, reports suggest a "broken system" where thousands are left without adequate help in education, health, and social care.
Here is a breakdown of the current situation regarding autism support in the UK:
Critical Gaps in Support

• Assessment Waiting Lists: As of September 2024, over 204,000 people were waiting for an autism assessment in England. Around 89% of people wait longer than the NICE-recommended 13 weeks, with many waiting years for a diagnosis.
• Education Crisis: Almost 75% of parents feel their child’s school place does not meet their needs, and 51,000 autistic children in England are persistently absent from school.
• Healthcare Barriers: 80% of autistic adults report difficulty visiting a GP, and many report that their needs are not met due to a lack of understanding by professionals.
• Underemployment: Only 3 in 10 (30%) autistic adults are in employment, which is the lowest rate of any disability group.
• Inappropriate Inpatient Care: Thousands of autistic people and people with learning disabilities are in mental health hospitals, with 69% of those in England being autistic, often due to a lack of community support.

Why Support is "Unsupported"

• Diagnosis
• Automatic Support: A formal diagnosis does not automatically trigger support. Services are based on assessments of specific, often narrowly defined needs.
• Legal Battles: A third of parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) have to use the legal system to secure provision, even though 99% of tribunals find in the parents' favour.
• Post-Diagnostic Void: Many people are left "in limbo" without support after finally receiving a diagnosis.
• Lack of Training: 7 out of 10 autistic children say school would be better if teachers understood autism better.

Re ADHD

www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/report-of-the-independent-adhd-taskforce-part-1/

I don’t need to educate myself but thanks for your response

Humans don't change that quickly. Those kids have parents (obviously some neurodiverse themselves, given heritability) who managed to go to school, work, have children.

I'm sure personally it's education, society and the economy that have changed radically, not human biology.

As a teacher, I believe that much wider variety in types of school, staffing them adequately and supporting rather than demonising parents who want to do their own thing would go a long way to reducing SEND spending. At the moment the situation is that in order to get any help at all needs have to become extreme.

Imagine a situation where that was applied routinely to healthcare.

Since my daughter was diagnosed with AuDHD I have noticed something interesting. A lot of freelancers, when you get chatting to them, reveal they had huge difficulties with formal education. Yet they've become excellent builders, gardeners, osteopaths (the osteopath said "I can do relating to people in 20 minute chunks!") They all had to fail at regular education first before finding a vocational path.

This is commonplace across every need and sector, it isn’t unusual. Given most people hadn’t even heard of autism 15 years ago, yet we hear about it every day now, I’m surprised the enormous surge in awareness etc seems to have resulted in lower satisfaction 🤷‍♀️

Do you mean pp or the new government plans?

My son had a tutor at home for a while before he had his EHCP and he was miserable and desperate to be in school. I'd also hate to home educate frankly and unless I truly thought it was in his best interests, I'd always fight against it with everything I have.

Just an anecdote, but a couple of years ago I was driving 110 miles per day taking my children to school and was on the road for almost 5 hours per day. DD3 was in mainstream school in village A, but couldn't take the bus because she was having things thrown at her and was developing OCD (although we didn't know what it was at the time). DD2 was in special school in town B, which was 16 miles away from village A, but couldn't take a taxi because she was on a reduced timetable and the LA would only transport full time students, and DD1 was in a special college in town C, 22 miles from town B, and couldn't take the assigned taxi because a girl who had beaten her was assigned the same taxi and they wouldn't change her route. So I would drive DD3 to school, DD2 to school, DD1 to college, then drive home. Then I'd have about 2 hours at home, and I'd do the whole thing in reverse.

That's on the days I didn't get called to collect one of them because they were dysregulated, etc.

OMG @Lougle! You might as well have actually been a taxi driver.

I suppose that 1.76% can feel like 50% if you have to rub shoulders with them, hey?

https://www.transformationpartners.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Children-and-young-people-with-austism-spectrum-disorder-case-for-change-Oct-2017.pdf

Actually I started a thread on this and the responses support my belief that the stats are very outdated.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5486988-to-ask-if-youre-a-teacher?reply=150363496

Can’t believe this comment. Every child deserves the opportunity to be supported to achieve their best potential via an education.

Yet another disabled children bashing thread on mumsnet, wow.

The companies profiting from medical advances need to start contributing to paying for the extra costs they are entailing.

We’re not discussing what people deserve, we’re discussing the economy. Every person and child in the world deserves a wonderful life, a nice home, good food, and so on. But this all costs money, and it’s money that is the issue.

I think it is a very sad state of affairs when disabled children are seemingly being blamed for council’s money shortages.

But discussing this very emotive topic will always appear that way, because it’s very emotive. You can’t separate the subject matter from the subject. But somehow we have to as this is like a wave which is about to break. The consequences will be massive because it’ll be yet another issue not addressed until it’s wildly out of control and needs overcorrection.

Me too.

Also up until quite recently no-one who wasn't directly involved took an interest.

Something that I found fascinating about the recent (also goady and judgemental in places) thread on "school refusal" was the huge and very varied bunch of Mumsnetters who posted to say that they, friends, and family members had had huge difficulties attending school and it was inspiring to hear what they had made of themselves.

Children aren't static and fixed. My daughter was in a right old state age 6 or 7 (and so were we). She's doing really well at 13.

Unfortunately for you society needs children with SEN to have provision,an education and a future. Without any of that the education of the majority will be impacted whilst prisons and hospitals fill up.

I mean, if it helps, I was a ‘CAMHS’ teenager back in the early 2000s - one of the rare teenagers given Prozac back then and had to see a psychiatrist. I was extremely depressed and suicidal.

Now I have a professional job, a mortgage, 2 small kids and all the other hallmarks of a dull and responsible life!

It's possible to avoid emotive comparisons though.

This is a "sudden emergency" because the government have decided to whip up some public fervour or at least support for removing the law that currently protects disabled children's education. Not because it's actually sudden or an emergency.

I mean if I mentioned the Warnock Report would you know what I meant?

Your persistent belief that somehow I get some weird pleasure from struggling children being deprived of things is just bizarre. County councils are screaming out for help, schools are screaming out for help. The system isn’t coping despite record spending, and that is de facto due to the rise in need. Trying to sidestep the logically obvious by slandering anyone who asks questions won’t work.

It most definitely is an emergency.

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

Ah so you’re happy to take provision you need but not others. You do realise MH difficulties are high for children with SEN and CAMHS is pretty much broken now so those with SEN are being let down in the MH sector as well as education.

Mine (both ds and dd) had SSEN in place before they started nursery that then transferred to EHCP. Dd (ds is now too old) has done the whole gamut from mainstream primary to out of County independent specialist and now EOTAS. I don't deny that their education has been costly but that isn't the whole story.
I have had the misfortune of dealing with our LA SEND dept for 28 years and it has been littered with rank incompetence, money wasting, poor decision making and playing the system which all costs money.
Ours uses barristers against unrepresented parents at SENDIST and have had a win rate of less than 1%. They employ consultants on £150k salaries to fill £50k roles. At one point they were paying 3 Head of SEND salaries for 1 role, 1 who stepped aside to allow a second to boost their final salary pension (terminally ill) and a third acting to fulfill the role as second with the role was off sick. They are paying out half a million yearly in recompense on complaints. They announce more and more funding they have secured but nothing changes for the children it's going on admin, barristers and recompense for their failure to actually meet the service they are required to.
They were eviscerated by Ofsted and CQC their response was to put together a panel that tells parents how much they have improved periodically which is at odds with parents' experience and the weekly articles in the local paper and experiences shared on local support boards.
I don't dispute that funding is a problem but it is hard to have sympathy for LAs who don't make good use of the funds they do have at the expense of children and young people with SEND

The Warnock report is meaningless now as the profile and landscape is completely different. It says how many children might need help but not what or why specifically. Did the report even mention fidget toys, sensory rooms, sensory diets etc?

Not giving provision would be catastrophic so not exactly sure what you suggest.

All I took was a prescription for antidepressants and about 5 sessions with a psychiatrist. I stopped engaging at that point and went off the rails entirely.