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.

FFS this again. Stop with the hyperbolic workhouses shit. It doesn’t help your case at all.

Clearly they will have to make placements less expensive. Less therapy, fewer expensive interventions, with a focus really on keeping the individual concerned happy and cared for rather than pushing for targets and mandating how every 5 minutes is spent.

I was saying if everyone pays for glasses and hearing aids (items that the majority of the population need at some point) funds can be directed to specialised much needed equipment including hoists and wheelchairs).

What do you suggest for meeting the rising costs?

Well exactly. For children who will never be independent, and a year’s therapies sees them making minimal progress, the money would be better spent saving for their care as an adult.

No matter how hard things are now, the thought of such high numbers of children with such significant needs being adults in a few short years will be much much worse. I honestly don’t know how the system will manage

I think those without SEND need to start seeing other peoples realities and then perhaps we would live in a more inclusive world. Inclusivity doesn’t mean everyone has everything the same.

currently the send system is broken and millions are wasted on it, not because there’s too many people trying to get send but because so much waste goes on.

for example, a contract keeps getting awarded to the same AP for my son. I keep telling the council that this AP is not suitable, my son cannot access it and so far has not been able to for the past year. I know that there’s other families in the same situation with this same AP (on local send forums, not actually aware of any success stories with this AP, seems like no child is actually accessing it) yet the council awarded it a 3 year contract worth £14million.

So this is an example of excessive spend which doesn’t seem to be actually helping those with send. Which is why many children still grow up being failed. The money isn’t going to the right places at all.

I’m still waiting for evidence of the packages costing £1 million.

The thread has gone off topic.

Unless someone has extremely limited mental capacity they need to learn to read like everyone else or purchase a hearing aid.

You said:

There are many children on £1 million + per annum packages, it’s just not sustainable long term.

You’re simply being asked how many, which must be on that bit of paper you’re reading.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czewy24ppg6o.amp

I will ask the question that will have people up in arms. What is the point in a very very expensive education for children that will never work, never live independently or actually live an independent adult life?

So you instead leave them at home with their already exhausted parent with no money and no let up
I can see that going well?
Actually I can see far more parents having breakdowns and not being able care for their own children
Leading to far more disabled kids needing state funded full time care
I can't aee how it would save money

Regardless the costs are rising, this is fact. How do you suggest funding them?

Pardon me for being a parent, but I’d like my child to be educated. Like most parents would.

What are the aims of an education for a severely disabled child? What are the objectives?

It's far higher than that:

Home-to-school transport costs for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in England have surged to an estimated £2.3 billion annually as of 2023-24, marking a 70% increase since 2015-16. This unsustainable rise is driven by a 140% increase in Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) since 2014, leading to higher demand for specialized, costly transport, with average costs per child reaching approximately £8,100 annually.

I also want my child to educated but I appreciate the cost constraints of her education. She’s a bright child and would do incredibly and make much faster progress with a 1:1 tutor but financially this isn’t an option for the millions of bright kids out there. So the school get a few thousand for her and she’s flung into the general populace of her class of 30.

That link is also another placement that isn’t an education placement.

So many people misunderstand, intentionally or through ignorance, the difference between SEN provision and children’s services’ placements.

Sorry, I meant to quote @Playingvideogames. I don’t know why it quoted the wrong post.

Depends on the disability.

pp's child is severely disabled, as is mine. Both have different needs due to their disabilities and education provision and aims/objectives will look different.

To provide them with life skills so they csn be as independent as possible HTH.

I never said all parents are unscrupulous, I said some parents are hiring unscrupulous services. Are you happy for a parent to pay £600 for a report that is copied and pasted, the wrong name in the report. Recommending provisions that are sheer quackery and have no established long term evidence. Even the local excellent SEND schools will not hire this particular OT. Or the Advocate who misleads parents and is able to do so, as they paid for aggressive professionals yet pretend they have the expertise. That turns up to meetings with out knowledge of the case, where the LA employee having ethics had to step in. Explaining the advocate had misled the parents.

The extras are not in Section F and I never claimed they were. I was talking about extra curriculars which are offered to entice CYP. E.g., recording studio rooms, games consoles, gyms. Offering basic functional skills where they repeat the same syllabus and course year after year although apparently receiving small group and 1:1 education. Leaving at 25 with no qualifications.

Are you happy with an AP charging £60,000 a year enticing a YP with the promise of full employment at the end of course. With peer mentors under of a similar age receiving below minimum wage. It is making a mockery of the SEND provision while they fill their coffers. The YP still leaves without any qualifications or a job.

My friend was bullied, she tried to share all sides opened up about her own SEND and battle for an education. Had currently has spent around £50,000 + in student loans to learn about SEND, volunteers her time to support and champion SEND CYP and adults. Advocated and deadicated her work for the CYP on her caseload. Yet MN bullies told she was worthless, etc…for fighting back from the inside. After a life of abuse from professionals who supported what her bio Mum where the abuse was so bad she is deaf. Survived abuse from her foster Dad (after being handover by a North West LA already well known for the Grooming gangs). Wonder why she felt broken when bullied online and at work for speaking up for the CYP. Yet according to MN bullies she was the problem. Strange then that some of the parents are in touch with her via LinkedIn after she left the job. To say they wish she had not left and they and their children miss having her as their Caseworker.

They’re (obviously) different for different children.

Our 9y/o son is emerging onto the curriculum, just. He currently learns, slowly, the things your child did in nursery.

He also learns how to be around his peers without trying to hurt them, which makes him actually more able to manage in society, and independence skills. Currently we’re working on dressing himself, for example.

Again. The things all children learn. But later.

From the EHCPs I’ve seen, they identify the ‘need’ (aka, child is non verbal), stipulate what needs to be provided for that and how much (eg, 2 hours speech therapy a week and a 1:1 who is proficient at using a specific communication method with them). EHCPs can be very complicated and require numerous therapies, staff who are trained in niche areas, then dictates how much time each person is to spend on each area of need.

But there are non verbal children with zero understanding for whom hours and hours of speech therapy has made no difference. Is it worth continuing?

The pp said ASN, so isn’t talking about England. EHCPs don’t exist in Scotland which is where that poster is talking about.

An intelligent question.

Another poster also alluded to the fact things will be much worse once the SEN children are adult.
I would go further and ask what happens to these SEN children when they are middle aged and the parents have passed away?

Higher taxes.