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.

Maybe it’s not that they get it but that’s what it costs to employ them once you add in tax / employers NI etc?

Bloody hell I’ve just realised the profit the agency gets- for doing precious little. The TA in the firing line gets what £60 for that day and the agency charges the school over double that for making a phone call which they then pocket. It’s ludicrous

Below that!

Personally I think we need to look at two things:

1. Does the massive increase in demand for SEN services and the relevant spending match an actual increase in children with SEN? It could easily be that there are more children with SEN but also we are trying to meet needs that previously wouldn't have been met.
2. We need as a society to decide what level of SEN education spending we are able and most importantly willing to fund. The money available needs to be distributed with this in mind rather than essentially writing SEN education a blank cheque by making it an unfunded legal obligations for local councils to meet. We need to get real and admit that many non SEN children can't have their needs met in inadequate schools with relatively low levels of funding. That's just what happens when budgets are limited and it's the reality we find ourselves in with many aspects of our lives. It's not just education either. People are dying frequently in this country because they are inadequately housed, can't afford a healthy diet or can't access timely and effective NHS treatment. Old people die because they can't afford to heat their house. Needs aren't met all the time and we are still in a horrific amount of debt as a country and it's crippling us. The debt alone is costing more to service in interest payments than the entire education budget. It's madness in this context to pretend that we can pay £100k plus on a child's education to meet their needs. We have to find a cheaper way to keep these young people safe and cared for but not necessarily pretend we can meet all their needs.

Except sen support is based on need. Not diagnosis. So just because you have a diagnosis it doesn't mean you need to be on the sen register, or vice versa.

Exactly. Child with dyslexia, ADHD, ASD, slow processing, dysgraphia.

No EHCP. Diagnosis does not = EHCP.

Unfortunately, "state" education, including SEND provision, has effectively been privatized and Councils are having to foot the bill.

I think it's absolutely right that kids who need support are publicly funded, but this should not be a money making exercise for some private equity company that has no interest in the well-being of our children.

I’m wondering if there’s a connection between this tread and another trending thread about cousin marriage.
some of the increasing demand for sen provision must come from disability caused by in breeding, in certain areas at least.

The thing is, there’s not a one size fits all solution to the one size fits all education system we have in this country. If people want better funded services, they need to pay more tax. People (understandably) don’t want to do this, so we muddle through, until austerity in 2010 or COVID or anything else and then we can’t muddle any more and small problems become massive budget busting ones.

You also have the issue of trying to plug the gap. My son is in specialist now but to get there was hell. We knew he needed specialist at a very young age, however he is very verbal, bright and physically developmentally age appropriate so also knew it wasn’t going to be easy. He was suspended from pre school at 3, I applied for the EHCp the summer before he started school which he was awarded. By the January of his reception year he was attending for 30 minutes a day and I lost my job because of the time off and timetable he had.

The LA fought me and school every step of the way insisting he could manage in this small, well regarded mainstream school. Meanwhile the other parents were (rightly) pissed off at their children having to be regularly evacuated from a classroom because of my son but he had no where else to go.

Eventually, instead of specialist and despite the Ed Psych agreeing he needed specialist they agreed to an SRP (unit attached to a school where he could spend up to 80% of his time) at another school, so, in the Easter of reception, off he went. It was an absolute disaster, fast forward a year, he’s still part time, doesn’t leave the SRP and I’m dragging him through the gate and being called to fetch him 20 minutes later alongside being suspended regularly. He was 6. On the last day I sent him there, when I was eventually called to pick him up he had been locked in the garden alone screaming for me. All of which was highly predictable and we knew was coming from as early as Pre School.

He wasn’t the only one in the SRP who should have been in specialist- in fact it was over capacity with children whose needs would never have been met by the school, meanwhile the children who CAN manage in mainstream by accessing the SRP are having to stay in the classroom full time, so they’re not coping and it’s damaging them which may mean their parents also decide to fight for specialist when actually if the right decisions had been made earlier for my son and the others to go to specialist (assuming any had been built and spaces were made, which is another issue) those children not coping in the classroom would be able to stay at the much cheaper mainstream/SRP because they’d have had the right support. Instead every single child gets failed- mine for not being in the right school, the ASD child who needs the SRP because they can’t access it because of mine and the rest of the class because the SRP child can’t escape the mainstream class. It’s a broken cycle.

It cost the LA thousands to not send my son to specialist and it cost us thousands to fight the LA to send him to one. All of that money wasted and my story isn’t unique.

It is around a £28k cost to the school for an agency TA for the year, out of the £145 the staff member gets around £100 a day I think.

Contracted staff- it costs the school around £30k a year for an experienced TA in London. Don’t forget we pay pension contributions and NI- NI costs have risen substantially and we’ve had to find this out of the existing school budget.

TAs don’t get paid enough, I am absolutely in agreement with this as they are incredible!

A few more words.

Most of the taxi budget goes to children who live in rural areas (ones without SEND). If we're having hard conversations...shouldn't they move? How selfish to bring up children in the middle of nowhere with no local school they can get to on a bus!

(I'm being ridiculous of course...but maybe remember this when you're essentially arguing someone's wasting public funds by having their disabled kid transported to the nearest suitable school).

I work with a really good TA. She can only afford to do the job because her parents have her toddler for 3 days a week for free.

I bet your children will get more support than my child who starts school in September and is likely to be autistic.

My child costs a fortune. I think his placement is around 60k per year. We tried to get a local special school but they wouldn't have him due to his risk of self harm. So his school is 45mins away which requires a taxi. He was sharing with another child but she used to freak out so he now has this taxi alone. There are five children in his class, three adults....it's so expensive to keep these children safe and educated.

This is classic divide and rule by the government. Create a scapegoat (ideally one in a vulnerable position) and get everyone arguing about it so we aren't discussing other uses of government spending.

Horrible.

And the SEN register in many cases doesnt really mean much anyway My oldest son was on it in primary school because he struggled academically, all it meant was the school had identified an area of neeed and he got tsken out of the class a couple of times a week for some extra support with reading ,maths etc
He didnt meet the threshold for an EHCP etc.

None of the children being transported by taxi in my local authority live rurally.

And that wont be the most expensive placement
Residential schools for example will cost an eye watering .

Under diagnosed by which standards? I can’t see how we can be under diagnosing autism when clearly the numbers are through the roof. How are we supposed to ‘support’ everyone when the diagnosis criteria covers so many people? It’s impossible surely. Children who need special support deserve it of course. Equally that cannot be every child, or even a third of children as this would be an impossible system.

Diagnosis means nothing. An autism diagnosis won't get additional support unless there's a clear and measurable need. It just doesn't happen. My child has high needs and be didn't get a special school place until nearly nine. And that took referrals to CAMHS, children's services, everything....

Yes , exactly same here …
I walk to school in the morning and there are three taxis picking up kids along one street alone
And yes I know two of the parents don’t work
And one of them has a car
And the kids all have the local uniform of our school which is walking distance
I totally agree with taxis for physically disabled / severely disabled to the point of needing 2-1 carers in back etc but what I’m seeing does not match this.

Ah this old chestnut my son gets transported daily to his special school in a mini bus
He's severely autistic with severe learning disabilities hes 16 in a few months but cognitively around the age of 2 or 3 I dont drive my dh does but he works shifts
So i would have to transport him on two buses in rush hour ,he has very challenging behaviour and would just run off so I would be putting him me and the general public at risk he has also been known to lash out ,at anyone
Plus have you ever been to a special school?
Getting 200+ kids with significant disabilities off transport and safely into class is like a milliary operation it is far easier and safer for most of them to arrive at the same time to allow staff to do this then parents dropping them off in dribs and drabs and the constant disruption will not only be chaotic but also not be at all helpful in settling the children.

Local councils are saying the costs will bankrupt them, and the government has promised reform of the system:

www.local.gov.uk/about/news/send-crisis-vast-majority-councils-warn-insolvency-and-call-reform-amid-huge-deficits

That sounds really sensible and a mini bus is a much better use of resources too.
Its the individual taxis that are crippling the local councils budgets.

Do you think your son is a typical example of children being transported to school? I would wager he is on the more severe end of needs. That's the problem with threads like this. We all know there are some cases where state funded school transport is needed and almost everyone can agree on this. There are though also a lot of cases where other cheaper alternatives exist and this needs to be tackled.