Special educational needs and disabilities: Government support

Approximate read time: 15 minutes

The House of Lords is due to debate the following motion on 9 December 2024:

Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative) to ask His Majesty’s government what plans they have to support children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Education policy is devolved and as a result this briefing focuses on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England.

1. Overview

Children or young people with SEND are those who have a learning difficulty or a disability which means they need special educational provision beyond that required by most others of the same age.^[1]

The Children and Families Act 2014 provides the statutory basis for identifying children and young people with SEND, and for assessing their needs and making provision for them. There are two main forms of support:

• SEN support, which is provided in pre-schools, schools and colleges. This can take a range of forms, including assistance from a teacher or teaching assistant, dedicated or smaller classes, or activities such as speech therapy.^[2]
• An education, health and care (EHC) plan. Parents and others have a statutory right to request that a local authority undertakes as assessment of whether a child or young person requires more support than is available through SEN support.^[3]

According to the most recent data from the Department for Education, over 80% of pupils with SEND attend state-funded, mainstream schools.^[4] A minority attend other settings, including maintained (state-funded) and non-maintained special schools. In some cases, an EHC plan can include the local authority paying for pupils to attend independent special schools or colleges. Some pupils are dual registered, spending part of the week in a mainstream school and part in a special school.^[5]

2. Trends and challenges in SEND provision

In recent years there has been a trend of increasing numbers of pupils being assessed as having SEND. Data from the Department for Education (DfE) showed that in 2023/24 there were around 1.6 million school pupils in England who had SEND.^[6] This comprised 1.2 million who received SEND support without an EHC plan (about 14% of all pupils), and over 400,000 pupils with an EHC plan (5% of all pupils). The number of pupils with an EHC plan increased in 2023/24 by almost 12% compared with the previous year.

The DfE said the most common type of need for those receiving SEND support in 2023/24 was for speech, language and communication needs.^[7] The most common need for those with an EHC plan was for autistic spectrum disorder. Other notable findings included: SEND was most prevalent at age 9; more common among boys than girls; and it was more common among pupils eligible for free school meals.

Figure 1 shows the upward trend in the percentage of pupils in England receiving SEND support or an EHC plan from 2015/16 to 2023/24.

Figure 1. Pupils in receipt of SEND support or an EHC plan in England (percent), 2015/16 to 2023/24

The increase in demand for SEND provision has raised concerns about the capacity and quality of provision, and the impact on local authority finances.^[8]

Funding for SEND in England is not allocated as a separate amount per pupil.^[9] Instead, SEND funding is part of the overall ‘dedicated schools grant’ (DSG) allocated to each local authority. It is then for local authorities to determine the individual allocation to schools.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents local authorities in England and Wales, has raised concerns about SEND provision and its impact on local government finances. In July 2024 an independent report commissioned by the LGA concluded that educational attainment among SEND children had not improved since 2014, despite local councils “projected to be spending £12bn on these services by 2026, up from £4bn a decade ago”.^[10] The LGA also contended that councils were “struggling to cope” with the system for completing EHC plan assessments. The LGA said the EHC plan system:

[…] creates ‘perverse incentives’ to shift responsibility between public bodies and inadvertently creates adversarial relationships between local authorities and parents. It finds a system weighted down by legal disputes through tribunals and an over-reliance on special schools due to a loss of parental confidence that mainstream schools can meet their children’s needs.^[11]

The LGA claimed that without reform the quality of SEND provision would not improve and the system would “become even more financially unviable for councils”.

In October 2024, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) reached similar findings. The report, ‘Support for children and young people with special educational needs’, was the outcome of an inquiry the NAO conducted between May and September 2024. It found that the number of young people with an EHC plan had increased from 240,000 in January 2015 to 576,000 in January 2024, an increase of 140%.^[12] Over the same period, there had also been a 14% increase in the number of pupils receiving SEND support.

The NAO noted that there had been a 58% real-terms increase in high-needs funding between 2014/15 and 2024/25 to £10.7bn. High-needs funding is for people with SEND who require additional resources, and who may or may not have an EHC plan. The NAO said that, despite the increase in funding, the system was “still not delivering better outcomes for children and young people or preventing local authorities from facing significant financial risks”.^[13] The NAO’s report stated that the costs of SEND provision were contributing to “growing cumulative deficits” within local authorities’ dedicated schools grant budget. Currently, the government allows local authorities to exclude their DSG deficits from their main revenue budgets. However, this “statutory override” is due to expire in March 2026. The NAO said the DfE had estimated that local authorities’ cumulative deficits would be approximately £4.6bn by that time. The NAO stated:

With no currently identified solution, DfE estimates that a significant proportion (on current estimates, some 43%) of local authorities will have deficits exceeding or close to their reserves in March 2026 when the statutory override is due to end.^[14]

The NAO concluded that, if unreformed, the SEND system was “financially unsustainable”. It noted that the system was costing over £10bn a year and demand was forecast to continue to increase. As a result, it contended that the government needed to “think urgently” about how current investment could be better spent, through “more inclusive education, identifying and addressing needs earlier, and developing a whole-system approach” to drive improvements.^[15]

Separately, there have also been concerns over the number of SEND pupils being suspended or excluded from schools, including from primary schools.^[16] Data published by the DfE on 21 November 2024 showed that the total number of suspensions and exclusions in England in the 2023/24 autumn term had increased compared with the previous year.^[17] The BBC said that its analysis of the data had shown that in primary schools there had been almost as many suspensions in autumn 2023/24 as in “the whole of 2012/13”.^[18] The BBC said that permanent exclusions in primary schools had increased by “almost 70%” over the same period, and that “nearly 90% of those permanently excluded over the past five years” also had SEND.

The DfE said the most common reason for permanent exclusions was for “persistent disruptive behaviour”.^[19] The DfE noted that pupils with SEND, and those eligible for free school meals, “continue to have some of the highest rates of suspensions and permanent exclusions”.

3. Government policy

3.1 Previous Conservative government

In 2019, the previous Conservative government launched a major review of the SEND system. It aimed to improve SEND services and to end what it called the “postcode lottery” in SEND provision.^[20]

Following delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, the government published a green paper and consultation, ‘SEND review: Right support, right place, right time’, in 2022. This was followed in 2023 by the ‘Special educational needs and disabilities and alternative provision improvement plan’.

The improvement plan acknowledged that families had faced challenges and delays accessing SEND support, and resources and facilities varied across the country. It also noted that local authority SEND spending regularly outstripped budget allocations.^[21]

The plan set out a goal to create a national system and new national standards so that children and young people could attend the most appropriate setting for their needs. In summer 2023, the government set up the National SEND and Alternative Provision Implementation Board to oversee the changes.^[22]

The improvement plan also said the government would “re-examine the state’s relationship with independent special schools” to make sure standards were aligned between independent schools and state providers.^[23]

3.2 Labour government

On SEND provision, Labour’s 2024 general election manifesto stated:

Labour will take a community-wide approach, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs. We will make sure admissions decisions account for the needs of communities and require all schools to co-operate with their local authority on school admissions, SEND inclusion, and place planning.^[24]

Since taking office, the Labour government has said that some SEND reforms will be included in the forthcoming Children’s Wellbeing Bill, which was included in the 2024 King’s Speech. The government said the bill would require:

All schools to cooperate with the local authority on school admissions, SEND inclusion, and place planning, by giving local authorities greater powers to help them deliver their functions on school admissions and ensure admissions decisions account for the needs [of] communities.^[25]

The government has said the bill will be brought forward “as soon as parliamentary time allows”.^[26]

The Labour administration has also restructured the Department for Education so that responsibility for SEND sits with the schools minister where previously this responsibility sat with the children and families minister.^[27]

On whether the government intended to take forward the previous government’s improvement plan, the minister for schools stated in response to a parliamentary question:

Too many families and schools are struggling to secure the provision and support they need to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and outcomes for children with SEND have suffered for far too long. This government’s ambition is to ensure that all children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools. We also want to ensure that special schools cater to those with the most complex needs. Whilst we recognise the urgency and need to drive improvements, we are conscious that there are no quick fixes and want to take a considered approach to deliver sustainable education reform.^[28]

In the autumn budget on 30 October 2024, the government said it would increase education spending by “£11.2bn from 2023/24 levels by 2025/26, a 3.5% real terms increase”.^[29] It said £2.3bn of that funding would be for the “core schools budget”, of which £1bn would “go towards supporting the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system”.

The budget included proposals for the standard 20% rate of VAT to apply to private school fees from January 2025 and the removal of business rates charitable rate relief for private schools from April 2025.^[30] The government said it expected the policies to raise “£1.8bn per year by 2029/30”. The budget document stated that the following exemptions would apply for SEND pupils impacted by the VAT policy:

To support pupils with special educational needs that can only be met in a private school, local authorities and devolved governments that fund these places will be compensated for the VAT they are charged on those pupils’ fees. Private schools which are “wholly or mainly” concerned with providing full time education to pupils with an education, health and care plan will remain eligible for business rates charitable relief.^[31]

However, concerns have been raised about the potential impact of the VAT policy on SEND pupils in independent schools.^[32] In June 2024, the Independent Schools Council (ISC), a lobby group that represents over 1,400 private schools, said it was “particularly worried” about how the VAT proposals might impact SEND provision in the sector.^[33] It called on the government to produce a full impact assessment of the measures. Following the budget, the ISC has announced it is planning a legal challenge to the VAT proposals.^[34]

The chief executive of the Independent Schools Association, Rudolf Eliott Lockhart, responded to the budget by expressing concern about the VAT policy. He said it was based on stereotypes about private schools. Specifically on SEND pupils, he said:

The vast majority of pupils with SEN in independent schools don’t have an EHC, these aren’t pupils whose parents choose an independent school because they are wealthy, but because an independent school best meets their child’s SEN. Yet all this nuance and detail gets flattened by the crude stereotyping of independent education. The result is that lots of pupils are going to suffer needlessly.^[35]

To accompany the budget on 30 October 2024, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) published an impact assessment of the VAT policy on private schools.^[36] It stated that the purpose of the policy was to raise revenue to support the public finances and to “support the government’s commitments relating to education and young people, including the 94% of school children who attend state schools”. It noted that there had been a 75% real-terms increase in private school fees since 2000 and over that period the number of pupils in private schools had “remained steady”.

The impact assessment stated that applying VAT to school fees “does not mean that all schools must increase fees by 20%”. It noted that private schools that were liable for VAT would also be able to reclaim VAT paid on their inputs, such as capital expenditure and purchases of educational supplies. It estimated that schools would be liable for VAT amounting to “approximately 15% of fee income”. After accounting for cost-cutting activities and other mitigations that private schools may introduce, HMRC estimated that private school fees would “increase by around 10%” as a result of the measure.

The impact assessment estimated that around 35,000 pupils currently at private schools could move into the state education sector due to the VAT policy.^[37] It said that this total would “build up progressively” over time, reaching 35,000 over the long-term. It estimated that the “vast majority (94%)” of pupils currently in private schools would remain there. HMRC stated:

The government is confident that schools in the state sector will be able to accommodate these additional pupils. The impact on the state education system as a whole is expected to be very small.^[38]

The impact assessment acknowledged that there would be an impact on individuals and households affected by the VAT policy, as they may have to pay more in fees or there could be disruption to pupils moving to alternative education settings. However, the assessment also contended that there would be “indirect beneficial impacts on the 94% of pupils attending state schools”, due to the revenue raised by the policy.

Specifically on the potential impact on SEND pupils in private schools, the impact assessment stated that 20% of pupils in ISC-member private schools had SEND. Of those, around 7% had been placed at private schools by a local authority under an EHC plan. HMRC confirmed that the VAT policy would not apply if a pupil was required to attend an independent school under their ECH plan, as the local authority would be able to reclaim the VAT payable:

This measure will not impact pupils with the most acute additional needs, where these can only be met in private schools. Local authorities fund pupils’ places in private schools where their needs can only be met in a private school. For example, in England, where attendance at that private school is required by a child’s EHCP, local authorities will be able to reclaim the VAT on the fees from HMRC.^[39]

For parents of SEND pupils who decided to move their child to a state school, the impact assessment noted that state schools have statutory duties to provide the correct level of support for their pupils. HMRC reiterated its estimate that a small minority of private pupils would move to the state sector and for those with SEND the long-term impacts “may be lessened by revenue raised by this measure being used to help the 94% of children who attend state schools”, including SEND pupils at state schools.

4. Read more

• House of Commons Library, ‘Special educational needs: Support in England’, 28 October 2024
• House of Lords Library, ‘Special education schools and colleges in England: Policy and challenges in the special educational needs sector’, 16 October 2024; and Debate on ‘Special needs schools’, HL Hansard, 24 October 2024, cols 810–38
• House of Commons Library, ‘Disputes about special educational needs in England’, 16 October 2024

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Cover image by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash