Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee

1st Report - Support for children and young people with special educational needs

Public Accounts Committee HC 353 Published 15 January 2025

Report Status

Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations

10 items (2 recs)

Source

View on Parliament website ↗

Government Response

AI assessment · 10 of 10 classified

Accepted 5

Acknowledged 5

Recommendations

1 result

3 Acknowledged

Require DfE to define inclusive education, outline expected SEN provision, and detail necessary resourcing.

Recommendation

The Department has not made clear what it means by inclusive education, a core strand of its approach, or how it will be achieved. A core aim of the Children and Families Act 2014 was supporting children with SEN in … Read more The Department has not made clear what it means by inclusive education, a core strand of its approach, or how it will be achieved. A core aim of the Children and Families Act 2014 was supporting children with SEN in more inclusive mainstream schools, but the Department has made little discernible progress. It has not defined or set out what inclusive education should look like, or provided specific funding for inclusivity, despite this being at the heart of its approach. There are few incentives for schools to be inclusive, with performance data focussing only on academic attainment and no separate judgement by Ofsted on SEN. Schools can often feel that others are not accepting their share of children with SEN. Local authorities have limited influence over academies to affect these decisions. This is also an issue in regard to selective education settings (e.g. grammar schools) found in parts of England. The Department acknowledges that it has not looked hard enough at barriers to inclusivity. It suggests that the ongoing curriculum review and proposed changes to Ofsted inspections provide an opportunity. In June 2023, only 56% of teachers felt confident to support children with additional needs, and the Department has several initiatives underway to improve training. It is also funding training for additional educational psychologists to provide both more support within schools and undertake assessments for SEN. The 2014 Act was intended to identify needs earlier, but the Department does not have a defined process or specific funding to achieve this. 4 recommendation The Department should, within the next six months, set out the provision which children with SEN support should expect. Alongside this, they should set out what inclusive education means and looks like, and the level of resourcing both to ensure the support for children with SEN and the maintenance of educational provision for other children in the same setting. The Department should also set out how i Show less

Government Response Summary

The government agrees to work towards a more inclusive education system but states it cannot meet the six-month deadline, promising further details later this year. It mentions ongoing efforts in teacher training, including a January 2025 review of National Professional Qualifications with a focus on SEND, but a clear definition of inclusive education, expected provision, or detailed resourcing plans remains unstated.

HM Treasury

View Details →

Conclusions (4)

Observations and findings

5 Conclusion Acknowledged

Departmental witnesses could not provide any potential solution to the critical and immediate financial challenges facing many local authorities due to persistent and significant SEN-related overspends. The impact of these are being deferred under the temporary “statutory override” scheme, which is due to expire in March 2026. This is currently …

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the urgency of addressing local authority SEND overspends and Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficits but states it could not set out plans by March 2025. It intends to set out further details for reforming the SEND system later in 2025, which will include how local authorities will be supported with deficits and the transition from the statutory override scheme.

View Details →

7 Conclusion Acknowledged

The Department’s ability to reform the system is hindered by a lack of data, targets and a clear, costed plan. The Department accepts the need for major change, but lacks a clear, costed plan to push forward reforms and measure progress. Despite taking years to develop a plan to address …

Government Response Summary

The government agrees, highlighting improvements to EHCP (SEN2) data collection from 2023 and the publication of SEND Futures study findings in December 2023. It notes an almost £1 billion funding increase announced in Autumn Budget 2024, but the comprehensive, fully costed plan for improving the SEN system with concrete actions and metrics is still pending, with further details expected later this year.

View Details →

9 Conclusion Acknowledged

The Department described how parental confidence provided a core indicator of an effective SEN system but that, with a third of parents having children with SEN in the state system feeling their child did not get necessary support, the system was “nowhere near good enough”.16 Families lack confidence in a …

Government Response Summary

The department recognises that some families struggle to get the right support they need, when they need it, and aims to address issues causing Tribunal appeals through broader systemic reform. It will work with the Ministry of Justice, the SEND Tribunal and local authorities and consider building on previous work to deliver training sessions for local authority SEND caseworkers.

View Details →

10 Conclusion Acknowledged

Parents are also increasingly appealing EHC plan decisions with the proportion being taken to a tribunal, parents’ final recourse for complaints, increasing from 1.6% in 2018 to 2.5% in 2023. The number of decisions appealed increased from 6,000 in 2018 to 15,600 in 2023. Nearly all (98%) were decided in …

Government Response Summary

View Details →