Select committee: Education Committee
Conclusion 95
5th Report - Solving the SEND Crisis
Published 18 Sep 2025
Addressed to Department for Education
Education Committee Solving the SEND Crisis All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
To plan effectively for future capacity and ensure the right support is in place, the Department must take a data driven approach, developing a more robust understanding of need by systematically gathering and analysing relevant, high-quality data. This should include a national SEND data strategy that requires local authorities and education settings to collect and report standardised, high-quality data on levels of need, current provision, capacity, and projected demand. This would require clear definitions and metrics for identifying and categorising SEND across mainstream and specialist settings and mandatory annual data submissions aligned with school and local authority planning cycles. (Recommendation, Paragraph 322) 176
From: Education Committee, 5th Report - Solving the SEND Crisis (HC 492), 18 September 2025
Government response
1st Special Report – Solving the SEND crisis: Government Response
The government responded to the whole report on 17 June 2026 (deadline 18 November 2025).
7th Special Report - Solving the SEND Crisis: Government Response
Published 11 December 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government describes its response as "deliberately high-level", says it will "carefully consider" the Committee's recommendations, and says further detail on SEND reform will come in the Schools White Paper "early in the new year".
- On redress, it says it "agree[s] with the Committee" that local authorities and education settings should prioritise good partnership working with families, and retains the SEND Tribunal as an "important legal backstop".
- On the Tribunal's non-binding decisions on health and social care appeals, it says it will "give full consideration" to the Committee's recommendations.
- On workforce, it commits to a "full review" of the delivery of the Early Career Teacher Entitlement, including the ITTECF content, in 2027.
- On funding, it says it will extend the Statutory Override "until the end of 2027–28" and will set out further details on support for local authorities with deficits through the upcoming Local Government Finance Settlement.