Send reforms: government's battle over special educational needs

Fresh from embarrassing climbdowns on winter fuel payments and welfare reform, the government is bracing itself for another battle over plans to overhaul special needs education in England.

"If they thought taking money away from disabled adults was bad, watch what happens when they try the same with disabled kids," one Labour backbencher told The Times, summing up the mood in the party and among many parents.

What is special needs education?

Special educational needs and disabilities (Send) covers children and young people with physical, emotional and behavioural difficulties including dyslexia, autism, ADHD, communication and mobility issues.

Services are provided by councils, with roughly 630,000 of those with the highest needs supported by specialised education, health and care plans (EHCPs). Offering dedicated one-to-one assistance, specialist equipment, speech and language therapy, and even subsidised travel to and from school, these "provide some statutory certainty in a system that is overstretched and underfunded", said The Guardian.

Why does it need reforming?

There is widespread agreement among parents, councils and politicians that the current Send system is no longer fit for purpose. Complaints to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman have nearly tripled over the past five years, said Schools Week. Endemic assessment delays and funding and access issues are "symptomatic of a system that is in complete crisis", said Sharon Chappell, the assistant ombudsman.

Send support covers nearly two million young people, costing the Department for Education £10.7 billion a year, according to the National Audit Office. Critics point to a sharp rise in the number of young people diagnosed with ADHD and autism over the past decade, which has put an unsustainable strain on local education support services.

The strain on Send services has, counterintuitively, worked in favour of certain pupils who would ordinarily have been "barred" from mainstream education, but have instead been "folded into mainstream schools with success", said Cristina Odone in The Spectator.

What is the government proposing?

With a full reform package not expected to be made public until the autumn, "we don't yet have any firm details, and that is part of the problem", said The Guardian. Among MPs there is concern that talk of overhauling the system may, in reality, be just another cost-cutting exercise aimed at balancing the budget.

Ministers hope that by increasing the "number of places in Send units at mainstream schools", they can "eventually phase out the need for individual EHCPs over time" for all but "those with the most complex needs", said The i Paper. This has sounded alarm bells for parents and advocacy groups, who fear the withdrawal of vital support. Save Our Children’s Rights said "the idea that 'units' could somehow replace or supersede EHCPs and the rights they embody is worrying and wrong".

In an open letter to The Guardian signed by more than 100 special needs charities and campaigners, Save Our Children's Rights warned that without the statutory support provided by EHCPs, it is "extremely unlikely that ministers will achieve their aim of more children with Send thriving, or even surviving, in mainstream education".

And parents of children with Send "represent a not insignificant protest vote", said The Spectator. "The government angers them at its peril."