Parents and teachers left ‘overwhelmed’ by the failing SEN system in England’s schools, reports University of Portsmouth journalism student Ivana Domozetska.
‘I will do everything and anything for my daughter to get the support she is entitled to.’ Rasa’s daughter, Aliana 7, is on the autism spectrum and has special educational needs (SEN); she is one of the 1.6 million children in England with a diagnosis. But parents like Rasa are facing more and more difficulties because of the SEN crisis.
A report from the National Audit, the public spending watchdog, revealed that funding for special needs is at the highest it’s ever been, almost £11 billion, but the ‘system is still not delivering better outcomes for children.’
Between 2023 and 2024 the number of children diagnosed with SEN increased by 100,000. ‘The main problems are there are just not enough staff, and staff that are trained to handle the children,’ explained Dimitar, 25, who has been working in the additional resource provision (ARP) for four years.
This issue has been prevalent since 2019 and there have been no signs of improvement, on the report by the National Audit Office (NAO). ‘This has left staff overwhelmed and children missing out on education,’ said Dimitar.
An Ofsted report found that there have been ‘widespread systemic failings leading to significant concerns about outcomes’ for those with SEN.
Rasa said she used to be ‘worried sick’ about sending her daughter to school because Aliana had speech difficulties and couldn’t communicate her problems to others. ‘You hear a lot of things about the school just shutting the kids in those [sensory] rooms.’
In Aliana’s previous primary school, the teachers would send her home after three hours every day because they didn’t know how to handle her. Rasa explained she saw no progress in her daughter, because the teachers weren’t trying to understand her behaviour.
‘This child is special, if you can’t do your job properly why does the child have to suffer, all children are entitled to the right support because they are members of society,’ said Rasa.
Dimitar echoed Rasa’s concerns, he explained the special needs children only are supposed to spend half of their time in the ARP and the other half in a mainstream class. But this is challenging because the mainstream teachers are not trained to manage the SEN children. ‘Children are called a danger by staff, who don’t understand so then they don’t attend mainstream classes,’ said Dimitar.
‘Teachers don’t care to put the effort in to understand because they’re already dealing with 30 other kids,’ said Dimitar. This leads to special needs children being excluded from mainstream classes sand missing out on socialisation. ‘It’s not about inclusivity, it’s about equity.
Aliana’s life changed after she was given an education and health care (EHC) plan by a professional that provides step by step treatment for special needs children in and out of school. Rasa said: ‘that little paper made life easier.’
In the past ten years, the demand for an EHC plan has increased by 140%. Parents across the UK face lengthy waiting lists and bureaucratic hurdles to obtain a plan and the average wait for can be up to two years.
‘[The EHC plan] is always changing and it’s great because it can get Aliana the support she needs,’ Rasa explained. However, Rasa claims at least half of the other children in her daughter’s class don’t have a plan. ‘Most plans aren’t met but it’s not because of the teachers but because of management; teachers need better resources. Most children need one to one and there are not enough staff.’
Through her plan, Aliana gets help with her reading, writing and speech in the ARP. Once every two weeks a speech therapist will do group therapy with Aliana. Rasa thinks ‘it’s not enough at all’ but her school can’t afford any more sessions.
While Rasa believes that her daughter is happy in her school now, in the future, the “education will not improve but only get worse,” she says.
‘I really hope it gets better because this is our future. It doesn’t matter if Aliana is a shopkeeper or be President; to me what matters is that she can manage her day-to-day life and be independent.’
Dimitar, like Rasa and countless teachers and parents, believes that the management of SEN pupils needs to improve. Authorities need to listen to teachers about what is best for the school and the children. He said: ‘the school and local authority don’t always make the best decisions. Lots of times we hear we will get funding for things, but we don’t see changes.’
Councils are also urgently calling for reforms to be made so that local authorities and schools have a more efficient working contractual relationship.
The high needs sector has been eating away local councils’ budgets and has been named “financially unsustainable” by the local government association. As of 2024, councils have a collective pit in the budget of £2.6 billion and almost half of all local authorities had overspent their budget for high needs.
