Ask any parent today and they will say that their child's education sits at the top of their priorities. Ask any MP today and they will say that the SEND system and its failures sits at the top of their inboxes.
As staff of Labour MPs we know this all too well. Whether it is parents getting in touch about an overly complex legal process, or the fact that since 2023 just half of all EHCP's were issued in the 20-week time limit, 14 years of Conservative austerity has ravaged the SEND system bare.
In a place like Kent, where Reform now control the County Council, they have proven to be completely useless when it comes to delivering a SEND system that is inclusive and efficient.
There are some heartbreaking stories in Kent, of children being sent to schools that cannot provide adequate SEND support, of children missing up to a year of schooling, and some children becoming suicidal because they are not accessing the support they need.
The failure to provide sufficient SEND support - not just in volume but also in the quality of support delivered - is a national disgrace. The Government must act urgently and with a sense of vision, to change the system.
The Government deserves some recognition for its early efforts to improve the SEND system. It is good that, as part of a £740 million capital investment in education, more places are being created in SEND schools. It is good that there will be specialist SEND support in the Best Start Hubs we are rolling out. It is good that Ofsted now downgrades any school that excludes or off-rolls SEND students. And it is right that the Government is investing millions of pounds into inclusion of neurodiversity training in schools and early language support for every child.
But parents need more than this.
The publication of the Schools White Paper has been delayed until 2026, leaving parents, schools and children in a state of uncertainty. One would hope that, unlike the proposed welfare reforms this summer, which were devoid of consultation and rightly opposed by a significant proportion of the PLP, we get a White Paper that is clear, comprehensive and visionary.
So, what should the White Paper include?
There must be a clear SEND staff recruitment and retention strategy, in the same way that we have an NHS Workforce Plan. We should end the Safety Valve Programme, which incentivises local authorities to prioritise cost cutting over delivering best in class SEND services. In a place like Kent, this has meant that EHCPs have become harder to obtain and children have ended up at schools that do not meet their needs. We must replace this programme with a ringfenced SEND budget, in the same way that we previously ring-fenced international aid spending. We must accept that Nordic-quality public services cannot be afforded by American-style taxes and be prepared to use the tax system to expand SEND support.
There should also be, in every primary school, an early neurodiversity screening process, so we can ensure that precise, timely support can be given to those children who need it.
What is going on in Portsmouth is incredibly insightful. Students with behavioural and learning difficulties are no longer automatically referred to the NHS for a medical diagnosis. Instead, trained school staff collaborate with parents to draw up the child’s neurodiversity profile, enabling teachers and parents to identify how best to support and empower the child. Only if this educational-based intervention does not work, are medical professionals engaged with. We need to see this approach adopted across the country.
Like the prison and probation system, the SEND system has been carelessly neglected by the Conservatives. Reform now wants to direct the blame at the 'waste and abuse' of parents. But this Labour Government has an incredible opportunity to fund the SEND system properly and to bring the innovation and imagination that the system so desperately needs.
If we do not get this right, we will have let down another generation of children and parents.
---
Daniel Harrison is Chief of Staff to Tony Vaughan KC MP, the Labour MP for Folkestone and Hythe in Kent. Daniel studied History and Politics at the University of Oxford and his policy interests focus on education, migration and asylum, U.K. industrial strategy and U.K. foreign policy, especially towards China and the Indo Pacific.
All blog posts represent the views of the author alone and not necessarily those of Mainstream.
