Alex Sampson, Plymouth Socialist Party
The Tory-led County Councils Network (CCN) has released a damning report into the shambolic state of SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) services across England, warning that councils stand on the edge of an £18 billion black hole of debt and mass bankruptcies if the system is not reformed soon. This is despite £30 billion more that has been spent on SEND services over the last decade.
Currently SEND services don’t count as a part of the council budget that legally needs to be balanced (the so-called statutory override), a provision that was introduced in 2020 and has recently been extended until 2028. However, there is uncertainty about whether this override spending will eventually end up on councils’ budget books. This is making councils hesitant about spending more on vital SEND services, despite the number of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) for children reaching an all-time high this year and predicted to increase by another 32% by 2028. To try and keep pace with increased demand for special needs placements, councils are relying more and more on expensive private school places, which currently cost around £3.2 billion a year.
The complex needs of our children are increasing while the Westminster government continues to impose austerity measures and local councils make cuts to already overstretched services. The CCN warns that, without reform, the SEND system will collapse entirely. As a first step, they are calling for the wiping out of all debt relating to SEND spending before the end of the statutory override in 2028. Without this measure, more than half of local councils in England would be forced to effectively declare bankruptcy when the override ends.
More funding not cuts
The CCN also calls for a reduction in the use of EHCPs as a way to save councils more money, but this would just be yet another way that our most vulnerable children are abandoned by the system. Leaving children to struggle through a difficult and unsympathetic school system, which then leaves them with no hope of improving their future as adults, is not the answer. What is needed is more investment in SEND services: from initial diagnosis and rapid attainment of an appropriate care plan, to fully funded school places in council-run schools rather than a privatised system which makes profit from struggling children.
Councillors should set no-cuts, needs-based budgets and work to build a mass working-class movement to force the government to provide the resources for the services we need.
The resources exist to provide all children the education they deserve. Nationalising the commanding heights of the economy and taking the wealth out of the hands of the super-wealthy would more than provide what is needed to ensure that no child is left behind because helping them reach their potential is not profitable. We need socialist change or we doom tens of thousands of children to a life of hardship and struggle. Our children deserve better. Join the fight for a socialist future.
