Unions must fight for fully funded schools and democratic control
Tessa, school support staff and Socialist Party member
At the centre of Labour government plans to restructure funding for education are proposed changes to provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Currently children with additional needs are assessed for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) which carry a legal entitlement to support alongside allocated funding. The White Paper going through parliament proposes moving to a tiered system of support with the introduction of Individual Support Plans (ISPs) as a level below EHCPs. This is nothing more than a sly moving of the goalposts to remove funding from those with the highest need. Children who would have qualified for EHCPs in the past, but won’t meet the new stricter criteria, will instead be pushed onto ISPs. This will leave parents and tribunals with no legal recourse to challenge inadequate provision, and mandatory key-stage reassessments could mean students losing their EHCP midway through school.
Anyone working in mainstream education today will tell you that we are in urgent need of more support in the classroom, not less! As austerity bites at home and in school, increasing the level need, and with diagnoses of Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD), autism and other developmental conditions increasing, there already exists a huge number of children in need of EHCPs but not getting them.
Limited places in specialised educational settings mean mainstream schools are becoming overwhelmed with additional needs and struggling to meet them. We typically don’t have the staff, training and resources to manage. These changes risk placing children in environments where they may fail and face exclusion from a lack of support.
Support staff like myself are the main source of support for SEND students and so EHCP funding is the pot our wages come from. With each academic year, as the funding from school leavers ends and that of the new intake begins, support staff are hired or fired, having to reinterview for their jobs if they are under two years in employment. The stress of this instability is high, with many support staff being mothers of young families trying to make work hours fit around looking after their own kids. If the reforms to SEND funding are passed it will only lead to increased job insecurity and anxiety for some of the lowest paid yet absolutely essential school staff.
On top of all this, the insufficient £4 billion assigned to the restructure comes from within the existing Department for Education budget and is destined to pay off school debts. Instead, debts should be written off and extra money used to fund services. What a disgusting sham this White Paper is, making vulnerable working-class children pay the price for austerity whilst funds are found to assist Trump in his deadly war in the Middle East.
Starmer’s Labour government, like the Tories before them, have neither children’s nor workers’ interests at heart. They have no intention of making the super-rich pay, they’ll just keep making us foot the bill, no matter the human cost. The National Education Union, which organises teaching and support staff, has launched an indicative ballot for strike action to save education. This needs to be the first step in a serious linked-up national campaign to oppose these attacks, demanding funding for education be based on the needs of students and not the other way around.
A parents’ view: ‘we need to fight to keep that special needs provision for all who need it’
We wanted to give a personal view on what getting an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) meant to our son. It changed his life.
He started part-time nursery at the age of three. It became quickly apparent that he was totally different outside of the home. It continued into full-time primary school. He became really withdrawn; he was anxious, he didn’t interact with anybody at all. We only noticed when picking him up, looking through the classroom window, he was sitting by himself when everybody else was off doing things. When teachers had the kids on the mat reading them a story or talking to them at the end of the day, he would be sitting with his fingers in his ears. He came home crying every day.
We did not know he had autism and associated sensory processing disorder. When we asked the teachers if there was a problem, they said no. He was quiet, not causing any trouble, but he was internalising his stress and anxiety. When class sizes are too big, inevitably teachers’ attention is diverted by the noisy and ‘trouble-making’ ones.
Over time, we realised he would really struggle in busy places because he didn’t like the noise, the amount of people, the bright lights.
It is totally wrong for anyone to think it is easy to get a diagnosis and an EHCP. In fact, it is now way worse than it was when we did it.
To get an assessment we had to get him to see three different specialists. After the diagnosis then we needed the EHCP, which involves meetings with representatives of the local authority and specialists to negotiate about what his needs were. Only then came the challenge of finding a suitable school providing the help that the EHCP brings by law. All of this can take years.
We talked to the school before that, and they tried to help but really did not have the resources. He did get some help, but not enough. Neither did they have the necessary training. For example, they were trying to get him to make eye contact with people, which was not comfortable for him.
His mum took him out of school, deciding to home educate. It started well and we were going out to different places with other home education people, even though he still wasn’t interacting. But then he started to withdraw from doing things like that again, and his anxiety levels started to peak. He just didn’t enjoy doing anything outside of the home.
It also got to the point where his mum couldn’t teach him anymore, and socialisation was non-existent, so decided that he had to get back into school.
Eventually we got the EHCP and then a place at a local council-run special school. Every person is different, and some are more suited to mainstream. And we know the current government focus is on mainstream rather than special schools, but this special school suited him down to the ground. It took about two years for him to settle into school and be confident and start learning to his own ability. Then during the last couple of years, he really got into it, took GCSEs and passed with flying colours! He is completely transformed from the young kid in his primary school days.
He went on to college and is going to a local university in September. He would not have had any of that without getting the EHCP. He would never have had the resources to manage his anxiety, the means to study and pass GCSEs, a ‘T’ level, and go on to university. He probably would have had a life of being housebound, without a job and reliant on benefits.
That’s why we need to fight to keep special needs provision for all who need it, and that’s why it needs the resources put into it.
SEND campaigner: Why I’m standing in the local elections for TUSC
Adeel Aurangzeb, Waltham Forest Socialist Party
As the 7 May local elections approach, the council race in Waltham Forest’s Markhouse ward has gained a passionate new voice. I am standing as the candidate for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), and have launched my campaign with a fierce commitment to champion the borough’s most vulnerable residents. My pledge is to reverse the severe impact of austerity on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services.
For me, the political landscape is deeply personal. I would describe my family as direct victims of the local council’s systemic negligence. My own son, who requires special educational support, has been left without a school placement for three years. This devastating firsthand experience has fuelled a drive for me to step into the political arena. TUSC has provided me an opportunity to stand up.
I am fighting for SEND children and adults in the borough who have been badly neglected due to cuts and austerity.
Beyond the urgent crisis in SEND provision, our TUSC campaign targets the broader economic pressures currently squeezing local families. We are drawing a hard line against the rising cost of living, pledging to stand up against any future increases in council tax and residential rents. Furthermore, we are campaigning to protect community assets, firmly opposing the handover of local housing developments to wealthy private builders.
Essential services should serve the public rather than corporate interests. We are making a stand strictly against privatisation of education and call for the immediate nationalisation of utility companies and railways.
I believe money should be invested for the welfare of the people, public funds should be redirected away from global conflicts and put back into community care.
As voters prepare to head to the polls on 7 May, I urge them to consider TUSC as an anti-austerity alternative, promising an uncompromising defence of working-class welfare and neglected families.
Join me in my fight – our fight. Fight against austerity, cuts, increasing rents and council tax and finish this two-party duopoly and also help to weaken right-wing hate-mongering opportunistic politics.
- Adeel is standing as the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate for the Markhouse ward, Waltham Forest council on 7 May
What councils could do now!
Councils have a role allocating school funding given by central government, including for SEND support. A 2025 report found 1,226 local authority-run schools are currently operating with a financial deficit. Disgracefully, some local authorities charge interest to these schools!
As part of a campaign to fight for the funding needing from central government, a willing council could instruct its schools to draw up budgets based on what is required to really meet the needs of their pupils, and give permission for budget deficits underwritten by council finances. Such a struggle would supplement the existing fight school workers are engaged in with the government over pay and funding. The National Education Union is currently carrying out an indicative ballot for strike action.
In council elections on 7 May, Socialist Party members will be standing as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, making the case for councillors to take that kind of fighting approach to help build the struggles against Starmer’s austerity.
Billions spent on private provision
Councils in England spent over £2 billion on private provision for children with SEN in 2024-25, an 88% increase from 2020-21. Profit-making companies are capitalising from a lack of investment in state schools, charging average annual fees per pupil in excess of £63,000 – more than double state school costs.
Together with a boost in funding for state schools to meet the needs of all pupils, private providers should be brought into public ownership under local authority control.
