SEN improvements ‘could see tens of thousands more disabled children educated in mainstream schools’

Tens of thousands more disabled children could have their needs met in a mainstream setting rather than a special school, if there were major improvements to the special educational needs (SEN) system, a report published by the government has found.

The report, commissioned under the last government, summarises the first phase of the Delivering Better Value in SEND programme, which aims to find ways to improve “outcomes” for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across 54 local authorities.

Each of the 54 councils received a £1 million grant to support their work.

The stories of more than 1,650 children and young people with SEND were analysed, leading to the conclusion that if the system was improved, 65 per cent of those children and young people could have had their needs met in a more effective way.

Such an improvement could lead to 35,000 more children having their needs met in a mainstream setting rather than a specialist placement, the report says.

The report concludes that the proportion of children and young people with SEND in mainstream schools would ideally increase from 42.3 per cent to 49.9 per cent, with those in resourced provision* and SEN units attached to mainstream schools increasing from 2.3 per cent to 12.9 per cent, and those in special schools falling from 37.9 per cent to 21.8 per cent.

The research also highlights 17 ways in which changes to the local education system had the biggest impact on outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

Nearly all of them related to improvements made by mainstream schools.

These included providing teaching assistants; adapting the curriculum; other children being inclusive of disabled children; disabled children being able to access after school clubs; making secondary schools a more welcoming environment for disabled children; and improving training for mainstream school staff in how to support disabled children.

The research was published as a National Audit Office (NAO) report concluded that, if left unreformed, the SEN system was “financially unsustainable”.

The NAO report also found that, since 2014, the Department for Education (DfE) has been aiming for mainstream schools to be more inclusive, but there was “limited evidence of progress”.

DfE said earlier this year that just 69 per cent of primary school and 73 per cent of secondary school leaders were confident that their schools could effectively support pupils with SEN.

NAO said DfE had increased high-needs funding, with a 58 per cent real terms increase between 2014-15 and 2024-25 to £10.7 billion, but “the system is still not delivering better outcomes for children and young people or preventing local authorities from facing significant financial risks”.

The Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE), which submitted evidence to the NAO study, welcomed the report, and said it did not “shy away from the broken state of the SEN system and the urgent need for change”.

Michelle Daley (pictured), ALLFIE’s director, said DfE must take “concrete action to build public confidence in a system that truly serves all children and young people”, including those in under-resourced areas and for families of disabled children from marginalised communities.

And she said this action must include “phasing out funding for segregated provisions and establishing clear, sustainable, and long-term goals for inclusive education in mainstream settings”.

Dr Edmore Masendeke, ALLFIE’s policy and research lead, said the NAO report showed how government polices “continue to favour segregated provisions over inclusive education in mainstream settings” and highlighted how DfE had failed to make a “clear commitment” to define “inclusive education” or to set “specific, measurable outcomes for mainstream settings to support disabled pupils effectively”.

He said the NAO report suggested that DfE wanted to develop more segregated units attached to mainstream schools, which ALLFIE strongly opposed because it would perpetuate disablism and discrimination.

Daley said the NAO report highlighted a “troubling narrative” that blamed disabled children and young people for high spending on SEN and lowering school performance “rather than addressing the systemic inequities within the education system”.

She said this “scapegoating” diverted attention from the systemic failings within the SEN system, and the disablism in the assessment systems that hindered disabled pupils’ academic progress.

Despite the NAO report, Catherine McKinnell, the minister for school standards, said the Delivering Better Value in SEND research was “light at the end of the tunnel”.

She told MPs that it suggested that if the SEND system was “extensively improved through early intervention and better resourcing in mainstream schools”, it would mean tens of thousands fewer education, health and care plans would be needed, and tens of thousands more children would be educated in mainstream settings rather than special schools.

She said: “That can pave the way for a sustainable system in which schools cater for all children, and special schools cater only for those with the most complex needs.”

She said government measures to improve the system would include strengthening how schools are held to account over inclusion; improving SEND training for early years staff “to ensure that children’s needs can be identified at the earliest point”; a review of the curriculum and assessments; and changes to Ofsted inspections.

McKinnell told MPs that the current system had “totally lost the confidence of families” and that families and disabled children were “being failed on every measure”.

Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, said the NAO report had confirmed that the SEND system was “in crisis and on the brink”.

She said: “The last Conservative government’s abject failure to tackle the systemic problems facing SEND provision has been laid bare for all to see.”

Wilson said MPs had been “inundated with casework from concerned and often desperate parents who just want to know that their children will receive the support they need without waiting for months or years”.

*Resourced provision is where a disabled child has a place at a mainstream school, but also has some support from specialist services based at the school

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