The figures have sparked renewed calls for proper investment in the SEND system as schools face having to support increasing numbers of students with complex needs.
The latest figures (DfE, 2024) show that the number of EHCPs as of January 2024 stands at 575,963 – which is up by 58,914 (or 11%) in the last year.
They show that there were 84,428 new EHCPs which came into effect during 2023 – up by 17,722 (27%) on 2022.
Furthermore, in 2023 there was a 21% rise in requests for EHCP assessments – up from 114,482 in 2022 to 138,242 last year.
However, the system has been plagued by funding difficulties ever since the 2014 SEND reforms came into effect.
So much so that the National Association of Head Teachers recently named SEND as one of its three major crises in education that the next government must address.
The NAHT says that the failure to properly fund the 2014 SEND reforms has left “a broken system” where local authorities face high needs budget deficits, schools cannot access the support they need for pupils, and parents are turning increasingly to tribunals to get access to support for their children. The fact that 96% of SEND tribunals are being won by parents perhaps says it all.
The Department for Education (DfE) has increased high needs funding by £440m in 2024/25 to a total of £10.5bn, which is an increase of 60% since 2019/20.
However, demand is outstripping supply. The huge increases have thrown many councils into funding turmoil. Earlier this year the Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities Select Committee warned that high needs budget deficits across local authorities in England stand at £2.3bn and are set to rise to £3.6bn by March 2025.
The F40 group of local authorities, meanwhile, has estimated that an additional £4.6bn in funding will be required each year to meet the current demand for SEND support.
The issues in the system are perhaps best illustrated by the significant delays in getting EHCP assessments. EHCP requests are meant to be assessed within 20 weeks, but in 2023 only 50% were completed within this timeframe – although this is a slight improvement on 49% in 2022.
Increasing demand: Taken from the official Department for Education statistics, these graphs show (from top) the increasing number of EHCPs among all students; the sharp rise in new EHCPs coming into effect during 2023; and the increasing number of EHCP requests being made (source: DfE, 2024)
Commenting this week, Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the failure by government to match rising demand with “appropriate investment” has “brought the whole SEND system to the brink of collapse”.
He said many schools were unable to afford the costs of SEND provision, while there is also a lack of places available in special schools alongside huge high needs deficits within local authorities.
He continued: “The next government must – as a matter of urgency – ensure that funding matches need. In the longer term, policy-makers must put a much greater emphasis on supporting specialist early intervention as this is the key to getting help to these children at a stage in their lives where the challenges they face can be addressed without them escalating to the point of requiring EHCPs. This is better for children and families and it is better for the sustainability of the SEND system.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary at the NAHT, added: “Many families are still waiting too long for the assessments and provision that they need. A decade of cuts and under-investment has meant that there just isn’t the provision available for children.
"Special schools get £10,000 funding per-pupil. But this figure has not increased since it was introduced in 2013 – an estimated real-terms cut of £1.3bn. If it had kept pace with inflation, schools should be receiving an additional £3,548 a year for each pupil.
“The lack of resource has knock-on effects throughout the school as budgets are pooled from elsewhere, and leaders and teachers are caught up in lengthy tribunals because there simply aren’t the spaces for children.
“The current system is simply not sustainable. There are no quick fixes – and we urge whoever wins the election to write off high-needs budget deficits and carry out a proper ‘needs analysis’ so that it can be determined what sufficient funding for both mainstream and high-needs SEND looks like, rather than the current sticking plaster approach.
“There must also be a fundamental review of place-planning, sufficiency of specialist places and admissions to ensure that pupils with SEND are able to attend the school that best meets their long-term needs.”
Sarah White, head of policy at the disability charity Sense, said: “It’s dismal that almost half of children and their families are waiting longer than 20 weeks to receive the EHCPs they so desperately need. We also know many children are not getting the support they require even when they have a plan in place.
“We need to see local authorities held fully accountable for long EHCP waiting times, alongside a long-term funding plan for SEND. We also need the system to be simplified for parents struggling to navigate it, so they have a single point of contact to speak to about their child’s SEND or social care needs.”
- DfE: Reporting year 2024: Education, health and care plans, 2024: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans/2024