A survey of 873 school leaders working in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has also revealed that 94% of school leaders are finding it harder year-on-year to meet the needs of SEND pupils.
And 98% say they do not have enough resources to meet the needs of all the SEND pupils in their schools.
Concerningly, the snap poll found that 82% said there were SEND pupils in their school for whom specialist provision had been agreed in their Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), but they are currently being supported in mainstream classes because there are no available specialist places.
One headteacher told the researchers: “We are at crisis point with the level of need and what we can actually offer the children. We are not fulfilling EHCP provision as we do not have the resources.”
The poll has been carried out by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and was published during the union’s annual conference in Harrogate earlier this month.
A motion approved by delegates at the event called on the NAHT executive to lobby the government for better research into exactly how many children are currently being taught in mainstream schools but who actually require a place in a special school.
The motion read: “Both special and mainstream schools are over-stretched, resulting in over-subscription of special schools, and an increasing number of children whose needs would arguably be best met in a special school, instead of being taught in mainstream schools. The UK government needs to value and support inclusive practice for the majority while also considering efficiency and sufficiency of provision for the more complex minority.”
In January, a report from MPs on the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee warned that the SEND system in England is in “dissarray” and has become an effective postcode lottery.
The investigation found that many local authorities are facing effective bankruptcy because their spending on SEN has outstripped government high needs funding for years leading to “substantial deficits”.
It warns that families no longer have any confidence in a system where 98% of tribunals are awarded in favour of families of SEN children.
Many families in many areas are struggling to access SEN support, and there are huge delays to EHCPs.
EHCPs are supposed to be produced within a statutory 20-week period, but the MPs’ report said that local authorities issued anywhere from 1% to 100% of their EHCPs on time.
The new government has said it will act to reform the SEND system but has yet to publish any proposals. Meanwhile, schools are being left to pick up the pieces.
The NAHT poll, which was carried out in April, received a number of anonymous comments from the responding school leaders which sgtarkly illustrated the scale of the problems:
- “We’re a small school and we’re stretched to breaking point. The number of children coming in to nursery and reception with SEND issues has doubled over the last three years.”
- “Specialist places are increasingly difficult to get and support services are increasingly difficult to access. We want to include children in our setting and are honest about not being able to meet severe and complex needs, yet feel that we are regarded as trying to avoid inclusion.”
- “We are in a deficit budget position. We are supporting children with significant needs and don’t receive the funding we need to meet the children’s needs. The impact is that it is having a detrimental impact on the education of others in school.”
- “It is harder and harder to find external support for SEND pupils, that is timely and meaningful. Lots of professional agencies are full and have little to no capacity to support. Reports are becoming more and more generalised and the support is just not there for the majority.”
- “Funding for SEND is diabolical. The pressure waiting for or fighting for EHCPs, means either children are without the funding they require or schools are having to provide out of their own pocket.”
- “We are finding that children joining us in reception year who are in obvious need of an EHCP have not even had the process started at their nursery settings. This means the children have to ‘cope’ in mainstream settings while school begins the process. Staff have to manage extremely difficult and stressful situations in class without enough support or specialist help and resources while trying to meet the needs of all the other children too.”
Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: “The needs of many pupils are becoming more complex, and the funding and resources are simply not there to meet that growing need. Our members are telling us that it is one of the biggest issues in their schools – if not the biggest. There is no higher priority now in education than fixing the SEND crisis.
“Right now, too many schools have children who should be getting specialist support who are being let down by the lack of capacity and availability of places in the specialist sector. Schools are desperately trying to do their best for those pupils but without access to the specialist help they need their hands are tied.
“We also know that many special schools are struggling to meet the demand on them for places and are massively oversubscribed.
“We are not opposed to the government wanting mainstream schools to be inclusive, and school leaders take this duty really seriously. But they need more funding, resources and specialist staffing to be able to support their students appropriately and effectively.
“And this doesn’t remove the fact that there will also always be a need for special school places for pupils with the greatest needs. Capacity in both mainstream and specialist schools must match need.”