Government warned of 'critical' risks to SEND reforms

The government has been warned of “critical” risks in its flagship special educational needs and disabilities reforms in documents obtained by Tes.

Ministers set out plans earlier this year to reform the SEND system by overhauling education, health and care plans (EHCPs), launching new national inclusion standards for schools and creating a bank of experts to support teachers.

But local councils tasked with managing much of the new support system have flagged a series of hurdles and risks.

These include the danger that reforms are undermined by a lack of expert specialist staff, teacher burnout, a spike in demand for statutory support and families viewing the plans as cost-cutting measures.

The warnings come in the first SEND reform plans to be published by councils, setting out how they aim to turn the Department for Education’s aspirations for a more inclusive system into reality.

While many councils are yet to formally publish their plans, Tes has obtained around a dozen draft plans that have been submitted to the DfE for approval.

Concerns over experts at hand plan

A key area of concern centres on the government’s £1.8 billion experts at hand plan, in which schools will receive support from external specialists, such as education psychologists (EPs), speech and language therapists (SaLTs) and occupational therapists (OTs).

Councils, tasked with hiring these additional staff, repeatedly highlight recruitment difficulties in the plans seen by Tes.

Hertfordshire County Council, for example, describes the “absence of a national workforce strategy” as a “critical risk”.

It intends to source “alternatively qualified and support roles” while the specialist pipeline grows.

But a potential “inability to recruit sufficient new and additional specialist staff” could be compounded by existing staff within the current SEND system applying for experts at hand roles, creating workforce shortages in other parts of the system, Hertfordshire council warns.

Local authorities were asked to rate each risk as either red, amber or green (RAG). Hertfordshire council rates experts at hand workforce shortages as amber/red.

Lack of experts is a ‘crisis-level’ risk

Other councils raised similar concerns, including Staffordshire County Council, Cheshire West and Chester Council, and Hackney Council.

Staffordshire’s report warns that recruitment challenges are being exacerbated by the way experts at hand funding has only been committed at local authority level for one year.

Phil Haslett, interim chair of the f40 group of local councils, told Tes this had left councils having to make risky decisions.

He said: “Councils only have visibility of funding for the first financial year, and that makes financial planning incredibly difficult.

“If we want to put specialists in schools to support children’s needs, we must have an assurance that the funding will be there longer-term.”

Cheshire West and Chester’s report warns that failure to recruit EPs, SaLTs and OTs is a “crisis-level” risk, and rates it as “very likely”.

Fear of parental backlash

The government’s SEND reforms aim to improve mainstream schools’ capacity to meet the needs of pupils with SEND through their universal offer, as well as via a new tiered support system.

The three tiers of support are “targeted”, “targeted plus” and “specialist”. The DfE has also said it wants every secondary school to have an inclusion base.

The reforms aim to cut demand for EHCPs by ensuring more pupils have their needs met without one.

However, councils warn that demand for EHCPs and pressure on spending could continue to rise.

Cambridgeshire County Council describes a potential backlash from parents to the plan as “a cultural resistance risk”.

It adds: “In areas with historically high EHCP reliance, schools and parents may resist a stronger universal/targeted model, perceiving it as dilution of entitlement.”

EHCPs may ‘spike’ during transition

Under the new system, every pupil with SEND will have an individual support plan (ISP), but only those on the specialist tier of support will have an EHCP.

The DfE predicts that the proportion of pupils with an EHCP will continue to rise initially - from 5.3 per cent in 2024-25 to 7.7 per cent in 2029-30 - before dropping to 4.7 per cent by 2034-35.

Cambridgeshire warns that if ISPs are “not seen as robust or legally secure, parental confidence may drop and EHCP demand may spike during transition” to the new system from 2029-30. This could leave the council facing “increased tribunal activity and reputational challenge”.

The council adds that if reforms are perceived locally as cost containment rather than inclusion enhancement, the council may face organised parental opposition. It describes this as a critical risk with a red/amber RAG rating.

The timeframes for producing new EHCPs could also “limit the depth of meaningful co-production”, according to Hackney Council, which it says could lead to parents seeing the changes as a “fiscal cost-cutting exercise rather than a quality-led reform”.

The SEND reform plans were due to be submitted by June. If approved, councils will have 90 per cent of their council SEND spending debts cleared, the government has pledged. Total deficits are estimated to be more than £4 billion.

In contrast, councils deemed to be failing to deliver on SEND could have control of services taken from them by central government, as Tes revealed earlier this year.

Inclusion fund ‘insufficient’

As part of the national reforms, the government has also created an Inclusive Mainstream Fund to spend on areas such as teacher training and small group interventions.

However, concerns have been raised over how far the fund will stretch.

Hackney Council warns that “perceived insufficiencies” in this funding mean schools could continue to pursue what it describes as an “EHCP-first funding habit”.

The local authority also warns that there is a risk that the support being provided through the new “targeted plus” category will fail to keep pace with escalating demand, “leading to a continued reliance on high-cost independent placements”.

Fears of Sendco ‘overwhelm’

Hackney Council also raises concerns about the impact of experts at hand guidance, published in June, being “delayed”.

This, coupled with ISPs and the creation of heightened inclusion standards, could leave mainstream Sendcos and teachers “overwhelmed and without sufficient specialised support”, it says.

There are already concerns, reported by Tes, that existing Sendco workload is leading to “burnout”.

Significant burnout among school staff could lead to a failure to embed inclusive classroom practices, Hackney Council warns, adding that this would result in increased requests for EHCPs and an erosion of trust with mainstream partners, and between schools and families. It describes this “critical” risk as possible.

A Department for Education spokesperson highlighted its “once-in-a-generation reforms”, saying it is “working alongside local government to make sure every child gets the right support, early on, without a fight”.

They added: “Our plans are rightly ambitious, which is why we are backing them with £4 billion over the next three years, including £200 million to support local authorities build the capacity they need for transformation.

“We have received thousands of responses to our consultation and will continue to work closely with local authorities and integrated care boards across the country to make sure everyone has confidence in the system we’re building.”