Ministers’ controversial plans to overhaul SEND in schools are on course for failure without “significant” extra funding, an education leader from a scheme that inspired the rethink is warning.
Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, wants to see more units for pupils with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) in mainstream schools, in a shift away from special schools, under plans due to be unveiled this autumn.
She has singled out and praised a SEND unit in Becontree Primary School, Dagenham, east London, as an exemplar of what she thinks “can be done”.
But Martin Nicholson, the Barking and Dagenham Council official who Phillipson’s Department for Education approached after reading his report on the authority’s SEND units strategy, is now warning that she is not providing enough funding to replicate the idea.
He said that “enormous investment” was needed to “set up a system in our schools where those children with quite complex SEND needs are going to be supported in their local mainstream school”.
The country’s largest heads’ association has told The i Paper it has similar concerns.
Their comments are another blow to the Government’s SEND reforms, which MPs are warning they could rebel against, and that teachers oppose, according to polling earlier this month.
The DfE pointed to Becontree Primary, and Barking and Dagenham’s SEND reforms in March when it announced £740m in SEND capital funding, partly to create similar units in other mainstream schools across the country – creating a central plank of the new SEND system.
But Nicholson, who oversees SEND in Barking and Dagenham, says that both the DfE funding for setting up the specialist provision, and for the running costs, is insufficient for a national expansion.
He told The i Paper that he welcomed the £740m but warned “it’s never going to be enough” to create SEND units in mainstream schools across the country.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson speak with children at Perry Hall Primary school in Orpington (Photo: Richard Pohle/WPA Pool/Getty Images)Rob Williams, National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) senior policy advisor, also said more money was needed.
“I would like to think that that is a starting amount,” he said. “This is not a one-time investment. This is something they’re going to have to invest in over a longer period.”
Running costs of new units ‘overlooked’
Nicholson, Barking and Dagenham’s virtual headteacher for SEND, said the annual running costs of new SEND units had been “overlooked” by the Government. He acknowledged the national £1 billion increase in high-needs SEND funding for 2025/26, but said it was not enough.
“Once those provisions are set up, there needs to be a consideration around funding for the ongoing management running of those provisions, because they don’t come cheap with staffing levels and equipment and all those things associated with those spaces,” Nicholson said. “The management and the day-to-day running come at a very high cost.”
Barking and Dagenham currently has 33 SEND units within mainstream primary and secondary schools, up from 14 in 2014. The DfE has praised the council’s plan, saying it has “improved outcomes for young people and kept them educated locally with their peers and in their communities”.
But Nicholson said it was still not enough, with every unit full and “substantive” waiting lists building up due to a sharp rise in those needing support. As a result, school budgets were being pushed into the red.
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His authority needs to expand provision at “quite a rate”, he said, and the DfE says it is getting £4.2 million of the £740m package. But Nicholson warned that further expansion “comes at a cost” and schools that could not afford more specialist SEND places were having to set up “unofficial intervention spaces”.
“It’s impossible to set up these provisions to appropriately meet the needs of children with complex SEND needs without there being an additional cost on one hand to the high needs block, and to school budgets,” he said.
“It’s having an impact on schools being able to sustain a surplus budget, and some of our primaries are going into deficit now, partly due to that level of need.”
Williams, from NAHT, warned that local authorities already have so much debt from SEND spending that much of the additional £1 billion high-needs funding might not reach schools.
“Our concern is that additional funding never makes its way into schools, because it’s having to be used to plug the big hole that currently exists in high needs funding deficits,” he said.
A DfE spokesperson said: “This government inherited a SEND system on its knees, which is why we are listening closely to families and teachers as we work to make sure more children can achieve and thrive in their local school.
“Through our Plan for Change we’re already making progress, including investing £740 million to create 10,000 new specialist school places, earlier intervention for children with speech and language needs and a further £3.7bn into schools’ budgets to ensure all children receive the additional support they need at the right stage.
“But we know there is much more to do, and with our focus on improving support, we will set out our plans to ensure all children get the outcomes and life chances they deserve later this year.”
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