Schools Are In A ‘Full-Blown Crisis’ As 99 Per Cent Of Headteachers Complain That Money For Special Needs Children Is Inadequate

Pupils with special educational needs are facing a ‘full-blown crisis’ due to funding cuts, headteachers have warned. 

In a survey of 1,000 school leaders, 99 percent said the funding they receive for such children is inadequate.

Many have been compelled to cut back on the number of teaching assistants or the number of hours they work, according to research by the education union NAHT.

This is despite TAs being vital for the care of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Nearly four in five—78 percent—said they needed to reduce spending on TAs in the last three years due to funding pressures.

Meanwhile, 84 percent anticipated they would be forced to do so in the next three years.

Certain school administrators expressed concerns to the union about their inability to maintain staff and student safety due to insufficient financing.

The union was also informed by school administrators of the extra strain schools face when trying to cover the gaps left by underfunded services, such as social and health care.

Ian Kendal, executive headteacher at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Multi Academy Trust in Essex, said the funding received for pupils with SEND is ‘not enough’.

He said, ‘There just isn’t capacity within special schools in our area, meaning we are supporting even more pupils with complex needs within our mainstream settings.

‘We believe in inclusion and are currently doing our best with the limited funds, but, put simply, it is not good enough for the children with the most complex needs—they deserve so much more than we can give them.’

On day two of the annual meeting of the NAHT in Newport, Wales, the findings were released.

General Secretary Paul Whiteman said all political parties should pledge the ‘system-wide investment’ needed to tackle the crisis head-on.

He added: ‘Schools face a perfect storm of growing demand to support more pupils with special educational needs at the same time as costs have increased massively and are still rising.

‘This is a full-blown crisis and bad news for children, families, schools and local authorities.’

A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘We are helping to ensure that all children have the chance to reach their potential by increasing funding for children and young people with complex needs to over £10.5 billion next year—up 60 per cent in the last five years.

‘We are also providing £2.6 billion to support the creation of places for children and young people with SEND, more than tripling the previous level of investment, so parents can be reassured that their child will receive the right support at the right time, close to home.

‘Combined with the special and AP (Alternative Provision) free schools’ programme, this is helping to increase capacity, creating over 60,000 specialist places across the country.’

The mistaken choice to eliminate special needs schools and transfer children with various issues to a “normal” school system, which could never provide the kind of services that a special needs school could, was the primary reason behind the reduction in the quality of education.

All students’ standards in the classroom have been decreased by integration.

There are around 30% SEND pupils in each class, and it might be challenging to satisfy the requirements of two to three of them. As a result, they fall behind because they are unable to access the information, which creates problems.

However, what’s more worrying is the lack of people referral units, so we have nowhere to send students who we should expel because they’re all being shut down, so you have 20–30 children on site who shouldn’t be there and their behaviour takes up 30 percent of everyone’s time. These issues mean that you can’t do much to help the remaining students. The system is broken.

However, bad behaviour isn’t always bad behaviour and is just a by-product of bad parenting or disability. Does this mean that we should just throw all these children onto the heap because there are not enough funds to help them? No, it does not!

The UK is supposed to be a civilised country, but apparently, we are far from it!