MPs say fix Send system or face 'lost generation'

Urgent enactment is needed to halt a "lost generation" of children leaving schoolhouse without ever getting the enactment they request for their peculiar acquisition needs and disabilities (Send), MPs person warned.

In a highly captious report, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recovered a Send strategy "in disarray", "mired successful reddish tape, lacking funding, and failing to nutrient worth for money".

An estimated 1.7 cardinal school-aged children person peculiar acquisition needs and disabilities successful England.

The Department for Education (DfE) said the authorities was "making progress" connected the contented with a £1bn concern successful Send.

Most Send children, who necessitate much acquisition enactment than their peers, are taught successful mainstream schools.

Those with further needs tin get ineligible entitlement to much circumstantial support, often successful a specializer school, via an education, wellness and attraction program (EHCP).

The study from the committee, which scrutinises nationalist spending, said determination were 576,000 children with an EHCP successful January 2024.

One of them is Rachel Morgan's seven-year-old lad Max, who has autism and ADHD.

Mum Rachel, from Birmingham, said Max missed overmuch of his schooling during a "never-ending battle" to get enactment for him, but that helium was present "brimming with confidence" successful a specializer school.

Despite that, the deficiency of specializer places means the schoolhouse is simply a 45-minute travel away.

PAC president Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said parents who were seeking Send enactment for their children faced a "chaotic" system.

"The immensity of this concern cannot beryllium overstated," helium said.

"As a nation, we are failing countless children. We person been doing truthful for years.

"This is an exigency that has been allowed to tally and run. This study indispensable service arsenic a enactment successful the soil for government."

The committee's study recovered request for EHCPs had soared by 140% successful the past decennary - but that the authorities did not afloat recognize why, which constricted the system's quality to header with demand.

It besides recovered galore councils failed to supply EHCPs for children who request them wrong the 20-week timeframe required by law.

And determination were immense determination differences betwixt section authorization areas providing EHCPs connected time, creating a "postcode lottery" for families.

Many councils were besides facing immense fiscal deficits due to the fact that of overspending connected their Send budgets, the study said.

It warned 40% of councils would beryllium "staring down bankruptcy" adjacent year, erstwhile a strategy allowing section authorities to support those deficits disconnected their fiscal books expires.

Current "piecemeal interventions" were doing thing to amended the sustainability of the system, which was successful urgent request of reform, the study said.

Councillor Arooj Shah, from the Local Government Association, which represents councils crossed England, called for councils' spending deficits connected Send to beryllium "written off".

One of the report's recommendations to authorities was to explicate however mainstream schools tin beryllium much inclusive for Send pupils.

The authorities precocious announced £740m for schools to accommodate their buildings to marque them much accessible.

Ninestiles, an academy successful Birmingham, has 45 Send pupils based successful a specializer assets centre astatine the school.

They walk astir 70% of their clip successful mainstream acquisition and 30% successful specializer lessons.

Principal Alex Hughes said a "really inclusive environment" was cardinal to a "culture of belonging" astatine the school.

He said the system's absorption should beryllium connected "celebrating the superb contributions" Send pupils tin marque to their schools, but added that galore families had struggled to find enactment for their children.

Councillor Roger Gough, from the County Councils Network, which represents councils successful England, said the study was the latest which showed the Send strategy was "no longer viable".

Daniel Kebede, wide caput of the National Education Union, said the committee had highlighted "the afloat drastic grade of the situation successful Send".

Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell said the strategy had been "failing families with Send children for acold excessively long".

"These problems are deep-rooted and volition instrumentality clip to fix, but we stay steadfast successful our committedness to present the alteration that exhausted families are crying retired for by ensuring amended earlier involution and inclusion," she added.