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Supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in England will cost the government an extra \u00a33bn a year by 2029 if the system is not reformed, a think tank has warned.<\/p>\n
The government is already spending \u00a312bn this year on supporting those with Send, a figure that has risen by 66% in the last decade.<\/p>\n
Under current projections, there will also be an extra 220,000 children and young people with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) by 2029, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says.<\/p>\n
The government is expected to publish its plans on how it will reform the Send system in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A rise in the number children receiving Send support in schools has driven what the IFS calls a “dramatic and ongoing” increase in spending.<\/p>\n
“The truly shocking thing is that despite this increase in spending, we are still left with a system that is failing to cope with the needs of these children and young people,” Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said.<\/p>\n
One in five pupils<\/a> (1.7 million) in England get some kind of support for special educational needs in school at the moment. <\/p>\n And 482,000 of them (or 5.3% of all pupils) get the higher level of support from individual EHCPs, a legal document setting out a child’s tailored support needs, which councils have to provide and pay for. <\/p>\n The rising costs of Send support have forced local authorities into hundreds of millions of pounds of debt<\/a>.<\/p>\n A government agreement meant councils have been able to keep Send deficits off their financial books, and now there are calls for the total debt – which is forecast to reach \u00a35bn next year – to be wiped completely.<\/p>\n Amanda Hopgood, of the Local Government Association, says that would “put councils on a stable financial footing”, as well as addressing “outdated legislation that leaves councils facing rising and unsustainable costs”.<\/p>\n The IFS is predicting that the proportion of pupils with EHCPs will rise even further in the next four years, to 8% of all pupils aged four to 16. <\/p>\n In July, the government refused to rule out scrapping EHCPs<\/a> as part of their upcoming reforms.<\/p>\n Education minister Georgia Gould has since said “there will always be a legal right to additional support”, adding that children, families and teachers will be “at the forefront” of Send reforms.<\/p>\n Currently, the first \u00a36,000 of Send support comes from school budgets – but costs above that in mainstream schools, and the full costs of support in special schools, are covered by councils.<\/p>\n Educating children in special schools is significantly more expensive than in mainstream settings. The average cost<\/a> of funding one place at a state special school is \u00a323,900 per year, or \u00a361,500 per year for an independent special school.<\/p>\n