Why is there a crisis in special educational needs?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There’s huge pressure on special educational needs and disabilities, known as SEND. The number of children and young people who need extra support has rocketed as more and more are diagnosed with autism, adhd and other mental health conditions. It’s led to a funding crisis which is putting a strain on council budgets which pay for the extra help. But it isn't just a financial issue - parents say they are struggling to access the right support for their children. So what’s gone wrong and what can be done about it?
Guests: Branwen Jeffreys, BBC Education Editor WIll Farr, Cambridge University Faculty of Education Tony Travers, Associate Dean LSE School of Public Policy Luke Sibieta, Institute for Fiscal Studies David Thomas, Former Head Teacher and CEO Axiom Maths
Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Beth Ashmead Latham, Kirsteen Knight and Caroline Bayley Sound Engineer: Rod Farquhar Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.1 | Among the several intense upward pressures on public spending that the Chancellor is faced with in her forthcoming spring statement, |
| 0:16.2 | one of the most difficult is the huge recent increase in spending on send special educational needs and |
| 0:23.0 | disabilities. Ultimately, the bill ends up with local councils and becomes a headache |
| 0:28.9 | for the government as debts mount. But this isn't just a financial issue. Parents say |
| 0:35.1 | they're struggling to access the support that their children need. |
| 0:38.3 | So what has led to this explosion in demand for special needs help? |
| 0:43.3 | How can we afford it and how can we better help the children? |
| 0:47.3 | Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 0:59.0 | First I want to define some terms and find out how the system works. |
| 1:02.7 | I'm joined by Branwyn Jeffries, the BBC's education editor. |
| 1:08.6 | Bramwin Jeffries, can you just tell us first what special educational needs means? |
| 1:09.8 | What does it refer to? What it means is any child or young person |
| 1:14.3 | who in order to access their education and to progress at a level that fits with their |
| 1:22.0 | potential needs additional support in the school or college that they're attending. |
| 1:29.1 | And so it applies to anybody of whom this could be said that they would bear, |
| 1:33.1 | that they cannot attain their potential unless they are given this additional support. |
| 1:38.2 | That's correct. There are different levels to this. |
| 1:40.8 | So there is a level which is a child or young person who's identified as having a special |
| 1:46.9 | educational need. That's around 18% of the school population in England. Then within that, |
| 1:54.8 | you have children who access some support within the school or college. And then the smallest but fastest growing a potentially subset |
| 2:05.1 | is children who have an education, health and care plan. |
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