Support for pupils who have special needs is “beyond crisis” in England, according to the results of a survey by a head teachers’ union this week.
97% of the educators responding said they felt that they received insufficient funding to properly support pupils in their school who have special needs – and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) says that things have to change.
Funding for higher-level educational needs is set to rise during the 2022-2023 period by 9.6%, and the Department for Education has reported that it is set to provide an additional £42,000,000 in projects that directly apply targeted support to students with SEND (Special Educational needs and Disabilities). But in real terms, the National Association of Head teachers reports that based on a survey of 1,500 head teachers working in the UK today, their data suggests that over 30% of schools have had their services cut in the past year alone.
The BBC reports that some of the most distressing statistics when it comes to funding and the education system are related to SEND pupils. The current UK system requires schools to pay £6,000 a year from their own budget for each SEND pupil before they can receive any extra funding from their local authority, and it can be seen as creating a disincentive to identify students with SEND across the board. Speaking to BBC Education this morning, one headteacher from Cheshire commented that “The moment we get a child moving to us with recognised special needs, we are already in a deficit,” - which provides a stark and unpleasant insight into the real-terms budgets that many educational institutions are currently working with.
NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman commented on the rhetoric on extra investment in SEND, saying that despite the forthcoming injection of much-needed capital, school budgets were still under enormous financial pressure, and cited that “…a far more ambitious programme of investment is required from the government if schools are going to be able to deliver the education that the current generation of pupils need and deserve.”