SEND – and its spiralling costs

The share of children receiving SEND support has nearly doubled in a decade, with spending set to reach £21 billion by 2029, according to an IFS report.

Some numbers from the report:

• One-in-twenty (5.2 per cent) pupils aged under 16 in England have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This share has almost doubled (from 2.7 per cent) over the last decade.

• One-in-fourteen (7.2 per cent) children receive child disability living allowance (CDLA), a cash benefit for children with disabilities, up from 3.4 per cent a decade ago. Among 15-year-olds, one-in-ten now receive CDLA.

• Combined, spending on EHCPs and CDLA is now £16 billion. IFS forecasts that it will reach £21 billion by 2029, more than twice the real-terms spend in 2016.

The report says that there is ‘worrying evidence that children with EHCPs or CDLA experience poorer outcomes in early adulthood, bringing longer-term risks for those children and for the exchequer.’

The increasing cost of SEND provision is putting great strains on budgets.

Some costs seem absurd – such as the eye-watering amounts paid to taxi firms to drive children to school. It appears that some local authorities don’t get good deals and fail to ask for a number of quotes.

But that is a drop in the ocean compared with the total outlay.

So what is going on? I think we have over-diagnosis now, and have had under-diagnosis in the past.

Is there over-diagnosis?

Knowledge about certain conditions such as autism and ADHD has become far more widespread and any stigma about them has diminished.

The internet allows people to investigate and research information that formerly only educational psychologists would understand to a high level.

This enables parents (particularly those who are very articulate, well-educated with sharp elbows) to push their claims forward and argue their case.

Many will go privately to educational psychologists and receive a diagnosis of a particular condition. And it is very difficult to resist professional opinions from highly trained educational psychologists.

In this sense there is over-diagnosis.

Was there under-diagnosis in the past?

I think the answer to that is probably yes.

A lack of understanding and stigma meant that many children in the past went through school without a diagnosis that they would receive today.

In a sense we are probably playing ‘catch up’, which is one reason for the increase in diagnoses.

As knowledge and diagnostic understanding has developed we are trapped by our own progress in understanding the needs of these children.

What should be done?

Early intervention. If children’s problems are not addressed early they end up struggling more as they get older and become more costly.

However, we know that it can take years for a child to be diagnosed correctly.

Funding and resources should be directed at children from the earliest age so they can be taught the most important things more effectively – literacy and numeracy.

A child that has poor literacy and numeracy will really struggle in the secondary system because there are a lot more subjects to cover.

If more investment is to go into the system it is important to target primary schools.

A wider question beckons.

Assuming the demand for special needs support continues to grow how are we going to pay for it?

We have a stagnant economy with little or no growth and ultimately the money has to come from taxes.

Without successful businesses and people in work paying for this through a growing tax base there will not be enough money. Somethings got to give.

Political choices driven by economics may have little to do with education but these choices will determine whether we continue as we are or whether solutions can be found.