The government accepts the need for it to take “a fundamental look” at the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, the Department for Education’s most senior official has told MPs.
Permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood also told the Public Accounts Committee that the department was working with the Treasury on the issue of council’s schools grant deficits amid warnings that more than two-fifths of local authorities face effectively declaring bankruptcy in less than 18 months’ time.
She appeared alongside other DfE officials at a committee hearing on Monday, reviewing the findings of a highly critical recent National Audit Office (NAO) report on the support available for young people with SEND.
Here are six key points from the evidence session:
1. DfE to consider criticism that improvement plan didn’t go far enough
Ms Acland-Hood said that the DfE accepted the NAO recommendation that says it is important “to take a really fundamental look at the system from end to end”.
She said that the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan introduced by the previous government “had done some of this” but she also highlighted criticism the DfE has faced that this plan did not go far enough to promote inclusion.
She told MPs this included concern that it “did not look hard enough at the barriers and levers” or the accountability incentives in order to ensure mainstream schools were more inclusive.
Ms Acland-Hood added: “Ministers have already signalled really clearly that they want to look at those as well as curriculum barriers, which, again, we didn’t look at in the improvement plan”.
She said officials and ministers would be taking on this feedback and looking “comprehensively” at the system in the “next phase”.
The NAO report recommended that the department “explicitly consider whole-system reform, to improve outcomes for children with SEND and to put SEND provision on a financially sustainable footing”.
2. DfE working with Treasury on ‘challenging’ deficits
MPs raised concerns over councils’ looming dedicated schools grant deficits, which have been driven up in part by spending on SEND.
A statutory override, which keeps these deficits off council books, is set to expire in March 2026. The NAO report warned that 43 per cent of councils would be at risk of issuing a Section 114 notice, effectively declaring bankruptcy, if these deficits were allowed to impact on their financial position.
Ms Acland-Hood told the Public Accounts Committee that when the override was put in place, it had been assumed that the council deficits were a short-term and localised issue. “I don’t think this is something we believe anymore,” she said.
The NAO report also warned that the government did not yet have a solution for the estimated £4.6 billion deficit.
Ms Acland-Hood told MPs that the situation would have been worse if the DfE had not launched its Safety Valve and Delivering Better Value programmes with councils with deficits.
However, she added: “It continues to be really challenging and we are working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Treasury to look at the position.”
3. DfE working with SEND tribunal on statistics
MPs asked DfE officials about the fact that 98 per cent of education, health and care plan (EHCP) appeals in 2023 had been found in parents’ favour.
Ms Acland-Hood told the committee that the 98 per cent figure included outcomes where any aspect of a parent’s appeal is found in their favour. She added: “We are working with the tribunal to disaggregated that a little bit more because that doesn’t necessarily help us understand exactly what is happening.”
She also told MPs that the DfE was working with the Ministry of Justice and the SEND tribunal “to do more work” through alternative dispute resolution and “other means” because “we don’t think a very adversarial process is a positive feature of the system”.
The permanent secretary also said that there was a risk that the tribunal system favours “those who have the capacity to navigate it”.
4. DfE looking at variability in EHCP wait times
MPs were told that the DfE was looking at why there are differences in the length of time it takes for EHCPs to be produced in different local authorities.
Ms Acland-Hood gave the example of two London boroughs in the constituency of the chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, Helen Hayes.
The permanent secretary said that, in Lambeth, 71.5 per cent of plans were produced within the 20-week timeframe compared with 19.2 per cent in Southwark.
She also highlighted variability in the proportion of pupils with EHCPs being educated in mainstream schools among the constituencies of MPs on the committee. This varied from 73 per cent in Richmond Park to 45 per cent in Burnley.
5. DfE has ‘deep commitment’ to inclusion
The department’s director general for schools Juliet Chua said that a deep commitment to inclusive education was at “the heart of our approach”.
She highlighted the appointment of multi-academy trust chief executive Tom Rees as an adviser and told MPs he would be helping the department with work on inclusive practice.
Ms Chua also highlighted the curriculum and assessment review led by Professor Becky Francis, which she said would look at what barriers exist within the mainstream school curriculum and the fact that Ofsted is set to inspect inclusion as part of its new framework being launched next year.
6. Aspiring school leaders doing new Sendco qualification
DfE officials highlighted the new national professional qualification for Sendcos and said that this was also being taken by aspiring school leaders.
Ms Chua said: “What has been interesting is that we have been seeing schools putting forward not just their Sendcos but actually when they have got teachers who are in training for leadership, seeing it as an absolutely critical qualification and development path on the way towards leadership.”
She added that this was growing a “cadre of leaders who will essentially increase the confidence of a school overall”.
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