The SEND assessment crisis: With so much going on and so many conversations, what should you do now?
✅ The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Crisis
The current SEND system in England is widely considered to be at a crisis point, characterised by rapidly escalating demand, severe financial instability, and a systemic failure to provide timely, high-quality support to children and young people. As we await the Governments reforms, let’s explore the current issues and ways that you can help manage the situation as you tread water.
So what’s happening now?
As someone working within the education sector, and on the front line your experience may be different dependant on different factors which seem to affect the country disproportionally. This is what we know – number of pupils identified with SEND has surged, now standing at over 1.7 million—nearly 20% of the school population. Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) has increased by over 80% since 2018. Increased pressure and demands on SEND services have lead to many schools experiencing:
| Significant Delays | Families face a prolonged and adversarial battle to secure EHCPs, often waiting far longer than the statutory 20-week timeframe, leading to the escalation of needs. |
| Postcode Lottery | Provision is inconsistent, with a lack of national standards for the “ordinarily available” support schools should provide, leading to an unfair disparity in outcomes based on where a child lives. |
| Workforce Shortages | There is a critical lack of specialist staff, including educational psychologists and speech and language therapists, diverting existing specialists’ time to statutory assessments rather than direct intervention. |
| Over-reliance on Costly Alternatives | Mainstream schools often lack the resources and training to be genuinely inclusive, leading to a rise in demand for over-subscribed state special schools or expensive independent, out-of-area specialist placements, which account for a significant portion of spending growth. |
Local authorities (LAs) are facing spiralling high-needs deficits, estimated to be several billion pounds nationally, with an accounting mechanism (“statutory override”) in place to prevent insolvency. This funding shortfall is often exacerbated by high transport costs and fees for independent provision. Students with SEND consistently have lower academic attainment, higher rates of persistent absence, and significantly higher rates of suspension and exclusion. Parents frequently describe the system as exhausting, complex, and adversarial, feeling they must constantly fight LAs and health services (who are often not prioritising SEND) for their child’s legal entitlement.
Things aren’t going to get solved quickly, so what can you do now?
This isn’t about quick fixes; it’s about embedding inclusion into your school’s DNA. You need a crystal-clear, shared understanding of what ‘inclusive education’ actually looks like in your classrooms. Work with your teams to clearly define the minimum resources, quality-first teaching strategies, and flexible curriculum approaches that every teacher must implement for every child.
- Audit Your ‘Ordinarily Available Provision’: Think of this as your core operating manual for SEND. Don’t just have a document—make it a practice. Does it clearly state the support available before a child needs a formal plan? This strengthens mainstream provision and helps reduce the often-unnecessary push for statutory support (EHCPs).
- Rebuild Trust with Families: The current system is adversarial. As a leader, you must break that cycle. Invest in training for your SENCO and key staff in mediation and collaborative communication. Treat parents as true partners and experts on their children. A strong relationship can prevent a costly, stressful Tribunal fight down the line.
- Prevent Exclusions: Every exclusion is a failure of inclusion. Insist on ‘Day One’ Alternative Provision (AP) for any student you are considering excluding. You must ensure that education continues immediately. This proactive step prevents needs from escalating and maintains the student’s connection to learning.
The capacity of your school to meet needs rests entirely on the expertise of your staff. You’ll need to make substantial, mandatory SEND content a part of every teacher’s professional development plan. Focus on high-impact areas like trauma-informed practice, specific learning difficulties, and effective behaviour management strategies.
Maximise Specialist Impact: Review how your specialists (e.g., in-house therapists, EPs) spend their time. Are they buried in assessment and report writing? Shift their focus! Deploy them to upskill your teachers and deliver immediate, high-leverage therapeutic group work. This is how you build sustainable capacity. If your SENCO or another senior leader doesn’t hold a specialist qualification, commit to funding it. SEND must be a strategic priority, not just an administrative one. Your leadership team needs the knowledge to drive genuine systemic change.
The best way to fight the financial crisis is by preventing needs from escalating and using your current budget intelligently. Here’s some ideas to get you started:
| Scrutinise Your Notional Funding | Take a hard look at how the notional £6,000 intended for SEND provision in your mainstream budget is spent. Is it truly targeted at high-impact interventions, or is it funding a general assistant model? Make this money work efficiently to help prevent the need for expensive statutory intervention later. |
| Go Upstream with Early Intervention | The earlier you act, the cheaper and more effective the support is. Prioritise and fund universal early programmes in your early years and Key Stage 1 (like language interventions). Shift your identification from a ‘diagnosis-led’ system to a needs-led system based on teacher observations and early assessment data. |
| Force Cross-Sector Engagement | Appoint a senior leader to be the consistent point of contact for local Health (ICBs) and Social Care services. Lobby them. Put the pressure on to ensure they meet their statutory duties for timely assessments and therapy provision, reducing the burden on your school. |
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References/Further Reading:
N8 Research Partnership. Addressing the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) assessment and support crisis.
National Education Union. SEND in crisis.
RCSLT. ‘Solving the SEND crisis’ published
UK Parliment. Solving the SEND crisis: report calls for culture shift and funding to make mainstream education genuinely inclusive
IFS. England’s SEND crisis: costs, challenges and the case for reform