Education and health must work together to solve SEND crisis, MPs say

A cross-party group of MPs is calling on the Government to ensure that special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision is an intrinsic part of mainstream education and is the responsibility of the whole school.

It also wants the government to invest in the workforces of both education and health services, to ensure that the health service steps up to its role in addressing the SEND crisis, and to improve collaboration between the two sectors.

The report from the Education Committee states that the cultural shift would then alleviate the rising need for complex, costly education, health, and care plans (EHCPs) in the long term, helping to put schools and local authorities’ finances on a sustainable footing.

The health sector is too passive in SEND support

Although joint commissioning and collaboration between health and education services was published in the 2015 SEND code of practice, the Committee heard that SEND isn’t given enough focus by DHSC and NHS services, and that the sector feels “completely separate” from education.

The health sector is also seen as too passive in what should be active partnerships with schools, councils, and community organisations, working together to deliver services and make mainstream education inclusive to pupils with SEND.

The Committee calls on Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to be fully engaged in local SEND systems, with clearly defined responsibilities and mechanisms for joint planning and delivery. The seniority, authority and visibility of senior responsible officers for SEND within ICBs must be increased.

It notes that this must be supported by appropriate financial investment from the health sector to fulfil statutory duties, ensure timely access to therapies and assessments, and contribute equitably to joint commissioning arrangements.

Rise in EHCPs

The report states that since the introduction of the Children and Families Act 2014, the number of children and young people identified as having SEND has increased from 1.3 million to 1.7 million. In 2024/25, over 1.2 million children and young people were receiving SEN support, and nearly half a million had an EHCP.

It adds that behind these numbers are families navigating a system that too often feels adversarial, fragmented, and under-resourced. Without decisive, long-term change, the SEND system will remain under unsustainable pressure, unable to meet current or future needs effectively. It has also led to assessments being carried out later, often after a child’s needs have escalated.

According to the DfE, the most common type of need among pupils with an EHCP is a diagnosis of autism, with one in three (33.6%) being identified with a primary need of autism. This is followed by speech, language, and communication disorders, affecting one in five (20.7%).

Despite the current challenges, MPs said that removing EHCPs from a system that lacks accountability is not advisable. Evidence suggests that mainstream schools and multi-academy trusts that practice genuine inclusivity generate fewer EHCPs, as they effectively meet the needs of more students without the need for them.

It adds that the SEND Tribunal must remain as a backstop of the accountability process, and it must be empowered to issue legally binding recommendations to health services. DfE and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) must systematically monitor SEND Tribunal outcomes and identify local authorities that repeatedly fail to comply with their statutory duties.

The Government should undertake focused work with these local authorities to understand why they are so often failing and support them through targeted interventions.

Three levels of SEND support in education

Currently, there are three graduated levels of support, moving from inclusive classroom practice to more targeted and specialist interventions:

• Ordinarily available provision: everyday adjustments that all schools and settings are expected to provide. This level does not require a child to have a formally identified type of SEND.

• SEN support: more targeted interventions and individualised support. Delivery of SEN support often involves the school’s SEN-coordinator and can involve external specialists such as speech and language therapists and educational psychologists.

• EHCPs: a legal document issued by the local authority, and available for those aged 0–25 with complex and long-term needs. The local authority coordinates services set out in the plan, with input from professionals, the school, the family, and the child or young person.

The Committee heard that many families are not receiving the support they should at the SEN support and ordinarily available levels, mainly due to insufficient resources and a lack of accountability. Instead, they are seeking EHCPs, as these are the only category of support with a legal underpinning, which enables parents to hold authorities to account where provision is inadequate.

Recommendations for inclusive education

The Committee recommends that the DfE publish its definition of ‘inclusive’ education within three months, along with a clear rationale and examples of good practice. It should also publish a unified national framework for ordinarily available provision and SEN support. This should offer clear, evidence-led guidance and include practical, real-world examples tailored to educators and educational settings, ensuring that all practitioners have access to quality-assured strategies and interventions.

In addition, the Department should publish statutory requirements detailing the minimum resources, specialist expertise, and equipment that every educational setting must have access to as part of their offer of SEN support, and to deliver an inclusive education. This would establish a clear, enforceable baseline covering staffing, training, physical materials, and assistive technologies.

It says that central to addressing the SEND crisis is rebuilding trust and confidence among stakeholders in the system, particularly children and young people with SEND and their families.

A whole school approach to SEND

In addition, making mainstream education genuinely inclusive requires a whole-school approach with all front-line staff equipped with the training, resources, and support they need to respond effectively to the diverse needs of pupils with SEND and their families. It will also involve upskilling professionals in local authorities and the health sector, as well as addressing shortages of educational psychologists and allied health professionals, such as speech and language therapists and occupational therapists.

MPs also recommend a review of the national funding formula for schools to better account for factors that vary between local areas, such as the prevalence of need, deprivation, and distances travelled by home-to-school transport. They also highlight the need to expand the number of specialist school places in the state sector so that more children can be educated closer to home and spending on expensive independent school places can be reduced.

The £6,000 provision per pupil is inadequate and must be automatically uprated each year in line with inflation to prevent further erosion of support for pupils with SEND. It should also be ringfenced.

Education Committee Chair’s view on the report

Education Committee Chair Helen Hayes MP said: “When the Education Committee launched its inquiry, we already knew that the SEND system was broken, long past needing repair, and chronically letting down children, their families and their teachers. Our report presents a vision for how the Government can realise its laudable aim of making mainstream education inclusive to the vast majority of children and young people with SEND, who are present in every classroom.

“This isn’t just blue sky thinking. A model the Government can learn from already exists in the Canadian state of Ontario, where we saw teachers actively try to meet the needs of their pupils from their first day at school. Closer to home, we witnessed an inspiring whole-school approach to SEND at two settings in Norfolk.

“We also call for an increase in the number of specialist state school places so that more children can be educated close to home, reducing the cost of transport and expensive independent school places.

“Making sure every child in the country with SEND can attend a local school that meets their needs will require a root and branch transformation. SEND must become the business of every front line professional in educational settings, with in-depth training at the start and throughout the careers of teachers, senior leaders and teaching assistants.

“The Government must develop a standardised, national framework for the support that children with SEND can expect in school, long before requiring an EHC plan, so that there can be confidence and clear lines of accountability. In the long term, a genuinely inclusive, well-resourced mainstream education system will bring down the desperate struggle to obtain an EHC plan. This will also help stabilise the sector financially.

“We heard frustration from the local government and education sectors that the health service doesn’t prioritise SEND, and can be a blocker to families getting the support they need. The Government must put SEND firmly on the agenda of local NHS commissioners and appoint senior responsible officers for SEND at a local level.

“Some of this Committee’s key recommendations will require investment to embed new practices and bring in new resources. But any piecemeal alternative would mean that we later look back at this period as the moment the Government failed to finally solve the SEND crisis.”

Responses to the report

Chief Executive of Ambitious about Autism, Jolanta Lasota, said:  “As this report identifies, autistic young people and their parents have lost faith in the SEND system. Trust and confidence have been eroded by long delays and failures to get young people with SEND the help they need to achieve in education.

“Our research found that 70% of autistic young people have experienced some form of lost learning and that one in 10 parents have lost a job because their child is out of education.

“The committee makes many sensible recommendations about how to solve the SEND crisis, including the need to make SEND a mandatory part of teachers’ continuous professional development. This is something we think will make a hugely positive difference to autistic young people’s experiences at school.

“MPs have also rightly identified that any reforms should not be based on withdrawing existing support and legal rights – such as access to Education, Health and Care plans. This is something we know many parents and young people are concerned about.

“The Education Committee has spoken to many young people with SEND, their families and professionals over the course of its inquiry and we hope the government gives serious consideration to its findings, as it plans SEND system reform.”

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Mel Merritt, Head of Policy and Campaigns at the National Autistic Society, said: “This Committee is clear – the SEND system is broken and unsustainable. Autistic young people and their families desperately need reform so they can get the education they need and deserve. The committee provides achievable steps to fixing the system and the Government should adopt these in the upcoming SEND reforms, particularly increasing accountability across the whole system so that children’s needs will be met regardless of whether they have a diagnosis or Education, Health and Care Plan. Reforms will only be effective if young people, parents, carers and other key stakeholders are actively and meaningfully involved throughout the whole process.”

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