A new report shows that 41% of students across the UK could now require formal special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support. This is despite four out of five school staff saying their setting does not have enough money to meet their needs.
The findings, published in the Tes SEND Report 2024, also found that 86% of those surveyed believe the SEND population in their school has increased compared to three years ago.
Over 900 respondents took part in the survey carried out in August and September, which included SENCOs, teachers, teaching assistants, senior leaders and middle leaders.
In the poll, 81% of overall respondents and 92% of SENCOs said their schools did not have enough funding. In addition, three in five respondents said the funding they received for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) was less than half of what was needed.
According to the report, the most common reason given for this reduced outcome “is that the local authority believes that the identified level of support can be delivered for a lower cost than suggested”.
Of those respondents who were responsible for funding, 91% said they found the process of securing funds for special educational needs provision from local authorities to be “difficult or very difficult”.
Paul Whiteman, General Secretary, National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said: “ Schools face a perfect storm of growing demand to support more pupils with special educational needs at the same time as costs have increased massively and are still rising.”
The report also found that workload is a major pain point across the sector, but SENCOs often take on a particularly challenging and heavy workload. The vast majority of respondents said it was either very challenging (44%) or somewhat challenging (38%).
Overall, one in four of all survey respondents said they were spending 10 hours or more on SEND admin each week. A vast majority of this admin work is likely to be linked to the tracking of provisions and results from individual students.
However, the survey also suggested an increased confidence in the sector. When asked about confidence levels in meeting the needs of SEND pupils compared with three years ago, 49% of respondents said they were more confident while 20% said they were less confident.
The report concluded that much of the improvement around the EHCP process lies with local authorities and government, but school leaders can influence the process by keeping a clear, regularly updated and easily accessible record of provisions for each individual child by using Edtech solutions.
In addition, leaders also need to investigate how much time SENCOs in particular are spending on admin when they could be directly working with students, building well-evidenced EHCPs or coordinating with colleagues or agencies.
It added: “Our report identified falling levels of confidence in SEND practice among educators, so it’s worth investigating this with your staff and identifying areas where training could help give staff a confidence boost.
“Overall, there was one obvious and very positive outcome from the survey and that was the dedication and passion educators have for supporting students with SEND. When asked how rewarding they find it to support SEND students on a scale of 1-10, the average score was 8.5 showing that educators still have that one clear goal, ensuring the progress of the children they work with.”
