Why The Next Government Must Prioritise The SEND Crisis

The most vulnerable, marginalised, and excluded children in our country, children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are being catastrophically failed and placed in danger. All too often we see harrowing stories of disabled children being abused and ill-treated, of parents desperate to get the help they and their children so badly need, and of a system that is broken and failing.

Just a few days ago we learned of the horrific abuse that had been happening at an independent SEND school in the Wirral. Staff at ‘Life Wirral’ in Wallasey were caught by an undercover BBC reporter cruelly mocking and manhandling children, fantasising about killing one disabled child, and boasting about the physical abuse meted out to him.

The BBC Panorama report also referenced abusive and offensive language used by staff at the school regarding children with SEND, as well as homophobic and sexist language.

When the footage was shown to Dame Christine Leneham, a former Director of the Council for Disabled Children, she commented that the school was “fundamentally unsafe” with “no respect for young people”.

Sadly, this isn’t a one-off instance. Time and again we’ve seen similarly horrific stories from other schools, care homes, etc. The system is broken and is failing our children.

Local authorities, who have responsibility for the safety and care of children with SEND in their communities, claim that they don’t have the money to provide the level of service needed. Another BBC report highlighted that councils across England are forecasting a huge budget shortfall of around £1bn in school funding for children with SEND.

Families are caught in the awful situation of fighting their local authority in the courts to try and get the provision their children so badly need. That provision is supposed to be laid out in an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) for the child, which then forms the basis of providing the vital support necessary. Government figures show that almost 600,000 children in England have an EHCP, but in the last year only half of these have been issued within the required 20 weeks of the start of the process, with many taking much longer, leaving families in limbo. In 2023, there was a 26% increase in the number of new EHCP’s issued in England, highlighting the growing crisis building in this area.

The BBC report highlighted in its research that 38 councils have had to reach bailout agreements with the Government, largely due to spiralling SEND costs and a lack of funding to pay for them. The BBC report spoke to Catriona Moore from The Independent Provider of Special Education Advice, who commented that there was “very little focus on children’s needs” and much more on “the financial bottom line”.

So what must the next Government do to address this desperate SEND crisis for children and their families across the country? This must be an urgent high priority for whoever wins the upcoming election. Children with SEND are at risk, are being failed, and this needs to be addressed now. There is no time to waste, children’s lives are at stake. Unfortunately, there is little mention of the SEND crisis in the manifestos of the major parties, so it does not seem to be as important for them as other issues on the political agenda.

As Christians, we are called to follow the example of Jesus in reaching out to help and support the weak, the marginalised, and the vulnerable. He told us the story of ‘The Good Samaritan’ to illustrate this, as well as the story of the ‘Sheep and Goats’ where he reminds us “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”  We can take immediate action to respond to this calling and engage with the SEND crisis in three ways:

1. Pray: Bring this situation into God’s presence and ask him to bring about change for children with SEND, and their families, across the country.

2. Speak out: Ask candidates standing in the upcoming election what they plan to do to address the SEND crisis. Contact for Families with Disabled Children have set up an automated email for you to do this quickly and easily. Email your local parliamentary candidates today and choose to vote for a candidate that commits to protecting and providing for the most vulnerable children in our society.
https://action.contact.org.uk/page/151245/action/1

3. Support families: Contact families with children with SEND that you know and let them know that they are not forgotten and that you care about them and stand with them.

There cannot be another ‘Life Wirral’; there cannot be another family learning that an adult at their child’s school, someone who should have cared for and protected their child, had abused their child and boasted about wanting to drown them “like a kitten”. There cannot be families waiting over six-months for an EHCP for their child, only to then have to fight through the courts to get that plan adequately provided for in their child’s school. If we can’t do the best we can for the weakest in our society, then that is a damning inditement on us all. The incoming Government must address the SEND crisis immediately, and we must all hold them to account to make sure that they do.

Mark Arnold

A version of this article was first published in Premier Christianity magazine on 19th June 2024

References:
BBC report about ‘Life Wirral’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp6643jd8nwo
BBC report about EHCP’s
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceqq46x068xo
EHCP data
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans

Image credits:
Header image (Downing Street sign); Photo by Nick Kane on Unsplash
Life Wirral school: Image credit Liverpool World
EHCP graphic: Image credit Southampton SENDIASS
Child in wheelchair (red shoes): Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Boy with Downs Syndrome: Photo by Pavol Štugel on Unsplash
Woman praying: Photo by Ben White on Unsplash