“No party” has made commitments to address the level of funding for special educational needs and disability (SEND) in their manifestos, which “poses a serious threat” to provision, an education think tank has warned.
While there are some commitments, “no single party addresses the challenges of the SEND system holistically, and all would require significantly more detail,” said the analysis published on Thursday.
The report stressed: “Given the highly perilous state of high needs funding there is concerningly very little from any of the main parties by way of commitment to either the level of funding offered, or how it is distributed.
‘No Clear Commitments’ From Labour
The report outlines some of the pledges the parties have made, such as the Tories saying they would deliver 60,000 more school places and 15 new free schools for children with SEND, but noted that these kinds of provisions would not be immediate, with there being “considerable time before those places are available, often taking many years between application and opening.”The Liberal Democrats have committed to providing additional funding to local authorities to pay towards education, health, and care plans (EHCPs)—which are statements of special educational needs that set out the additional support to meet those needs—“but the amount offered or how that is determined is not clear.”
“[The Liberal Democrats] also propose a national body for SEND to fund support, but again the level of funding or the role of the body, such as whether it is a central procurement function, is not set out,” it adds.
The EPI stated that while Labour said it would take a “community wide approach” by supporting SEND provision in both mainstream and special schools, “no further detail is given beyond improving expertise in mainstream schools.”
‘Ongoing Rise’ in SEND Needs
The EPI highlighted the current state of SEND provision to give context for why it saw this lack of financial commitment as being so critical.Funding for SEND pupils “has struggled to meet needs,” the report said, noting there is an “ongoing rise” in the number of children with EHCPs.
“High needs funding and its distribution has struggled to cope with this rising demand,” authors said, noting that in January 2023, there were just over 389,000 pupils with EHCPs, “an increase of over half in the preceding five years.”
Lack of Commitments
The findings are part of a wider report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which said that there was a “striking lack of clear commitments” to funding for schools and colleges in either of the manifestos from the Conservatives or Labour.It also said that none of the parties had made firm commitments on school teacher pay, which is “likely to be a factor in addressing recruitment challenges” and the issue of retention and recruitment of early years staff has been “poorly addressed by all parties.”
Authors also said the “glaring omission” in the Labour manifesto was a commitment to protect school funding, and per pupil funding commitments by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are “at best modest.”
“In all cases it makes the overall funding package for schools very unclear,” the report said.
Jon Andrews, head of analysis at the EPI, said: “Our analysis raises serious questions about whether the plans set out in the manifestos of the main parties will deliver the action that is required to support our education system. With a lack of clear funding commitments made by the two main parties, there is a genuine risk that policies will fall short in key areas of need.”
A Conservative spokesman said, “Our plan is working, with school standards up across the country, school funding at record levels per pupil, and children named ‘best in the West’ for reading.”
The Liberal Democrats also responded to the report, with a party spokeswoman saying they are “offering ambitious, fully costed solutions for our education sector,” including tutoring for disadvantaged pupils and plans to fix the UK’s “crumbling” schools.
The Epoch Times has contacted the Labour Party for comment.
