The government must work with councils to implement the SEND reforms and provide more funding details, as the current system is “vulnerable”, the Local Government Association has warned.
Scottish ministers should make it clear which manifesto promises are a priority as they face “tricky decisions” and a funding squeeze, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.
If the SEND system overhaul is not properly funded, it risks “rationing support and shifting blame onto schools” instead of fixing the “broken system”, parliament’s education committee has heard.
The introduction of tiered levels of support, SEND training for all teachers, and 60,000 new places for children with SEND are among the reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities...
The government must engage with the looming impact of greatly increased SEND home-to-school transport costs, the County Councils Network insisted while publishing its estimate of the future financial...
The government has confirmed it will write off the bulk of local authorities’ historic SEND deficits following the publication of the final local government settlement – however councils warned the...
A House of Commons report has called for urgent government action after warning that youngsters in England face some of the worst child health outcomes in Europe including rising obesity, uneven...
Some of the most vulnerable children in society are being failed and put at risk, the Public Accounts Committee has warned, after it found children were being placed in inappropriate homes through a...
New community-based early SEND intervention through Best Start Family Hubs will be rolled out by 2028, the government has confirmed, in a move it said will deliver faster and earlier support.
Questions over who funds special educational needs and disabilities provision – and how much it will cost – remain unanswered despite the government outlining a series of reforms in the Budget, the...
Substantial plans for reform of special educational needs (SEND) funding announced in the Budget have been welcomed as a substantial step forward in addressing the crisis facing local authorities as...
The volume and complexity of need among children under five is increasing across the UK, according to a new report commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA).
Mounting debts from supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities effectively “hidden away” in council accounts could lead to nine in 10 affected authorities issuing a Section...
Councils are struggling to meet their legal duty to provide home-to-school transport in the face of mounting pressures which have seen budgets overspent by over £400m.
Mounting pressure on special needs and disabilities support is threatening education services’ financial resilience, the National Audit Office has warned.
The share of children receiving support for special educational needs and disabilities has doubled, driving a “dramatic and ongoing” increase in spending and leading to councils amassing an...
The eligibility criteria for government-funded childcare puts disadvantaged children at risk of missing out on the same early education as their more affluent peers, according to a report.
The UK’s wealthiest households will be eight times as likely to benefit from the government’s expanded programme of funded childcare hours than their lowest-earning counterparts, according to the New...
