Spiralling demand and shrinking budgets: why England’s Send system is buckling

No quick fix for a system that is failing children and parents and pushing councils into insolvency

• £100m spent on failed efforts to block Send support
• ‘Fobbed off and rejected’: Birmingham’s Send crisis

It was all meant to be so different. Announcing sweeping reforms of the special needs provision in England’s schools a decade ago, the then children’s minister Edward Timpson promised a simpler approach that would put the needs, rights and choices of families and children first.

“For too long, families have found themselves battling against a complex and fragmented system. These reforms ensure support fits in with their needs and not the other way round,” said Timpson.