The system that is supposed to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is ‘broken’, says a new report edited by Lancaster University researchers.

Ministers are being urged to put early identification and support of children with SEND at the heart of a new strategy to boost school attendance and end families’ ‘traumatic’ battle for support.

The report published today by the N8 Child of the North team and the Centre for Young Lives sets out new proposals to tackle a SEN(D) support crisis and ‘postcode lottery’ which is holding back the life chances of hundreds of thousands of children in England.

Executive report editors Dr Amy Atkinson, from Lancaster University’s Department of Psychology, and Professor Uta Papen, from Lancaster’s Department of Linguistics and English Language, are also key contributors to the report which sets out an evidence-based plan proposing the rollout of new early identification tools, making Continued Professional Development courses on SEN(D) mandatory for educational professionals, and connecting health, education and other services together to improve identification and cut assessment waiting lists.

More than 1.5 million pupils in England have SEN(D), with 40% of children identified as having SEN(D) at some point between 5 and 16 years of age.

The report shows how only 49% of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans were produced within the 20-week statutory limit, with an average wait of almost four years for an ADHD assessment for young people aged 19-25 years in one local authority in the North.

It also reveals impact on families of stress of trying to receive an EHC plan, with some ‘begging councils for help’ and others talking about the impact on their finances and mental health.

The report reveals how the current system cannot cope and has been unable to keep pace with advances made in identifying and recognising when children have additional needs and require extra support.

Some 99% of school leaders have said the funding they receive for pupils with SEN(D) is insufficient.

As the report makes clear, thousands of children and parents are crying out for a faster and kinder process and better early intervention support.

The report also reveals how:

• There is large variability in the extent to which local authorities run the Healthy Child Programme, which can facilitate identification of SEN(D) before school entry. In one local authority, one in five children do not receive their two-year developmental check, and in another this is as high as one in three.
• By the end of secondary school, the achievement gap between pupils with no identified SEN(D) and pupils with an EHC plan is almost 3.5 years. The gap between pupils with no identified SEN(D) and pupils with SEN support (but no EHC plan) is nearly 2 years.
• Just 30% of young people with SEN(D) achieved a Grade 4 or higher in English and Maths in 2022/23, compared to 72% without SEN(D). In 2021, 57% of children with SEND aged 6-16 years were reported to have a probable mental health disorder, compared with 13% of those without SEND.
• 32% of children with SEN(D) are persistently absent from school and children with SEN(D) are three times as likely to be suspended from school, nearly twice as likely to be persistently absent from school, and three times as likely to be ‘Not in Employment, Education or Training’ (NEET) at 16-17 years of age.
• The increasing demand for children and young people seeking assessment and support is placing significant pressure on the system. In 2021, councils faced a SEN(D) funding gap of £600 million.
• Children with SEN(D) were some of the hardest hit by COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns, and the transition to home learning was particularly challenging for children with SEN(D).

The report makes a series of recommendations which offer the potential to cut the long-term costs of not acting early enough.

Dr Atkinson said: “The current SEN(D) system is failing children and young people. Urgent action is needed to ensure that children, young people, and their families receive the support they need and are entitled to.”

Professor Papen added: “The SEN(D) system is in crisis. There's a postcode lottery, children and families experience very long waiting times and schools, despite best intentions, more often than not don’t have the resources to help all children in the way they'd like to.

“But there's a lot we can do. Our report, drawing on evidence-based practices and new research illustrates a number of promising approaches and solutions ready to be adopted widely and promising to make a real difference to children and young people with SEN(D).”

Today’s report has been produced by eight research intensive universities in the North of England (the N8 Research Partnership) in collaboration with a wider academic community as part of the ‘Child of the North’ initiative, and the new Centre for Young Lives think tank, founded by former Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield.

This is the sixth in a series of Child of the North/Centre for Young Lives reports published in 2024 focusing on how the new Government can put the life chances of young people at the heart of policy making and delivery.

The terms ‘SEND’ and ‘SEN’ are both used in policy and guidance documents and it is not always clear whether children and young people with disabilities are included or not. This report uses the term ‘SEN(D)’ for consistency and to highlight the lack of standardised terminology.