Supporting children and young people with special educational needs: evidence to Public Accounts Committee inquiry

Waiting lists for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) in both education and NHS settings are too long, and this has lifelong impacts. Real-terms cuts to local authority budgets and increasing financial pressures on NHS services, combined with increasing levels of need for services have caused a perfect storm of waiting lists of up to four years in some parts of the country.

Despite the huge challenges, there are some pockets of good practice. These examples are characterised by being planned and delivered at “place” and “neighbourhood” levels, with strong involvement in the design of services from local communities and multiple agencies working together.

The additional funding announced at the Autumn Budget for SEN and alternative education provision has been welcomed, but much wider policy reforms are needed to ensure children and young people can access joined-up care and support in a timely way. These include better alignment between funding cycles across Whitehall, for funding cycles to be longer-term and for local public service leaders to have more autonomy over how to spend their funding to meet population need.

In addition, the use of NHS numbers as a unique identifier for children across different services would better ensure children and young people with SEN get joined-up care across agencies.