What is SEND and why are councils struggling to pay for it?

Eight in 10 councils could face bankruptcy over their mounting SEND costs, research by the Local Government Association (LGA) suggests.

The council membership body is urging the government to write off councils' high needs deficits and "deliver bold reform".

The government says their upcoming changes to the SEND system will make sure children get support "at the earliest stage" and bring "financial sustainability" for councils.

SEND stands for special educational needs and disabilities.

It applies to children and young people who need extra support to meet their physical, communication, social, emotional or mental health needs.

In England, if a child or young person needs more support than is typically provided in mainstream schools, their parent or carer can apply for an education, health and care plan (EHCP). This identifies their needs and sets out the support they should receive. Local councils are responsible for ensuring EHCPs are followed.

EHCPs can stay in place until the age of 25, as long as the young person remains in the education system.

Just over 1.7 million pupils in England's schools receive support for special educational needs, or about one in five pupils. About 5% of all pupils (483,000) get the highest level of support through an EHCP.

In total, 639,000 young people up to the age of 25 have EHCPs in England, a number that has more than doubled in a decade.

Most of that increase has been driven by a rise in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses. The condition is now listed as the primary need in a third of all EHCPs.

Demand for speech and language support has also risen since Covid, and more young people are also asking for help with social, emotional and mental health needs.

Overall spending on SEND has risen by two-thirds in the past decade, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), driven by a growing demand for support.

Despite the increase in spending, in 2024 the National Audit Office (NAO) said the SEND system in England was "broken".

Councils are projected to spend £14.8bn overall on SEND in 2025/26, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which assesses government spending. That is up from £5bn in 2015/16.

In England, up to £6,000 of the initial cost of supporting a pupil with SEND must come from mainstream school budgets.

Further costs of EHCPs and the full cost of supporting those in special schools are covered by a local authority's ring-fenced high needs funding.

Councils also pay independent special school fees for around 38,000 pupils, partly because of a lack of specialist places in the state sector. The average cost for an independent special school place is about £61,500 a year per pupil, compared to about £24,000 per pupil in state-funded special schools, according to the IFS.

Transport to and from school for SEND pupils is funded separately by councils. In 2023/24, councils spent £1.5bn on school transport for 470,000 students, more than double the amount in 2015/16.

In recent years, the cost of providing SEND support has regularly outstripped the funding councils receive from central government, leading to rising debts.

The LGA said most councils who responded to its recent survey said they were in deficit on SEND spending.

That overspend is being artificially held off council budgets until 2028. By then, the OBR predicts £14bn of SEND deficits will have built up.

The government said future SEND costs will be managed centrally, away from local authorities by 2028, but it's not clear how much of the existing deficits will have to be paid back by councils.

The Labour government said it inherited a SEND system "on its knees".

In 2024, the National Audit Office warned the system was "financially unsustainable" for councils, and was not delivering better outcomes for SEND children, despite a 58% increase in funding in the decade up to 2024/25.

There has been increasing pressure on mainstream schools to provide support, as well as a shortage of specialist school places and staff.

The process for parents and children to get an EHCP can be lengthy, with fewer than half issued within the 20 week legal deadline in 2024.

There was also a record number of tribunals in 2024/25, where parents disagreed with a refusal to offer support, or were challenging the level of support offered.

The government has outlined some principles behind the planned reforms in England, including a focus on making mainstream schools more inclusive, and earlier intervention to reduce the need for EHCPs.

It has already announced £3bn of capital funding to create 50,000 new specialist places, many of them in mainstream schools, partly funded by cancelling some planned free schools.

It has also promised £200m for more SEND training for teachers.

Ministers have not ruled out replacing EHCPs, despite calls for them to stay from some MPs, parents and campaigners.

Education is a devolved issue, and each nation in the UK has its own system for supporting students with additional needs.

In Scotland, pupils are assessed as having additional support needs (ASN), under a broader definition than is used in England. Legally-binding "coordinated support plans" are reserved only for those with the most complex needs.

Wales introduced major reforms in 2021 for children with additional learning needs (ALN). Most individual plans are managed by mainstream schools, with local authorities managing plans for those with more complex needs or in specialist provision.

Northern Ireland also uses the term SEND, but its legally-binding individual plans are known as "statements of special educational needs".