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Emergency SEND support 'needed to meet rising demand'

2 mins read Education
Urgent action is needed to help local services meet increasing demand for support among children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), councils are warning.
The number of children receiving SEN support has increased annually since 2016, DfE figures show. Picture: Adobe Stock
The number of children receiving SEN support has increased annually since 2016, DfE figures show. Picture: Adobe Stock

Latest figures show the number of requests for an education, health, and care plan (EHCP) increased by just under a quarter to 93,302 in 2021.

Last year there were more than 62,000 plans put in place, the equivalent of 170 young people starting their programme of support each day.

The Local Government Association (LGA) is warning that councils are becoming unable to meet the escalating demand without emergency support.

The council representative body wants ministers to scrap higher needs budget deficits that have built up “as a result of the spiralling cots of providing support outstripping council SEND budgets”.

Boosting the availability of places in mainstream schools for SEND pupils is also needed before recommendations made in the recent SEND and AP green paper are implemented, said the LGA. It wants to see incentives for mainstream schools to take more higher needs children and new powers for councils to hold schools to account for support they provide.

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