CYP Now - MPs urge government not to ‘backtrack’ on SEND reforms

The education select committee has urged Education Secretary Kit Malthouse not to “renege” on promises made to reform provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) after the government confirmed it is looking at ways to cut public spending.

Robert Halfon: 'Children with SEND desperately need the funding increases they were promised'. Picture: Parliament UK

The call comes in response to a letter from Malthouse to the chair of the committee MP Robert Halfon addressing his concerns about the lack of resources in the SEND system and “funding being targeted at more costly, late-stage interventions”.

Halfon’s concerns are based on a report by a previous iteration of the committee called the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities report.

In his response to the letter, Malthouse, who was confirmed as Education Secretary last month, highlights a series of pledges made in the government's SEND and AP green paper including a “commitment to increasing high needs funding by 21 per cent by the end of the 2023/24 financial year, to £9.7bn”, the introduction of a new national framework of funding bands and changes to digitise the education, health and care plans system.

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