School staff raise concerns over shortage of support workers for SEND pupils

In a survey of more than 8,000 National Education Union (NEU) members - teachers, support staff and school leaders across England and Wales - seven in eight said their resources were insufficient.

The State of Education Survey found one in three had no behaviour support team at all, while two in five had no counsellor or occupational health specialist.

A quarter had no educational psychologist, child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) support or speech and language therapist.

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Amid growing waiting lists, more than half added they were not confident that a referral for SEND assessment, diagnosis or specialist support would lead to a pupil getting the help they need. A quarter said they were “very unconfident”.

Daniel Kebede, joint general secretary of the NEU, called for a major funding commitment by the government. He said: “Teachers and leaders are losing faith in a system that should meet need, but either can’t or won’t.”

It comes a year after the government’s SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, which aimed to “deliver a more dignified experience for children and young people with SEND and to restore families’ confidence in the system”. 

Despite this, one teacher said: “The current system is failing children. We do not have the resources, environments, skilled staff or time to support these students. Funding is completely inadequate and paying to support children with high-level need has wiped out our school budget and negatively impacted all other pupils.”

Another cited low pay as a reason for not enough teaching assistant support.

Since 2015, the number of children and young people with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) has increased by 115%, while the Department for Education has only increased funding by 90%. According to government data, in 2022, more than 30,000 children waited beyond the legal limit for an EHCP. 

Kebede added: “The crisis in SEND funding has gone on for too long. We are seeing children spending too much of their journey through the school system without the support they need.

“Local authorities are forced to ration support to parents after a long wait and this rationing is driving up the number of tribunals.

“Undiagnosed SEND or unmet SEND need is frequently related to exclusions, and this will often come down to a lack of proper support. It is in the interests of everyone in the school community and government to resource SEND well and ensure that children’s engagement is not jeopardised simply because of cuts.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “We want all children to have the chance to reach their potential, which is why we are increasing funding for young people with complex needs by over £10.5 billion next year - up 60% in the last five years.

“We are actively delivering against our SEND and AP improvement plan, reforming the system across the country with earlier intervention, consistent high standards and less bureaucracy.

“We are committed to training thousands of workers so children can get the help they need, including investing over £21million to train 400 more educational psychologists from this year and increasing the number of teaching assistants by 59,600 from 2011.”