Crisis in SEND education

Pippa Heylings MP opened the the House of Commons debate on SEND Provision: Autism and ADHD debate, on Thursday 12th December. You can watch a recording of Pippa speaking, read a transcript of the debate, or read the speech Pippa prepared for the debate below

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me the opportunity today to address this critical issue that impacts so many families and carers not just in my constituency, but all across the country. 

I rise today to speak up for all those who feel they are not being heard: to speak about the crisis in the provision of Special Educational Needs and Disability support - in particular for children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in England. A crisis that is failing children and young people, their families and carers, the professionals that support them and society as a whole.

Before I proceed, I would like to thank all the courageous parents and carers who have taken the time to tell me their stories whether that be writing to me or coming to my weekly surgeries across South Cambridgeshire (- and those who have come all the way to Westminster to be with us in the gallery today). I also want to pay a special tribute to the staff from schools in my constituency including the staff from Basingbourn, Melbourn and Hauxton Primary Schools who have taken the time to attend this critically important debate and are also in the gallery with us today. 

I was privileged to join some of them a week ago at Bassingbourn Primary School where I witnessed firsthand the inspiring work by dedicated and caring professionals, creating safe spaces such as The Hub for children with special needs and supporting them to reintegrate into their classrooms. I saw for myself the calmness and trusting relationships built with those students; heard about the difference this is making whereby students - rather than spiralling into disruptive behaviour or not even being able to make it through the door to registration - are now seeking out The Hub as a space to ready themselves for registration or take time out and then getting back to class. The Headteachers, staff and SEND Coordinators go above and beyond, often making miracles happen on very limited budgets. 

Let me share the words of one dedicated professional from my constituency so that this House can hear what the current crisis is leading to:

“On a daily basis I am setting up, delivering and helping other Teaching Assistants to deliver bespoke curriculums for (children with SEND) as they are mostly educated outside the classes of their peers. We do not have a special unit for them, we are just accommodating them as best we can in quieter areas of the school, including corridors, because they are not able to work in the noise and business of a primary classroom. The needs of these children vary though they all need 1:1 TAs to help them and others stay safe, regulated and learning throughout the day. At present we have two non-verbal children with an Autism diagnosis who, years ago, you would not have expected to see at a mainstream school. Up until this week I have believed that I was doing the right thing trying to make sure they are happy and secure and genuinely learning and making progress with us.” However, she reached out to me questioning the very fundamentals of what she is doing as a professional as a result of the heartbreaking experience of those very children and their families when they faced what many families have to address: the key transition moments, say, from Primary to Secondary or at 18 years old. She told me of a child who, a few days after starting Secondary school, was excluded because their behaviour was not manageable. In her words: “It broke my heart to hear from her Mum what she had gone through in her short time in mainstream Secondary and I knew at once that she must have been so frightened to have behaved as she did. It was like sending a 3 year old to secondary school and expecting them to be ok! She was subsequently at home for most of the remaining school year receiving education from a tutor paid for by the Local Authority - after her parents fought hard and demanded it -  and then was finally given a place at their local special school in the summer term. What I now understand is that the broken system means that a child has to fail in a very distressing way before they are given the provision they need. I could not sit by and see another child I have known for many years go down the same path with all the knowledge of how damaging the experience will be for them, without saying something about it!”

Mr. Speaker, every child deserves access to education to get the best start in life, to build a strong foundation that can provide valuable skills that can allow them to thrive. Sadly, this isn’t the case for many children across the country, particularly those with ASD and ADHD, who are being denied this right every single day.

Every professional I have spoken to agrees that early diagnosis and support is essential. 

However, the first challenge for many families in order to access the statutory support they could be entitled to, is getting a diagnosis in the first place. Without a formal diagnosis or assessment it is impossible to get an EHCP, an Education, Health and Care Plan. This means navigating a complex series of assessments and draft plans - a challenging and lengthy process which more often ends in an appeal or taking too long to be finalised. 

The reality for many is that the wait to get one of these assessments means waiting months, if not years. Lord Darzi’s investigation of the NHS in England, notes that “waiting lists for community services and mental health have surged” and “demand for assessments for ADHD and Autism have grown exponentially in recent years” – with children disproportionately represented among those waiting. 

Recent research found that there are 200,000 Children in England struggling to get an Education, Health and Care plan. That’s 200,000 families left in uncertainty, desperate for help. That’s 200,000 children struggling without the support they need. If you think those figures are staggering, then you might be surprised to hear that there are over 1.7 million pupils in England with special educational needs, and only 400,000 of those have an EHCP. 

Cambridgeshire currently has 8,033 students with EHCPs - a 51.3% increase since 2020 - and of those, 2,593 plans primarily address Autism Spectrum Disorder. I was told by the Chief Executive of the Cambridgeshire County Council that there has been an increase of 270% in the number of children with ASD. Requests for EHC needs assessments have risen faster than the national average, driven by greater awareness of SEND and the statutory responsibilities of the local authorities, the impact of the COVID pandemic on young people with special educational needs, and the overall increase in mental health issues for children even at a very young age. These numbers help to underline the true scale of this issue, but we shouldn’t get purely drawn into statistics and figures because behind every number and percentage, there is a family, a young child and often their siblings, that are being failed, millions of families every single day.

These delays for assessment, diagnosis, and therapeutic support leave families, schools and social services to pick up the pieces. Meanwhile, whilst they wait, children are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the school environment that is not catering to their needs. This means they are becoming increasingly disturbed or presenting with even more challenging and sometimes dangerous behaviour, dangerous to themselves and others.

Families who can afford to seek private neurodevelopmental assessments tend to receive help much faster than those who are reliant on public services. For the rest, it’s a postcode lottery. NHS England data reveals stark regional disparities in waiting times for diagnosis. For example, the North West region has the longest average wait of 3 years and 4 months from referral to diagnosis. So there is also a health inequality element to this, that there are certain groups of children less likely to have their needs identified or met - vulnerable children desperate for help shouldn’t be punished with longer waiting times just because of where they were born. 

For some children, mainstream schools are simply not suitable. Parents and carers are bearing the brunt of this reality—managing reduced timetables, enduring repeated exclusions, and watching their children receive only a few hours of education each day. Oftentimes it is sibling young carers that are also affected by being taken out of classroom time or spending their lunch breaks supporting their sibling because the support they should be getting just isn’t available.  In some cases, special schools in the area either have no places available or declare themselves unable to meet a child’s complex needs. And it’s the primary or secondary schools that are obliged to meet that need no matter what their capacity. 

Sending children with complex needs to mainstream secondary schools that are ill-equipped to support them sets them up for failure. Inclusion cannot mean forcing children into environments where they cannot thrive. 

Mr. Speaker, we are facing a mental health epidemic. In the midst of this crisis, our most vulnerable children—those with Autism and ADHD—are being left to struggle on their own, waiting for assessments that could provide them with a deeper understanding of themselves, greater acceptance from society, and access to essential resources and support.

The consequences of these delays are profound. Research shows that autistic children are significantly more likely to develop mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression than their neurotypical peers. Even more heartbreakingly, the suicide rate among autistic individuals is alarmingly high. These statistics should shock us into action. Yet, time and again, we fail to make the early interventions that could transform lives and futures.

The impact extends beyond the children themselves, it deeply affects their families. Studies reveal that parents of children with autism are far less able or likely to work than other parents because the duty of care falls to them even during school time - especially when reduced school timetables are the only way in which schools find themselves able to manage stretched resources. This aligns with countless stories I’ve heard from parents in my constituency of South Cambs—parents who have had to leave their jobs to respond to daily crises at school or because their children are out of school altogether.

Another child in my constituency has not attended school for 18 months. His mother, a single parent, drives him daily to limited hours of temporary education. This eight-year-old boy is so distressed that police have been called on multiple occasions. He is number 267 on the waitlist for an assessment.

This situation is not only unsustainable but profoundly unjust. 

It would be easy to point fingers at local councils and say this is their failure, but the truth is that local authorities are stretched to their limits. Years of underfunding by the last Conservative government has left councils unable to meet the growing demand for SEND assessments and support. Whilst the Code of Practice 2014 was well intentioned and designed to improve SEND support, expanding the level of support available to young people and those up to 25, it has been insufficiently funded. It has been calculated by f40, the cross-party local authority campaign group, that an additional £4.6bn extra annual SEND revenue is required to meet current need. Yet, most of our County Councils face a black hole in their budgets. 

A further crisis is that of the training and retention of Educational Psychologists. Educational Psychologists and council caseworkers are overwhelmed, turnover rates are high, and burnout is common. 

Cambridgeshire County Council has 17.5 budgeted Educational Psychologist roles, but 6.4 remain vacant due to a national shortage and higher pay in private practice. This shortage significantly delays assessments, compounding the years-long waiting list, because current legislation mandates Educational Psychologist involvement in every case for diagnosis and EHCP development.

In South Cambridgeshire, we face one of the lowest per-pupil funding rates in the country so together with the underfunding of each EHC Plan, schools are struggling to support their most vulnerable pupils amidst rising costs. 

While the government’s recent announcements of additional SEND funding are welcome, we await details on how it will be allocated and whether families and schools in South Cambs will receive their fair share. Nevertheless, there are some children for whom mainstream settings will not be suitable, and we need to see reform in how the system deals with children with particularly high needs. 

That’s why Liberal Democrats are calling for a National Body for SEND, to end the postcode lottery faced by families of children with the highest needs. This would include looking at immediate government action we need to:

• Prioritise early diagnosis and support for those children with SEND.
• Urgently increase funding for ASD and ADHD diagnostic services to reduce waiting times, including addressing the chronic lack of Educational Psychologists;
• Provide targeted resources to local authorities to improve their capacity for EHCPs.
• Commit to creating more special school places and ensure fair funding for mainstream schools supporting SEND children.
• Develop interim support measures for children awaiting diagnosis, so they do not continue to fall through the cracks.
• Provide mental health professionals in all schools, primary and secondary.

Without action Mr. Speaker, we will continue to consistently fail our most vulnerable children by not providing timely interventions that could transform their lives. 

Before I close, I want to again pay tribute to the extraordinary efforts of schools, SENCOs, and teachers in my constituency. They are doing a remarkable job under immense pressure, often going above and beyond to support children with SEND. I also want to honour the parents and siblings, who are often the primary caregivers—for their tireless advocacy, resilience, and dedication. They are fighting not just for their children but for a better system for all.

Thank you.