🔗 Share this article

For a long time, I was eager to produce a documentary about Send.

You might recognize me from Linda Carter, but I'm also a mum to an neurodivergent son who also has dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Required many months of perseverance and effort from both of us to secure the right education for him. Sometimes, it felt like a struggle.

This is the reason I wanted to make this film, so I could connect with other families going through the similar situation, and discuss with educators, councils, and the ministry about how Send children are educated in England.

The Scope of Send in England

Currently, there are more than 1.7 million children in the country with special educational needs. It is a broad group, encompassing autistic children and people who face challenges in speech and language, have attention disorders, and physical disabilities, along with other needs.

Schools in the UK already provide assistance to these students, but if parents think their child requires extra help, they can make an application to their council for an Education, Health and Care Plan.

An Education, Health and Care Plan is a vital legal document because it is legally binding, specifies where a pupil should go to school, and details how much extra support they should get.

My husband and I spent hours completing the forms to request an EHCP, and many families find the procedure very frustrating.

Buddy and Tunde

Not long after I encounter 15-year-old the young man, he presents his beloved cuddly toy, his comfort object.

Buddy's autistic, which means his mind processes and reacts to the world in a unique manner from others. He struggles with meeting people his own age, understanding his emotions, and nervousness. He likes to keep his toy nearby.

Following their move to London from Scotland in October 2024, his mother, Tunde, began searching for schools. She says she contacted at least 11 institutions, but many of them failed to respond, and those that did indicated they were at capacity or were unable to give her son the necessary help without an Education, Health and Care Plan.

At the start of this year, more than 638,000 plans had been granted to children and young people in the country, a significant increase on the year before and an 80% increase in six years.

The increase is partly because families and educators have become more skilled at recognizing pupils who have Send, especially autism spectrum disorder, as rather than there being an increase with special needs.

It is the second time Buddy and Tunde have applied for an plan. Their initial request was turned down before Buddy was assessed. Local authorities reject about a 25% of requests at the assessment stage, according to government data.

When they lived in Scotland, Tunde says they did not have to request the equivalent of an EHCP. His secondary school provided assistance for his learning, although not for his emotional needs.

Scotland has a alternative approach for helping children with special needs; educational institutions aim to offer greater assistance without the requirement for families to apply for the equivalent of an EHCP.

"It's chaotic," Tunde says. "[Getting extra support] was so easily done, and it should be simple to repeat."

While the teenager is not able to go to school, the local authority is providing him with nearly 20 hours of lessons per week in the community library.

Tunde tells me the process of seeking an EHCP has been so demanding she had to pause her career as a midwife and community nurse for a period.

"I can't do the parenting. I cannot take him to these sessions, and be employed at the same time… I couldn't get my son seen in the appropriate timeframe and attend to patients' infants in the right amount time. And it was a toss up - and my son prevailed," she says.

We catch up with the youth after a lengthy speech and language evaluation.

"Exhausting… that is the only word I've got for you," he says as he rests on a barrier, Reindeer Dog held close.

Finding a Place for the Teenager

It's September and as countless children begin classes, Buddy is still be educated in the library. Two months after I first met him, he's getting an EHCP but his education is still not settled.

The local council agreed to Tunde's appeal that he attend an private school that specializes in pupils who have difficulties in standard education.

Before Buddy can begin there, the institution has already taken over the sessions he gets in the library setting. But Tunde's currently uncertain the school will be able to provide what she believes her son needs to improve his interpersonal abilities and self-assurance with children his own age.

"We had been all prepared for September… and he's still not at school, he continues to receive individual lessons," she stated.

"I think … getting ready to be around other kids and then still just being one-to-one with adults has set him back and caused him to be reluctant to go to school."

Southwark Council says it takes the family's worries with utmost importance and it will keep assist her family to make certain they receive the support they need without further delay.

It says it understands how hard it can be for parents to manage the system, and how distressing holdups in securing support can be.

The council adds it has allocated funds in a specialist information and advice team, and now ensures pupils are evaluated by specialist teachers at the earliest stage, and it is open to reviewing the circumstances when families are concerned about education placements.

The Current System is Broken

I am aware there is a different perspective to this issue.

The huge rise in the number of EHCPs is placing councils under severe financial pressure. It is estimated that English councils are set to run up a total accumulated special needs shortfall of £4.3bn and £4.9bn by spring 2026.

Ministers says it has committed a significant sum to help councils fund plans and additional funds on new Send school places.

I traveled to West Sussex County Council to speak with among the few people in public service prepared to discuss on the record about special needs financing.

The councillor is a elected representative and official for children, young people and learning.

"The current system is in fact very adversarial. Our parents are increasingly tired and anxious and frustrated of battling… Staff sickness levels are really, really high at the moment," she says.

"The current system is ineffective. It has failed. It fails to provide the optimal results for children."

Demand for plans is currently outstripping funding in the region. In a decade ago, the council had about 3,400 pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan. Now there are over 10,000.

As a result the Send deficit has been increasing annually, so that at the conclusion of the fiscal year it stands at more than £123m.

"That [money] is primarily intended for community resources. {That would have|