Schools do not have enough staff to make SEND reforms work, union warns

Schools do not have enough staff to achieve the government's aims of providing support for more children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools, England's largest teaching union has said.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said the "overwhelming" feeling of teachers was inclusion can't be done "on the cheap".

In February, the government announced major reforms to the SEND system in England, including bringing in "inclusion bases" - dedicated spaces for pupils with SEND - in all schools.

The Department for Education (DfE) said it had announced "once-in-a-generation SEND reforms to put inclusion at the heart of education".

The government has commited an extra £4bn between now and 2029 to prepare schools before the main changes begin to come into force.

Of that extra funding, £1.6bn will go directly to early years, schools and colleges over the next three years as part of an "inclusion fund" to prepare for change.

A further £1.8bn will fund extra expert support for schools to call on during the transition, with some more money for training and local authorities too.

But the NEU said the funding was not high enough to achieve the government's goals.

It argues the inclusion money will equate to a part-time teaching assistant for the average primary school, and two teaching assistants for the average secondary.

Kebede said schools would struggle to fund an increase in teachers' pay of even 2% next year from their budgets, and the inclusion fund would "merely soften the blow of underfunding".

"I think everybody recognises that the government has difficult economic choices to make," Kebede said. "However, if there is investment in education today, government will save much more money in the future."

Ahead of its annual conference in Brighton, the NEU carried out a snapshot survey of its members, saying the sample of 10,300 teachers and 3,000 support staff who responded had been adjusted to reflect the school workforce.

According to the union, 86% of teachers responding said insufficient staff was a barrier to inclusion, followed by 73% who identified workload as a barrier.

Teachers and support staff also expressed concerns about class sizes, training and the difficulties in the current system of getting specialist help to identify children's needs and provide support.

Among the government's key SEND reforms is a proposal for schools to draw up an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child with special educational needs.

In future, the intention is for many more to have their needs met at a mainstream school.

The government wants to achieve this by making schools more inclusive - such as by having more sensory spaces and earlier access to specialists like speech and language therapists.

Alongside this, by 2035, only children with the most complex needs will qualify for an education, health and care plan (EHCP) - the legal documents which set out what support pupils are entitled to.

The proportion of children with EHCPs has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, and although that is expected to continue to grow in the next few years, the government hopes its changes will eventually bring it back down to current levels.

The government expects some of its planned changes to be taken on by schools, including drawing up children's ISPs, but the NEU says it is concerned about the potential effect this could have on teachers' workloads.

Speaking to the BBC, Kebede said "we all support" a desire for more inclusion, but "there is just not the adequate funding or staffing levels to meet that aspiration".

"Teachers and support staff want inclusive education," he said.

"They want to see an inclusive school system. The problem is they are just so overstretched, they are being asked to do much more with less resource - it becomes an impossibility."

Recent research by an independent charity points to the potential pressures on schools in England as they prepare for the changes ahead.

The NFER workforce reports suggest while progress is being made in recruiting and keeping teachers, a growing proportion of teaching assistants are leaving their jobs in schools.

It estimates that around one in five support staff left the school system between 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Teaching assistants in particular play an important role in providing more individual support in classrooms for children with special educational needs.

In response to the NEU, the DfE said it was backing schools with its £4bn investment, and that it was "fiercely ambitious for every single child".

It is currently consulting on the proposals, and said it wants parents and schools to share their views.

The impact of the proposed reforms will be one of the main subjects of debate as union members gather for their annual conference.

There is a political edge too, with the leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski, due to speak to teachers and support staff at the NEU conference on Monday.

Kebede said Polanski was now "the most favoured politician amongst our members", and described that as a "wake up call" for the Labour government.

The union is consulting its members over potential industrial action over pay, to gauge the appetite before committing to a formal ballot.

In the meantime, on ministers' desks is the report from the independent body which reviews teachers' pay, which will help shape the pay offer for the next year or two.