SEND Crisis Cambs

26/06/2026

There has been a lot of discussion today about the Department for Education's new guidance on Inclusion Bases in Schools, so I wanted to share a few thoughts.
Firstly, it's important to understand what this document is. It is non-statutory guidance. It is not new law, it does not change the legal rights attached to Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), and it is just one part of the wider SEND reforms that are still being developed.

I know many families are understandably worried about what future reforms may mean. This guidance doesn't answer all of those questions, and there is still much more to come. So I think it's important that we continue to follow developments carefully rather than jump to conclusions based on one document.

Looking at the guidance itself, there are some genuinely positive aspirations.

It promotes: ✅ Better inclusion within mainstream schools. ✅ High expectations for children with SEND. ✅ Specialist support that remains connected to mainstream education. ✅ Greater collaboration between teachers, families and health professionals. ✅ A clear statement that inclusion bases should never be used as a sanction or isolation space.

If those ambitions are matched by reality—and that is a big "if"—they could improve the day-to-day experience of many children in mainstream schools.

The challenge, of course, is implementation.

Many families know from lived experience that SEND provision is currently inconsistent. Some schools provide excellent support, while others struggle to meet children's needs. Guidance alone won't change that. Delivering this vision would require sustained investment, staff training, specialist expertise and schools having the capacity to do what is being asked of them.

For now, I see this document as an indication of the direction of travel rather than the finished destination. It's worth reading, it's worth understanding, but it's equally important to remember that the wider SEND reforms are still evolving.

I'll continue to follow these developments closely and share balanced updates as more information becomes available.

There has been a lot of discussion today about the Department for Education's new guidance on Inclusion Bases in Schools, so I wanted to share a few thoughts.

Guidance to help schools and local authorities deliver high-quality provision in inclusion bases.

12/02/2026

SEND Reform, 2026: The Monologue No One Wants to Hear

Every school “will have a safe space.”
Because the rest of the building is apparently hazardous.

ND children bump against routines. Teachers burn out. Parents litigate at 3 a.m.

Accounting deficits forgive ... if budgets behave.

Local authorities juggle registers, inspections, statutory duties… with no extra cash.

Inclusion is now a spreadsheet column.

Academisation hollowed out schools.
Primaries are next.

Local oversight evaporates. Responsibility diffuses. Parents navigate school, trust, council, tribunal.

By 2028, SEND centralised.
Local legal duties vanish. Devolution rolls out. 1% consulted.

“Decisions local,” says the government. Translation: centralised control with a polite smile.

Neurodivergence rises. Funding stays flat.
Safe spaces are off-ramps from an unsafe mainstream.

Inclusion is compartmentalised. Outcomes invisible. Lived experience ignored.

Austerity is the new pedagogy. Compliance is the curriculum.

Policy theatre replaces support.
Beanbags are the cabinet’s idea of innovation.
Spreadsheets dictate life. Children caught in the machinery.

If you think this is hyperbolic, try being a child in it.

If you think it’s satire, congratulations you just described reality.

10/02/2026

CAMBRIDGESHIRE SEND UPDATE
GOVERNMENT TO COVER MOST OF COUNCILS’ DEFICITS

The UK Government has confirmed that it will pay off 90% of local authorities’ historic SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) deficits. This applies to deficits built up to the end of the 2025‑26 financial year, worth over £5 billion nationally. This support will be provided via a grant in Autumn 2026, as long as each council secures approval from the Department for Education for a local SEND reform plan.

For places like Cambridgeshire, which has an accumulated SEND deficit of tens (almost a hundred) of millions of pounds and ongoing pressure from rising demand and constrained specialist places, this is an important development. However

Councils must put forward credible reform plans to access the support.

It does not automatically fix the underlying funding system that has left many areas struggling year on year.

The remaining 10% of the deficit is likely still a local responsibility, and wider reform is expected to be set out in the forthcoming Schools/ SEND White Paper.

This feels like good news on the surface but the detail and implementation matter. I’m looking further into what this means locally and nationally and how children and families are affected by both historic underfunding and future reform plans.

More info here:
👉 https://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/governance/396-governance-news/99685-local-government-finance-settlement-details-plans-to-write-off-90-of-council-send-deficits

Outline of the government’s plan and conditions on reform plans

The Government has confirmed a final local government finance settlement for 2025-26 of £69bn, alongside plans to write-off 90% of councils' SEND deficits.

02/02/2026

Write to your MP.
The leaked rumours about SEND reforms are far from inspiring. Any reduction in legal protections undermines children’s ability to thrive and signals a troubling erosion of responsibility by the current government.
SEND children matter. Let your MP know it

Government has ‘learned lesson’ of botched welfare overhauls but MPs say they will not back cost-saving measures

02/02/2026

⚠️ SEND families: your voices matter.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is at its final stages in the House of Lords. Many provisions risk overriding parental decisions and forcing children into lifelong data-sharing without meaningful consent.
Listen to this song by Stop.the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, giving children’s voices the spotlight that’s missing from the debates: https://youtu.be/c4oPYJ-lUU0?feature=shared

Let’s make sure children and families are heard.

Yes to Children's WellbeingNo to Children's Wellbeing and Schools BillAll Children deserve better

27/01/2026

Save SEND children's rights.

Watch the reel. - Did you feel it?

Keir Starmer Bridget Phillipson Department for Education

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1C1LUvThxm/

26/01/2026

Update from CYP Committee - High Needs Funding & SEND in Cambridgeshire

On 20th January 2026, the Cambridgeshire Children & Young People’s Committee discussed the Dedicated Schools Grant and High Needs Block funding. Key points from the session:

Cambridgeshire currently faces a £98 million SEND deficit.

Complaints and SEND tribunal cases are rising sharply, reflecting real pressure on families and children.

The proposal to transfer 0.5% from the Schools Block to the High Needs Block was not approved by the Schools Forum this year, meaning additional pressure on SEND budgets.

No longitudinal data or impact analysis exists to show whether past funding transfers have improved outcomes for children.

Funding for two new specialist schools (270 places) remains uncertain, pending government decisions.

Safety Valve arrangements have been paused for 18 months, leaving local authorities managing deficits with limited resources.

We continue to ask: How can we be sure that funding decisions are improving real educational experiences for children and young people?

This is a critical moment for transparency, accountability, and advocacy. We will keep following developments closely and share updates as they happen.

25/01/2026

When SEND reforms prioritise efficiency over inclusion, they diminish legal rights while claiming to modernise support. Early intervention and universal inclusion are quietly sold off as cost pressures, rebranded as “streamlining,” while essential services are reduced, fragmented, or withdrawn altogether. What replaces them is not support but segregation: children and young people placed in containers, units, or parallel settings without the full, multidisciplinary provision they actually need. Outcomes are not meaningfully measured, lived experience is sidelined, and accountability is displaced by budget management and reputation protection. This is not reform driven by evidence or care, it is systems preservation at the expense of disabled lives, where exclusion is sanitised as pragmatism and rights erosion is framed as inevitability.

18/03/2025

Urgent and important call to action NOW.

Your parental rights to chose how your children are educated is under attack. Not just elective home educating families, but all of us. If you have a school refusing child and chose to remove from school because it is not a suitable environment to meet needs or harm is actually happening to your child, you will loose your right to protect your children from harm. The state, local authority will decide. You will need to take the local authority to court and prove that your child is being harmed or needs are not being met. The local authority have an exceedingly poor track record on these matters to date.

ACT NOW. STOP THE BILL.

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URGENT: HELP US PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN FROM STARMER'S NEW LAW

Find your MP here:
https://members.parlia…

You can call MPs and Lords on this number (NB: DO NOT BE RUDE OR ABUSIVE, as this does not help and the person answering is unlikely to be responsible for the issue):
020 7219 4272

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SUMMARY

The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, proposed in 2025, includes significant changes that will impact home education in England. These measures raise serious concerns about parental rights, privacy, and the freedom to choose the best education for children. Below are the key provisions of the bill:

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1. Registration and Monitoring

Mandatory "Children Not in School" Registers: The bill requires local authorities to maintain a compulsory register of children who are not attending school. This will affect all home-educating families, who must register their children and provide detailed information on their education.

Information Requirements: Home-educating parents must submit extensive information, including their child’s curriculum, hours of instruction, and any changes to these arrangements within 15 days.

Home Visits by Local Authorities: Local authorities will be given powers to request home visits to ensure the suitability of education. Refusal of these visits could be used as evidence against families.

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2. Restrictions on Home Education

Loss of Right to Home Educate: Parents could lose their automatic right to home educate if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or a child protection plan.

Restrictions on Special Schools: Local authorities can refuse to deregister children from special schools if it is deemed not to be in the child’s best interests.

Consent Required for Home Education: Local authority consent will be required in some circumstances for children to be homeschooled, giving councils more control over parental decisions.

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3. Increased Local Authority Powers

Review and Intervene in Home Education: Local authorities will have the power to review and potentially end home education arrangements for children involved in section 47 enquiries or subject to child protection plans. This could allow authorities to intervene in the educational arrangements of vulnerable children.

Enhanced Investigative Powers: Local authorities will have greater powers to investigate the educational suitability of home education, including the right to request home visits and see the child.

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4. Data Collection and Privacy Concerns

Unique Identifier Number: The bill proposes a Unique Identifier Number for every child, which will link their data across various services. This raises serious concerns about data security and the potential misuse or breaches of personal information.

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5. Impact on Educational Approach

Restrictions on Flexibility: The bill’s extensive requirements may limit the flexibility and diverse approaches that are characteristic of home education. The proposed monitoring could force a more formal, school-like structure on home-educating families, stifling creative and individualised learning.

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6. Penalties and Enforcement

Changes to School Attendance Orders (SAOs): The bill introduces increased criminal sanctions for families who fail to comply with school attendance orders.

Monetary Penalties for Educational Providers: Educational providers who fail to provide details of home-educated children using their services could face financial penalties.

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While proponents of the bill argue that these measures will ensure that all children receive a suitable education and help protect vulnerable children, critics assert that the bill:

Undermines parental rights by removing decision-making power from families.

Misunderstands home education, which is fundamentally different from school-based education.

Imposes unnecessary burdens on home-educating families, potentially stifling the personalised learning that many children benefit from.

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What You Can Do
We need your voice to stop this bill from passing. Please contact your MP and express your concerns about these measures and their impact on home education and parental rights.

05/02/2025

Please support this petition.

Cambridgeshire where i live is one of the 38 local authorities stuck with a safety valve agreement.

This agreement only serves to cut services and attempt to extinguish special educational needs (SEND).

Flawed data has been used for a decade since the Children and Families Act became law. A significant primary statutory law that if implemented as is stated would have achieved positive outcomes for very many children and young people. But DfE are now stating there are no discernable positive outcomes, despite financial investment.

My friend Rachel Filmer has been working tirelessly to raise awareness and seeking to overturn this unfair and discriminatory arrangement in 38 local authorities, that only achieves cuts to essential SEND services. Thank you Rachel for all your time and work.

Locally in Cambridgeshire the promised capital funding from government as part agreement has failed to arrive. The County Council having resourced a department to get to work of building SEND resource bases in mainstream schools, kind of on site sheds to catch some focused support and reprieve from the craziness of being in school, for children and young people struggling. Supposed to be part of cost cutting exercise to save a few quid. No support, reduced funding, additional funding of an inclusion department and no additional promised funding. Need to cut more and reduce demand...

Reporting and data missing for months and still unclear where they are. Privileged information for elected members.

Economy of scale a symphony from schools when questioned about why section F EHC plans detailing required provision has not been delivered. Did they take the top up funding ? If they did where has it gone?

Specialist schools suck hundreds of thousands of pounds per child from the high needs block fund. But where is the accountability on how those funds are spent? Is it found in annual reviews when there is an opportunity to assess on progress made towards outcomes or not. Oh let's remember what the DfE have said, no discernable positive outcomes. So what has been assessed at hundreds of thousands of pounds funding annual reviews? Accountability for reasonable use of public funds ? Positive outcomes for children and young people?

If you want to know more, then do comment or DM.

Plesse support the petition
Thank you.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700708?fbclid=IwY2xjawIQBF1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHelvg-L5wHy4nKCW4zCTJgQncaQOj-b24acXbjd9brDVAxxT-Yt9iFOJXA_aem_NlmncviU4Q6fmh2arr-U2g

We ask that the Safety Valve programme, which gives funding to local authorities who put plans in place to reduce school deficits, is ended. We believe it incentivises cutting support for vulnerable children, and we want funding to cover local authority deficits to be provided without condition.