13/06/2026
Six things that could genuinely improve SEND.
Not a slogan.
Not a rebrand.
Not another consultation.
Just six fairly obvious ideas.
1. Make mainstream schools genuinely inclusive.
2. Protect legal rights.
3. Fund support before children reach crisis.
4. Expand specialist provision.
5. Stop punishing schools for including complex children.
6. Hold local authorities accountable when they break the law.
None of these are particularly radical.
Most families have been saying them for years.
The frustrating part is that SEND debates often focus on where children should be educated rather than whether they are actually getting the support they need.
A child struggling in mainstream isn't proof that mainstream has failed.
A child thriving in specialist provision isn't proof that inclusion has failed.
The real question is much simpler:
Are we building systems around children, or asking children to adapt to systems that were never designed for them?
Because right now, too many children are being expected to fit the system.
And too many families are paying the price when they can't.
The strange thing about SEND is that almost everyone agrees the system is broken.
Parents.
Teachers.
Schools.
Local authorities.
Government.
The disagreement isn't about whether there is a crisis.
It's about what caused it.
Some say families ask for too much.
Some say schools don't have enough resources.
Some say local authorities are overwhelmed.
Some say government funding hasn't kept pace with reality.
But here's the question I keep coming back to:
If the system is broken for children, broken for families, broken for teachers, broken for schools and financially broken for councils... who exactly is it working for?
Because after years of inquiries, reviews, reforms, consultations, tribunals, working groups, strategy documents and action plans, we're still having the same conversation.
And perhaps that's the most worrying thing of all.
A system can fail by accident.
It takes something else entirely to keep failing in exactly the same way for over a decade.
