15th August- Jack Abbott Writes About the National SEND Crisis

Last week, I met with families who have been so badly failed by Suffolk's broken SEND system and listened to the heartbreaking stories of children and their parents. 

These stories are all too common in our county. Every week, I receive emails from desperate parents who are exhausted from battling a broken system, turning in desperation to their MP as a last resort. 

Nationally, the SEND system we inherited from the Tories is completely broken. The last Conservative Education Secretary labelled the system she left behind as “lose, lose, lose” while the current Tory Deputy Chief Whip said they should hang their ‘heads in shame’. I agree. 

However, while SEND is now very much a national issue, SEND in Suffolk has been in crisis for a decade. The endless waits for an EHCP. A dearth of specialist places. Exhaustive Ombudsman and tribunal battles. Woeful communications and support.  

We all remember when, six years ago, the East Anglian Daily Times carried on its frontpage the faces of children and families from across Suffolk, let down by a failed system, accompanied by the headline: ‘We must be heard’. Progress since then has been far too slow. 

As an opposition councillor, I helped deliver the plans for 800 new specialist places, but as I warned then, this needed to be the first phase of the building programme, and that it was not a magic bullet to solving the multitude of problems. Another damning report underlined that. 

In 2024, only a quarter of EHCPs issued in Suffolk were within the 20-week deadline, and more than one in five plans were issued after more than 52 weeks. That is 305 children abandoned without support for over a year.  

Getting an EHCP often takes months, or sometimes years, of expensive and emotionally taxing battles. Even then, these EHCPs may be inaccurate and of poor quality, to which parents have only 15 days to respond.

Children are far too frequently banded incorrectly, forcing already underfunded and short-staffed schools to cover the shortfall if children are to receive the requisite support. 

While our education system consistently fails to meet the needs of children with SEND, in the worst cases they are removed entirely, leaving many families to home educate their children, not out of choice, but necessity. 

Suffolk has had one of the worst primary school exclusion rates in the country for many years, with children with SEND being disproportionately affected. In 2023/24, overall, over 7,500 suspensions were given to children with SEND, which over 100 children with SEND were permanently excluded from school. 

Rightfully, therefore, this Government is acting to fix this broken system and restore the confidence of families both nationally and here in Suffolk. Our Government is investing an extra £1 billion in SEND, and has provided Suffolk County Council with £10 million to build new specialist places.   

It has restructured the Department for Education to put SEND at its heart, and rolled out programmes across schools to make schools more inclusive, to improve speech and language support, to give children with SEND better access to music and sport, to provide them with cutting-edge tech that assists their learning. 

However, it is not just more funding that is needed (although it is incredibly welcome), we need a culture change too. Children with SEND are not troublemakers or “problem children”. Families should never have to fight for their child’s right to an education.  

While this Government has already put the first building blocks in place, the system needs much more than increased funding and tinkering at the edges: we need enduring and fundamental reform. 

This Autumn, our Government will publish a new schools White Paper with a proper plan – built from conversations with teachers, parents and campaigners – for an inclusive, support-first system that enables every child to achieve and thrive.  

As I have done for many years, I will continue to support families and fight for change at both a local and a national level.