The education of our most valuable asset – our children and young people – should be a key priority for every Government, including those children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

f40 believes we must revolutionise our education system and invest heavily to ensure every child is given the best chance to succeed in life.

The current system is not working as well as it should be.

Funding is unfair between local authority areas, meaning some schools receive thousands of pounds less per pupil than others. This is wrong.

Pupil attendance is down; we have a teacher retention and recruitment emergency; and there is a huge crisis in SEND, with children not receiving the right support in the right environment as quickly as they should be, whilst local authorities have spiralling deficit SEND budgets.

We appreciate the financial pressure on the UK economy and, in this context, investing in public services is difficult. However, can we afford not to invest if we want to provide young people with the best life chances and ensure future economic growth? 

f40 believes we should:

• Amend and improve the National Funding Formulae to ensure the fair distribution of school and SEND funding, enabling flexibility in how funding is utilised. Historic proxy factors that lock in funding for some areas whilst capping others from receiving more should be removed. We appreciate there will always be some differences in funding due to area living costs and specific school and pupil needs, but the current disparity is far too wide.

• Reform and invest in mainstream education to ensure it meets the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND. Schools must be sufficiently funded, resourced, equipped, and supported to ensure children and young people reach their potential, with early intervention, inclusion, and accountability prioritised. Inspections should focus on how well inclusion is delivered, as well as academic achievement. Investment should also be targeted at support services, such as mental health and speech and language, which have been under-resourced in recent years and have fallen to schools and teachers to deliver without the necessary funding or training.

• Tackle the SEND crisis through reform and investment. Additional capital funding will enable local authorities to provide specialist provision for those with the greatest need, reducing the reliance on expensive independent provision, which is contributing to the growing local authority deficit SEND budgets and spiralling transport costs. We also seek greater regulation of the specialist independent SEND sector.