FUNDING THE SPECIAL EDUCATION SECTOR AND THE IMPACT ON IT
Being able to fund the Special Education sector has never been so important for schools, provisions, management, and students for today and beyond. The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that lots of vulnerable children will have felt left behind in terms of the education and potentially their mental health. Staff and headteachers have and continue to feel the pressure to provide a comprehensive catchup service to students whilst remaining in budget. Special Education remains crucial to providing the pathway to a brighter future for those who have additional needs but without adequate funding, the Special Education sector will struggle to provide a suitable service for headteachers, managers, schools, and students. Here’s why Special Education needs to continue to be suitably funded.
Funding Special Education creates jobs
Quite simply, if you can fund Special Education suitably, the sector and schools can then find more money to put additional and useful resources in place to help create targeted roles, more opportunities for children and new jobs that help the economy and benefit students and vulnerable learners in the long term. Suffolk is an example where investment is being placed to create more places and specialist provisions for children who are unsuitable for mainstream education. The plan is part of the county’s 2019 special educational needs and disabilities capital programme where 73 more placements is planned to be created.[1] Without these investments, students would be left behind and be unable to attend suitable education settings that can provide a service to best suit them.
Funding the Special Education Sector is crucial in a highly demanded sector
Funding the Special Education sector is important and relevant to being able to create opportunities and placements for those who most need it, especially when demand to get into a SEN provision is increasing at a fast rate. The number of those who are on an EHC plan as of January 2022 is at 473,255 which is up nearly 10% from 2021 and the number of initial requests to apply for an EHC plan increased by 23% to 93,302 as of January 2022. The increasing requests for more EHC plans mean bigger demand for placements within SEN provisions and that hasn’t been exactly simple for those requesting them. Some provisions have been operating at peak capacity or above, leaving them unable to accept more students and with a lack of new buildings and provisions to keep up with demand, many vulnerable people could be severely left behind and loose out on education. Therefore, Special Education must continue to be funded so that new provisions and educational settings can be created to stop the sprawling backlog of those unable to get placements and to keep to up with increasing demands of those who need to be educated.
Maintaining funding is critical in a financially difficult time
The Special Education sector is going through tough times currently and the medium term future will continue to be extremely difficult for many that help keep everything going including schools, headteachers, managers and financial officers. Whilst there was an additional £1bn of funding for SEND for the 2023/23 financial year, inflation and tight budgets means that the Special Education Sector continues to feel the effect of the financial struggles this year currently and it isn’t going to be any easier. The Autumn Statement which is due to be given on the 17th November is rumoured to include spending cuts for most government departments including possibly the Department of Education. Spending cuts have a major impact on the type of services that the sector can offer and could expand to the Special Education sector. With tight budgets and an already difficult period financially for many units, further cuts could leave many vulnerable people falling behind even further after an already difficult two years and leaves the risk of headteachers and managers being unable to investment in critical areas that can help the education of their students and staff. Therefore, maintaining and protecting funding for Special Education is key if those who are the most vulnerable can grow up to a brighter future ahead of them.