(England) "Needs of pupils who have Send more complex over the last 5 yrs"

April 16, 2025, Enfield Independent: Majority of teachers say support for special needs pupils has decreased – survey 

https://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/news/national/25096500.majority-teachers-say-support-special-needs-pupils-decreased---survey/  

More than half of teachers say the level of support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) has decreased in the last five years, a survey suggests.

Only 5% of teachers say that the pupils with Send they teach always receive the educational support to which they are legally entitled to, according to a poll by the NASUWT teaching union.

The survey, of 2,126 NASUWT members in England between February and March, suggests 43% of teachers say the number of specialist support staff to work with pupils with Send had decreased in their school over the last five years.

The Government has inherited a Send system on its knees

The findings have been released ahead of the union’s two-day annual conference in Liverpool over Easter which starts on Friday.

The majority (51%) say the level of support for pupils with Send has decreased in the last five years.

Delegates at the NASUWT conference are due to debate a motion which calls on the Government to develop a comprehensive plan to meet the growing demands for Send provision.

The motion highlights the “significant rise” in pupils presenting with complex needs and the pressures on specialist settings and its impact on pupils and staff in mainstream schools.

The survey suggests that nearly three in four (73%) respondents said pupils remain in their school despite having an education, health and care plan (EHCP) which names a specialist school for them because that setting is full.

More than nine in ten (95%) said the needs of pupils they teach who have Send have become more complex over the last five years.

Meanwhile, four in ten said they were not always made aware of the specific support that each of the pupils with Send they teach is statutorily entitled to. . . .

 “Any plan for rebuilding trust and confidence in the Send system must be properly resourced and integral to wider reforms to curriculum and assessment, inspection, accountability and measures to tackle the teacher recruitment and retention crisis and the ambition to recruit 6,500 more teachers.”

A Department for Education (DfE) spokeswoman said: “The evidence is clear that the Send system has been left on its knees – with too many children not having their needs met and parents forced to fight for support. . . .

 “We are already making progress by investing £1 billion [$1.3B] into Send and £740 million [$981M] to encourage councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools, paving the way for significant, long-term reform.”