And another one, no idea whether this is circular sourcing or not, but apparently govt ‘is understood to be rebuilding the funding system from scratch’

inews.co.uk/news/educati...

I wonder what unintended consequences will happen if you dangle the prospect that mainstream statutory SEND provision might be withdrawn - but not for years - when you’ve committed Whitehall yo backstop high needs deficits. Truly, a three-pipe problem

If true (no idea whether it is, but presumably the source wants it to be) then it would be the second time that a government has punted SEND reform post-election inside 3 years

Reform intent was first announced in 2019. Kids with SEND who started school back then would be starting GCSEs in 2029-30

yes but now all of these executives have a hungry ghost that will do whatever they want

bsky.app/profile/jsla...

Yes, it is

And yes, it is

I’ve seen equine therapy in plans, to meet a given need as recommended by OTs

Never seen the other two, but wouldn’t surprise me if post-16 YP doing internships / apprenticeships for forestry / falconry might need some in-placement support - a very different thing to what’s being alleged here

That fool is never worth a fisking, but:

a) the Scottish definition of ASN is far more expansive than English SEN

b) the Scot figures come from a school census, not parents

c) the sourcing chain for the ‘ministerial’ claim will be 4-5 links long, mostly running through people who don’t read EHCPs

Yes, Reg 20(7) here www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/15...

Upper-tier LA finance officers rn

Govt response to Education Committee’s SEND inquiry, published *checks notes* six days ago

“The government will set out further details on our plans to support local authorities with historic and accruing deficits through the upcoming Local Government Finance Settlement”

No, yes, no, no and no

Also, the £ values are a crude calculation of the mean. There’s more cost variation in INMSS sector, but variation is still huge in state special sector too: lowest I’ve seen is £10k, highest is £93k

Yeah, that’s definitely been happening with recent tranches of this grant in zones 1-3, but elsewhere, it’s often been Portakabins a gogo

£3bn in 2021-25 probably created slightly fewer than 30,000 places, many in temporary accomodation

£3bn in 2026-29 (less £ in real terms) will apparently create 50,000 places

It's reasonable to ask a) how that funding is being spread more thinly, and b) who pays for the extra specialist staff

My kids are deaf. They attended a primary SEND unit. That unit is now closed.

Despite £3bn+ of SEND capital funding injected since 2021, there are now fewer high-needs places for deaf pupils in mainstream schools than there were five years ago

There's no obvious capacity planning strategy here

This is the current national picture for high-needs revenue funding allocation to mainstream SEND units and resource bases.

The grant announced late last night helps build things. But buildings don't teach kids, staff do that - and the funding variations between LAs are immense

DfE claims that this investment will eliminate postcode lotteries. It might do that, if strategically directed - the terms of grant (spring 2026) will give us a clue

But to eliminate postcode lotteries for SEND units and resource bases, they'll need to do something about funding variations

The DfE recently announced five key principles of SEND reform

One of them is 'effective practice, grounded in evidence to ensure excellent long-term outcomes'

It's unclear what evidence base they have drawn on for this capital allocation: it's mostly been used thus far for capacity fire-fighting