Ministers urged not to remove legal rights and protections for Send children
The Disabled Children's Partnership (DCP), which includes more than 130 charities and parent groups, has called on the Government not to restrict access to EHCPs for those who continue to need them.
The Government plans to publish a white paper in the autumn detailing how it will reform support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
Earlier this month, education minister Stephen Morgan could not guarantee that the current system of EHCPs would remain in place.
ECHPs are legal documents for children and young people up to the age of 25 which identify their educational, health and social needs, and set out the extra support required.
A report by the DCP said the rise in EHCPs can be used as evidence the system is 'too expensive for councils' to provide, but it suggested more nurseries, schools and colleges are applying for plans because the support children need 'is not happening without them'.
It said every child who needs Send support should have a 'written record' setting out the support they need and how it will be monitored.
'The Government must not dilute existing rights and protections, or restrict access to education, health and care plans for those who continue to need them,' the report added.
In total, there were 638,745 EHCPs in place in January, up 10.8% on the same point last year.
The number of new plans which started during 2024 also grew by 15.8% on the previous year, to 97,747.
Requests for children to be assessed for EHCPs rose by 11.8% to 154,489 in 2024.
The coalition's report outlines five key areas the Government should address if young people with Send are to enjoy the same 'ordinary things' in life that their peers take for granted.
The Government should ensure there is 'legally guaranteed support' for every child who needs it with the current Send support arrangements put on a statutory footing, the DCP has said.
The coalition has also called for more funding for the Send system and for every local area to have a plan for ensuring there is the 'right mix' of mainstream and specialist placements.
The report said: 'This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make children and families' lives better.
'But getting this wrong would make it even harder for families to get the support their children so desperately need.'
It added that many parents of children with Send are having to turn to the law to enforce their child's rights at tribunal and they may have spent years without the support they need.
The report said: 'The solution to this is not to remove or dilute legal rights and protections; the Government must ensure proper accountability for meeting legal duties.'
Anna Bird, chairwoman of the DCP and chief executive of charity Contact, said: 'Children with Send want ordinary things – a place to learn safely, the opportunity to take part in after-school activities and the chance for parents to work to support their children, rather than having to put their working lives on hold. '
She added: 'Our Fight for Ordinary campaign launches today and the report sets out how to make the changes children with Send need, without diluting their rights or removing vital protections.
'This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get it right for children with Send.
'The Government will only get reforms right if they work together with young people, parents and the organisations that represent them.'
Tobias Lambe, from Warwickshire, who is autistic and faced a fight to get an EHCP at school, is now at university studying medicine.
He said: 'At the age of 14 I had a mental health breakdown and was admitted to hospital.
'I never dreamed that seven years later I would be thriving at university studying a course I love, playing sports, making friends and enjoying life.
'But it's taken a huge fight and countless battles with schools, healthcare providers and local authorities for me to achieve that.
'Not every family is able to fight that battle, and none should have to.'
The 21-year-old added: 'Children and young people who are disabled and neurodivergent should not have to face a constant fight for a suitable education or the right healthcare.
'These are ordinary things to which everyone is entitled.'
A Department for Education (DfE) spokeswoman said: 'This Government inherited a Send system left on its knees – which is why we are listening closely to families as we work to make sure more children can thrive in their local school, putting an end to parents having to fight to get support that should be routine.
'Our priority is improving outcomes for children and young people with Send which is why the Education Secretary has been clear that there will always be a legal right to additional support for children with Send.
'We are already making progress, from more early intervention in mainstream schools across ADHD, autism and speech and language needs, through to £740 million investment to encourage councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.
'As part of our Plan for Change, we will restore the confidence of families up and down the country and deliver the improvement they are crying out for, so every child can achieve and thrive.'
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Telegraph
2 hours ago
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Bono linked to special needs schools facing government crackdown
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This has resulted in skyrocketing numbers of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) being handed out. These are legally binding documents which spell out individual teaching requirements for Send children that a local authority must pay for. They can include places at private specialist schools. A record 639,000 children in England held an EHCP in January, up 11 per cent on the previous year. The number of children with EHCPs at private Send schools increased by 17,000 between 2018-19 and 2023-24. Outcomes First, the largest operator of private Send schools, had a turnover of £264m last year. A majority stake in the company was acquired in 2023 by The Rise Fund, a private equity firm co-founded by Bono. As an investor in the firm, the U2 singer also has an investment in Outcomes First, meaning he personally stands to make money if it is sold for a profit. The exact sum will depend on several factors including the sale price of the company and the amount of investors owed money. TPG, The Rise Fund's parent group, declined to say how much Bono had invested in the fund or how many investors it had in total. A spokesman for Bono did not comment. One source suggested any potential gain from a sale of Outcomes First would represent a small part of his overall investment in The Rise Fund. Outcomes First was valued at around $1bn (£740m) at the time of its sale to The Rise Fund, according to Bloomberg. The group has increased the number of schools it owns by more than a quarter since then, and plans to open eight more in the coming year to cater for the increased demand. 'No-nonsense investors' The Rise Fund promises investors 'strong financial returns' while helping 'address various societal challenges globally'. It said in 2023 it hoped the purchase of Outcomes First would 'achieve quantifiable impact and positive outcomes alongside strong business performance'. The fund's latest annual accounts show an average gross return on investor capital of 80 per cent. A source close to the company said: 'The Rise Funds, if they sold for profit, could make a considerable gain for both the fund and its investors, which also includes Bono.' It has invested around $12bn into more than 85 companies in the decade since it was founded. The Telegraph understands Bono is not involved in direct decision-making over the fund's investments, with appointed fund managers instead responsible for this. The singer, who has built a post-U2 career as a philanthropist, said last month he launched the fund because 'I didn't want a warm-and-fuzzy concessional capital. I wanted to work with proper, no-nonsense investors'. Bono co-founded the fund alongside Jeff Skoll, the former eBay chairman, with help from its parent company TPG. Other board members include Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group. Asked in a YouTube interview in June for his response to claims that his philanthropy is 'tokenistic', Bono said: 'People are right to be cynical. They are correct. We should be very, very suspicious of public philanthropy and we should ask hard questions of it. And so I'm with people that ask those hard questions. 'In a way, it's a promotional vehicle for somebody like me and anything you do in public, if it makes you look good in public, you should be a little suspicious of it.' Private equity swoops in Private equity firms have begun buying up independent Send school chains in recent years and pumped millions into helping them expand so they can later be sold for a profit. Analysis shows operating profits at the six largest private Send school providers jumped more than 38 per cent between 2022 and 2024, as they opened new schools to meet demand. Part of the attraction is that local authorities are legally obliged to pay for children to attend private Send schools if they pass a special assessment, meaning almost all of their income is guaranteed by UK taxpayers. 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Outcomes First plans to open Penny Tree School in September, a new Send school in Birmingham for autistic pupils aged four to 19. Until at least July last year the school's building, which backs onto an A road next to the local cross-city rail station, served as an office block for a construction firm. Options Autism, owned by Outcomes First, listed an 'urgent' advert for a deputy head teacher for Penny Tree School earlier this year and was still recruiting a headteacher to lead it as of June. Fees 'triple those charged by state schools' Average fees at some of the largest private Send school chains are more than triple the annual bill at their state-backed equivalents, according to analysis of Ofsted reports. Special schools owned by Outcomes First charge an average fee bracket of between £57,989 and £88,989, with prices increasing according to the complexity of a child's needs. The figure is significantly higher at some schools including Outcomes First-owned Red Moor School in Cornwall, where fees for one high-needs pupil were £157,253 a year at its latest inspection. By contrast, a place at a state-run Send school costs around £24,000 per pupil, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). A spokesperson for Outcomes First said its fees placed it 'among the best value providers nationally' and that 99 per cent of its schools in England are rated good or outstanding by Ofsted. Average fees at the Witherslack Group – the second-largest private Send school chain – range between £77,547 and £104,853 per pupil and can hit as much as £130,752 in some schools. Meanwhile, a specialist autism school in Somerset, which is owned by Aspris, a private Send chain, charges up to £120,150 in annual fees per pupil. North Hill House school in Frome was rated 'inadequate' at its latest standard Ofsted inspection last February – the lowest possible rating. An additional Ofsted inspection last November said it had since improved standards. Aspris said a further inspection by Independent School Standards in January 2025 found the school met the required quality checks. Pay rises for directors Directors of some private Send school groups also paid themselves large salaries last year, The Telegraph can disclose. The boss of Aspris, which is ultimately owned by Waterland Private Equity, handed themselves a 43 per cent pay rise in 2024 to hit £885,000. Aspris said this was not awarded to Charles Coney, its chief executive, adding that his salary was 'significantly lower'. It refused to disclose the name of the director awarded the 'extreme high' pay rise for the year, but said they had left the company. The highest-paid director at Cavendish Education, which owns 11 private Send schools, saw their pay increase by 39 per cent last year to hit £393,000, according to its latest financial accounts. 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It said: 'While the independent children's care sector has been subject to high scrutiny, this is not likely to have a significant impact on providers in the special education sector. 'It is clear the increase in demand is outstripping the growth in supply, providing a clear opportunity for investors to meet this gap. 'Investing in the specialist education sector not only offers some shielding from wider economic downturns, but also the potential for good return through the robust demand increases for those with an appetite to look beyond the perceived risks.' The report added that it expected local authority spending on private Send schools would continue to soar, but warned that 'it is unclear how Labour will respond' to concerns about the industry. Mansfield Advisors highlighted high sale prices attached to many chains that have been bought by private equity, with sovereign wealth funds now among those pouring money into the sector. The Abu Dhabi government owns the Witherslack Group, where turnover rose by a fifth last year to reach more than £208m. Witherslack was bought in 2021 by Mubadala Capital, an asset management arm of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund. It has more than tripled the number of pupil places at its private Send schools to over 2,150 since 2017 and plans to open further schools in the coming months. Witherslack Aggregator, the holding company that owns Witherslack and all its Send schools, said in its latest financial accounts that 'the ultimate controlling party is the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi'. Mubadala Investment Company, which owns Mubadala Capital, is chaired by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, an Emirati royal and the current vice president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its six further board members are all Abu Dhabi royalty or UAE government officials, including Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, the chairman of Manchester City Football Club. 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Ms Phillipson said in April: 'We are spending vast sums of money on a system where parents have lost confidence, where children are not getting what they deserve. [Reform] will involve more mainstream inclusion.' The Department for Education (DfE) said earlier this year that private Send schools are putting 'massive strain on local authority finances whilst failing children with Send and their families'. It added: 'Schools should be focused on ensuring children are supported to achieve and thrive, there is absolutely no place for excessive profit-making.' In August 2024, 87 per cent of private Send schools were judged either good or outstanding by Ofsted, compared to 90 per cent of state-run special schools, according to the DfE. The total taxpayer bill for private special schools reached £2.4bn in 2024, in addition to around £1.8bn spent on taxis to ferry children to and from them. The Government is concerned that soaring spending on specialist Send schools is pushing many local authorities to the brink of going bust and driving up the annual special-needs budget, which hit £11bn this year. Ministers recently announced a two-year reprieve before councils must balance the books on their bulging Send deficits following concerns an initial March 2026 deadline could have caused many to buckle. Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said last month that local authority overspending on Send provision could reach between £2.9bn and £3.9bn per year by 2027/28. A Government white paper outlining reform of the sector is expected to be published in autumn. Ms Phillipson said: 'We're engaging with parents and experts to make sure that high-quality places are available across the country to meet all children's needs, and have already started driving change with our £740m capital investment to encourage councils to create more specialist places in local mainstream schools.' A spokesman for Outcomes First said: 'We are backed by a social impact investment fund which differs significantly from traditional private equity. The Rise Fund is driven by a core mandate to deliver positive and sustainable social impact alongside sustainable growth. 'Every decision is aligned with a long-term commitment to improving the lives of children with Send and ensuring that growth and reinvestment are purpose-driven and helping to meet rising demand while maintaining a high-quality service. 'As a responsible provider committed to positive social impact and sustainable growth, we reinvest any surplus into developing new services while improving quality and increasing capacity to ensure that more children with Send can access the support they need and our concern is what would happen to the thousands of children if organisations like ours were not able to scale and meet that demand.' A Witherslack spokesman said the company was 'the UK's leading education provider for neurodiverse young people, with the highest proportion of outstanding schools in the sector'. They added: 'The group offers exceptionally high-quality schools for pupils whose complex needs, and often challenging behaviour, cannot be met in maintained special or mainstream schools. 'Witherslack Group is proud to make a life-time commitment to helping young people find employment through its sector leading futures programme.' A spokesman for Horizon Education said: 'We are proud to support hundreds of children and young people with Send across the country, helping them to thrive through tailored, therapeutic education they may not otherwise receive. 'The vast majority of our services are rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, reflecting our commitment to high-quality provision. We are constantly striving to improve standards across all our settings. 'We recognise the pressures Local Authorities are under and are actively engaging with stakeholders across the country, including local authorities, Members of Parliament, and the Department for Education to ensure that funding is sustainable and fair for everyone, and that those pupils who require support the most have access to it.' A spokesman for Aspris said: 'We tailor care and education to meet the diverse needs of children and young people ensuring they always receive the right support at the right time in the right setting. 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Daily Record
6 hours ago
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The Independent
9 hours ago
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How new rules could tackle ‘compulsive' phone use in children
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