There is a very simple truth about all those involved in special needs education. As Hero Slinn, chief growth and strategy officer at Octavia House Schools, says, “We have a common goal: to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people.”
But reaching that goal is far from straightforward for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), their families and the education system supporting them.
Imagine a parent who thinks their child may have a specific SEND need. They ask for a professional medical diagnosis, which is recommended to take place within 13 weeks. In reality, they are waiting longer – much longer. Months – even years – in some local authorities. Once they have that diagnosis, they need to go through the process of applying for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) assessment. Again, the recommendation is for this to be completed within 20 weeks. But over half take longer than that, according to Department for Education data, with one in 14 taking longer than a year.
And during those months, those years of waiting, these needs do not go away – they simply remain unmet. According to data from charity Parentkind, 1.6 million children are not having all their needs met at school, and 600,000 parents have struggled to find adequate provision for their child. The impact of these challenges is considerable; almost a million parents report having experienced mental health problems as a result of having a child with SEND, and 15 per cent have given up work to care for their child.
“By the time parents come to an organisation like ours, quite often they have been through the ringer and we have to significantly support them to rebuild trust; it’s like a trauma,” Slinn says.
It is clear this is far from a niche issue: more than one in five pupils in England are now being supported for a special education need or disability, and the number of children with EHCPs has risen sharply to a record 718,838 – 8 per cent of the overall pupil population. This has placed pressure on local authorities that have faced years of budget cuts as costs have spiralled, pushing many to the brink of insolvency.
It has been accepted that the current state of SEND constitutes a crisis. And in its midst are educators, SEND experts and families, all working in a shared determination to change children’s lives for the better.
The independent sector is a key part of that SEND ecosystem. More than 147,000 pupils in independent schools now receive SEND support, including over 44,000 with an EHCP. Special schools within the sector are already working with other schools of all types, along with local authorities, to get the best outcomes for children.
Cavendish Education, a family of specialist independent schools and colleges, is just one example of that collaboration taking place. “We already work successfully and in close partnership with local authorities, as training and placement providers to state school Multi-Academy Trust groups. We support pathways back to mainstream where this is possible – we view this as success,” explains Aatif Hassan, the group’s chairman.
Shared responsibility is a key theme within the long-awaited Schools White Paper, released in February 2026 under previous education secretary Bridget Phillipson, where the government set out its vision for improving the SEND system.
Experts welcome the paper’s focus on inclusion, as well as pledges to invest in mainstream provision and teacher training. “We know that there’s often inconsistency between mainstream schools in terms of delivery of provision and offer, so anything that strengthens that is absolutely a good thing,” says Slinn.
The paper’s prioritisation of early intervention and specialist knowledge sharing has also been praised, particularly as the number of children in need of support continues to soar. The Experts at Hand proposal aims to make expertise easier for mainstream settings to access, with specialist professionals supporting the schools rather than individual pupils. “Earlier support is not only better for children and families, but it reduces the need for more intensive interventions later,” explains Mike Blakey, chief education and policy officer at Outcomes First Group.
But what about the operational reality? Resources, capacity, and confidence within the profession are all areas of concern for educators and experts.
“Top of the tree always has to be investing in your people,” says Annamarie Hassall, CEO of the SEND charity Nasen. “We know that good experiences of SEND within an education system almost always lead back to teachers and support staff who have been given what they need to do the best for every child.”
There is also appetite to widen the scope for joined-up working. “All parts of the public sector need to be aligned to this transformation. So, education might run through, but we definitely need health and social care,” adds Hassall. “Combined training will be beneficial; it demystifies how sectors work and it often builds bridges and relationships.”
Those relationships are key – and many have already been forged between independent schools and their state counterparts; sharing expertise and resources and building a pathway to success for children that might not otherwise exist.
“The independent sector needs to be recognised for the valuable contribution it has made,” says Hassell. “Across the country, there has been reliance upon the independent specialist sector where local provision hasn’t yet been able to offer what’s right for a particular child.”
This is echoed by Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion policy lead at the Association of School and College Leaders. “Significant expertise, particularly around our most complex learners, often sits with the independent sector,” she says. “Case studies and best practice from these settings must be shared and celebrated.”
The paper makes it clear that the government wants more children with SEND to have their needs met in mainstream schools, reserving specialist provision for those with the most complex needs. Independent specialist schools are therefore expected to become a smaller, more targeted part of the system – something that is ringing alarm bells for many across the education sector.
A thorny element of the SEND debate is the cost of provision at some independent specialist schools. But blunt headline costs don’t tell the whole story and are “misleading” when presented without context, according to Cavendish’s Hassan, who points out that his schools’ fees combine ambitious academic programmes with therapeutic health provisions, alongside capital costs.
Investment in these young people pays off: at Cavendish, and at Octavia, 100 per cent of students transition into university, vocational colleges, or employment; a very impressive statistic amid the Not in Education, Employment or Training crisis.
The earlier these interventions can be arranged, the better for the child. That’s where the independent sector comes in, providing flexibility and speed. Slinn, who worked in mainstream schools and local authorities before moving into independent specialist education, says of her time working in local government: “I could see so many children not accessing education at all or getting very piecemeal bits of education because there just wasn’t the provision there. We knew what we needed, but we couldn’t always provide it quickly enough to meet the needs of the children coming through, despite increasing specialist provision to record levels.”
The government’s white paper undoubtedly has a strong vision, and this ambition will be key to achieving structural change. Investment in mainstream education is essential, but so too is recognising and utilising the invaluable role of specialist provision in propelling the sector closer to its goal of every child achieving and thriving.
And if we get it right for every child? We could see more young people like this Year 10 student at Holmewood School, who says of their educational experience: “You have made me excited about my future again.”
Content from our partners
Related
Join the debate
Subscribe here to comment