A FRESH national bid to improve the offering for people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) echoes Devon’s efforts, a cabinet member has claimed.

Councillor Denise Bickley (Liberal Democrat, Sidmouth), the cabinet member for SEND, has said a report from the Education Select Committee that seeks to improve provision across the country has aspects that Devon is already pursuing.

“It’s reassuring to hear the Select Committee’s announcement today (Thursday 18 September), and to recognise that what they’re recommending could have come directly from our own Devon local area SEND improvement programme,” she said.

“We believe SEND should be integral to mainstream education, not an add on.

“That’s why we are working hard with our education partners to achieve real inclusivity in all of our schools so that as many young people as possible can successfully attend their local school alongside their friends and peers.”

The comments come as the Education Select Committee, whose membership includes South Devon MP Caroline Voaden (Liberal Democrat), issued its 200-page report outlining how it wants to improve the services and facilities available for families who have children with SEND, but also to ensure schools are supported to accommodate these pupils.

And where this isn’t possible, that suitable, local provision is available to avoid children having to be schooled long distances from home or in independent settings that can cost councils significant sums.

The committee, which received nearly 900 pieces of written evidence and held seven oral sessions, acknowledged that since changes to the SEND system in 2014, “the number and proportion of children and young people identified with SEND has increased significantly”.

“This increase in need has brought about a variety of challenges around capacity, support, teacher preparedness, multi-agency collaboration and local authority finances,” the report said.

“These factors have triggered what is widely accepted as a ‘crisis’ of the SEND system.”

The report added that it had heard from “exhausted parents fighting for basic support, teachers stretched beyond capacity and committed professionals working within services buckling under pressure”.

“Their voices were clear and consistent: the current system is not working,” it added.

“The level of need is placing overwhelming strain on services and professionals across both the education and health sectors, ultimately creating a crisis.

“Crucially, the system’s inability to meet this need means that children and young people with SEND, and their families, are not consistently receiving the high-quality support to which they are entitled.”

Cllr Bickley said Devon was working to increase the availability and regional spread of special school places for children whose needs cannot be met in mainstream school.

It recently opened a special needs school in Ivybridge, called Castlebridge School, which has 120 places for youngsters with high functioning Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC) who are unable to attend mainstream schools because of physical, medical or sensory needs or difficulties with communication, anxiety, attachment, relationships and behaviour.

Cllr Bickley added that she felt identifying early whether children had any SEND needs was vital.

“We firmly believe that early identification of needs is essential, as is the right level of support provided in the right place and at the right time, to prevent young people becoming disengaged from their education and to ensure that needs are met to avoid escalation,” she said.

“What we really need is a fundamental reform of the entire national SEND system and the wider education sector is needed to meet today’s challenges, alongside a fair review of the funding formula to assist with Devon’s geographical and rural challenges.”

Finally, she added that the council was “eagerly awaiting” the government’s SEND funding white paper “which cannot come soon enough”.

“This council has been doing more with less for a long time,” she said.

“We want to get it right for Devon’s families, but we need the resources to do so.”

Devon is struggling under the weight of a cumulative overspend on its SEND service of around £165 million. And it expects to overspend by more than £50 million this financial year alone, albeit potential savings have been identified to reduce that figure.

Government rules allow councils that are struggling with large SEND deficits to keep their respective SEND overspends ringfenced from their day-to-day finances, however, the ability to do this is currently scheduled to end in 2028.

That would mean, in Devon’s case, taking on a debt that is currently larger than its usable cash reserves.