Nottinghamshire County Council’s cabinet member for education and SEND, Cllr Ben Bradle, has acknowledged there is ‘more to do’ on SEND provision.

Cllr Bradle was speaking following a petition to the council for improvements to be made.

‘We absolutely recognise the issue and sympathise with young people and families. We know that there are huge challenges in the SEND system,’ Cllr Bradle said.

‘We are doing everything in our power to ensure that we are improving all the elements that are within our local control ,and providing the best services possible to Nottinghamshire families, whilst recognising that we still have more work to do.’

The councillor said a local independently chaired SEND Improvement Board had been set up to oversee the partnership’s improvement plans in the past two years.

The county council has also invested more than £3m to improve its SEND services, including Education Psychology Service and Integrated Children’s Disability Services.

An additional £46.5m investment has been made since 2021 to create almost 500 new special school places.

While noting more education, health and care (EHC) plans were being put in place, the local authority acknowledged there had been a continued increase in demand locally and nationally meaning that the vast majority of local authorities are currently not meeting the statutory 20-week timeframe.

An Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report in December 2024 found longstanding weaknesses across SEND system 'impacting' on young people's transition to adulthood.

In the same month, an IFS report said the SEND funding system was ‘broken’.

Cllr Bradle said: ‘We know that there is still more to be done to improve the experiences of families. That has to include national reforms to the SEND system, which is not currently fit for purpose or funded properly. Fundamentally, this will only properly be resolved when that national change is agreed and implemented. We’re working with partners and speaking to Government to push for that to happen.

‘SEND is a key area for this council, and we are committed to improving the experiences of children and young people with special needs, and their families.’

This article was originally published by Healthcare Management.