Councils click into the future of planning
In town halls across the country, planning officers are racing to update their Local Plans — but this time, the process looks very different.
Parents take council to court over SEN funding
29/01/2025 Two sets of parents are taking Devon County Council to High court, arguing the council has agreed to make cuts to special educational needs (SEN) services. |
Why we should be concerned with the SEN2 survey
05/09/2023 Gareth Copeland, education consultant, OLM Systems, looks at the SEN2 survey and argues there is a disconnect with what really counts. |
Councils warn PM Sunak of impending cuts
24/10/2022 Council chiefs warn that they will have ‘no choice’ but to cut services unless the new PM provides them with enough funding to tackle cost-of-living crisis. |
Council’s ‘flawed’ school transport plan criticised
06/10/2022 Northumberland County Council has been criticised for its ‘flawed’ school transport policy when it comes to teenagers with special educational needs. |
Levelling up education
04/10/2022 James Lowe, director of Grolife, argues that local authorities should level up the procurement process and put pupils, not price, first. |
Council leaves child without transport to special needs school
11/08/2022 Hampshire council left a child with special needs with the choice of travelling in a taxi to school or facing a three-hour round-trip in shared transport. |
Councils face record £2.4bn deficits in SEN this year
29/07/2022 Local authority deficits in special educational needs (SEN) have reached an ‘unmanageable’ £2.4bn this year, new research has uncovered. |
County audit post-16 transport allocations following investigation
16/09/2021 Staffordshire County Council has agreed to audit a fifth of its post-16 transport applications after the ombudsman criticised the way it had made decisions. |
County to review its SEN services following ombudsman investigation
20/05/2021 Hampshire County Council has agreed to reviews its SEN services following an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. |
Ombudsman criticises council for lack of transport for SEN pupils
13/08/2020 Buckinghamshire County Council has been criticised for its lack of suitable school transport for children with special educational needs. |
|
Councils call for more clarity on special needs duties during pandemic
28/04/2020 Councils have warned they are struggling to deliver statutory support for children with special educational needs and disabilities due to dealing with the demands of coronavirus. |
|
Exclusion process suffers ‘serious weaknesses’
11/11/2019 The current system for excluding pupils from school suffers from ‘serious weaknesses’ and needs overhauling, a new report has found. |
|
Councils spending more than £4m on SEN tribunals
28/10/2019 Local authorities spent £4.3m on handling and contesting special educational needs tribunals last year - an increase of nearly a quarter compared to the year before. |
|
Children with special educational needs home schooled ‘as last resort’
15/10/2019 Parents of SEN children often home school their kids as a last resort rather than a preferred choice, a new Ofsted report has revealed. |
|
Council criticised after SEN child left without education for over a year
12/09/2019 Worcestershire CC complaints policy has been criticised after a boy with special educational needs was left without appropriate education for 14 months. |
|
Council chiefs warn SEN reforms will ‘break’ their budgets
19/07/2019 County council leaders have warned that reforms to expand special educational needs (SEN) services will ‘break’ their budgets. |
|
Some schools 'discouraging' admission of special needs children
11/06/2019 Children with special needs are being discouraged from attending some primary schools, education experts have warned. |
|
Councils warn of national 'special needs emergency'
06/06/2019 Councils are supporting more than 130 extra children and young people with special education needs every day, new figures have revealed. |
|
Council criticised for ‘serious delays’ in completing SEND plans
23/05/2019 Hackney Council has been criticised by the ombudsman over serious delays when completing plans for children with Special Educational Needs. |
|
Councils should help pupils at risk of expulsion, report says
07/05/2019 Local authorities should establish forums where schools and other local services could convene to plan support for vulnerable pupils at risk of expulsion, according to a landmark review. |
|
Special needs provision in schools cut by over £1bn
16/04/2019 Children and young people who have special educational needs and disabilities have lost out on £1.2bn of Government funding over the last four years. |
|
‘Cash injection’ not enough for special needs education, warn council chiefs
29/05/2018 Council leaders have welcomed the announcement of extra money for special needs education — but warn that a 'one-off cash injection' is not enough. |
|
Whitehall announces £45m to support SEND children
01/12/2017 The Government has announced a package of support worth nearly £45m to provide additional help for children with special educational needs and disabilities. |
|
Thousands of special needs children left without school plan
08/08/2017 Thousands of children with special educational needs have not been been given a plan to move into secondary school by their local council, despite a legal obligation to do, new research has revealed. |
