Teachers and support staff are ‘losing faith’ in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system due to inadequate resources, a union has warned.
The National Education Union (NEU) asked its members in England and Wales what provision they had at school or local authority level to support pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or who may need to be referred for one.
Seven in eight respondents said resources were insufficient.
One in three said they had no behaviour support team and 76% said more learning support assistants were needed.
The NEU warned that children were spending much of their time in the education system without appropriate support, and that pupils with unmet needs were frequently facing exclusion.
Joint NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said it was ‘shameful’ that the Government had done ‘so little’ to help schools and local authorities after the number of children with EHCPs increased by 115% since 2015.
A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: ‘We want all children to have the chance to reach their potential, which is why we are increasing funding for young people with complex needs by over £10.5bn next year – up 60% in the last five years.’
The DfE said it was spending more than £21m to train 400 educational psychologists and had increased the number of teaching assistants by 59,600 since 2011.
