Mary Kelly Foy: We must reform the SEND system

The reality for many families is a relentless battle for the basics. Whether it’s waiting years for an Education, Health and Care Plan, fighting for a place in a specialist school, or struggling to get a simple diagnosis, the current system feels to many like it is bureaucracy rather than care.

The Government knows the system isn’t working, and that’s why it recently held a ‘national conversation’ to seek the views of those who encounter the system every day, or work within it. To ensure that the voices of Durham are included in this conversation, I recently held a SEND roundtable at the amazing Trinity School and Sport College, bringing together parents and carers, teachers, professionals and young people to share their views.

The testimony I heard was both heart-breaking and illuminating. The common thread was clear: the system is not just “under pressure” – it is at crisis point.

Participants at the roundtable highlighted several critical issues that must be addressed if we are to achieve meaningful reform.

One of the most pressing concerns is the lack of space. Our specialist schools are full, and our mainstream schools are being asked to do more with less. We discussed the worrying push to move children with complex additional needs into large mainstream environments that are often ill-equipped to meet them. When a child who needs a quiet, structured environment is placed in a crowded, noisy corridor, we aren’t “including” them – we are setting them up to fail.

Furthermore, the inequality of access is staggering. Support should be based on a child’s needs, not on a parent’s ability to navigate a complex web of different services, or pay for private assessments. At the roundtable, we heard how the delay in services leads to a “cliff edge” where children can fall out of education entirely or are only offered help when they themselves reach crisis point. The impact this can have on their mental health and future prospects is profound.

So, we can’t settle for tweaks around the edges. Significant reform is needed to ensure that the “inclusive” education we talk about is backed by adequate funding, specialist staff, and proper infrastructure.

The government’s national conversation is a vital first step, but it must lead to a system where early intervention is the norm, not the exception; mainstream schools are properly resourced to be truly inclusive and specialist provision is expanded so no child is left without a suitable placement, near to where they live.

If we’re truly going to break down the barriers to opportunity, every family deserves to be supported. And every child – regardless of their needs – deserves to be in a setting that can meet them. I will continue to take the stories and the solutions from our Durham roundtable to the Department for Education to help build a system that puts children first.