Culture shift needed to make education truly inclusive

A new Education Committee report calls for a "root and branch" transformation of the way mainstream education caters to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). 
 
It says that SEND must become an intrinsic part of the mainstream education system, rather than an addition to it, after MPs witnessed examples of good practice in English schools and abroad.  
 
Embedding inclusivity in all education settings, from early years through to post-16, and identifying needs early in a child’s education, will enable support to be provided in the mainstream.

The report says that the government must therefore invest in the skills of all current and future school staff, making SEND the responsibility of the whole school.  
 
This cultural shift would then calm the rising need for complex, costly education health and care (EHC) plans in the long-term, and help put schools and local authorities’ finances on a sustainable footing. 
 
The cross-party Committee calls on the Government to invest in both the education and health services’ workforces, to ensure that the health service steps up to its role in solving the SEND crisis, and to improve collaboration between the two sectors. 
 
MPs recommend a review of the national funding formula for schools to take better account of factors that vary between local areas such as prevalence of need, deprivation and distances travelled by home-to-school transport. They also highlight the need to expand the number of specialist school places in the state sector so that more children can be educated closer to home and spending on expensive independent school places can be reduced. 
 
As well as setting out a vision for an inclusive education system and citing examples of replicable good practice, the report’s introduction highlights the growing scale of need.  
 
Since the introduction of the Children and Families Act 2014, the number of children and young people identified with SEND has risen from 1.3 million to 1.7 million. In 2024/25, over 1.2 million children and young people were receiving SEN support, and nearly half a million had an EHC plan. 
 
The County Councils Network of the Local Government Association told the Committee that “increased complexity”, with children being diagnosed with multiple, complex needs, has become the “new normal”. 
  
Rising levels of need and pressure on the system have also led to assessments being carried out later, often after a child’s needs have escalated. 
 
Autism is the most common type of need cited in EHC plans (33.6%), but the Committee heard that since the Covid pandemic there has also been a particular increase in speech, language and communication needs, and social, emotional and mental health needs. 
 
Education Committee Chair Helen Hayes MP said there are already examples of good practice: "A model the Government can learn from already exists in the Canadian state of Ontario, where we saw teachers actively try to meet the needs of their pupils from their first day at school. Closer to home, we witnessed an inspiring whole-school approach to SEND at two settings in Norfolk."