Census shows schools plugging gaps as support services fail

A major new report from the Children’s Commissioner has revealed that schools are increasingly stepping in to support children’s social and emotional needs as other public services fail to keep pace.

Unveiled today in Westminster, The Children’s Plan: The Children’s Commissioner’s School Census outlines what Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza calls a “blueprint for the next great wave of education reform.” The landmark census, which gathered data from nearly 90% of schools in England, paints a stark picture of schools filling gaps left by years of underfunding in health, social care, and local support services.

According to the findings, secondary school leaders are more concerned about cuts to external services than their own budgets, ranking issues like attendance, mental health, poverty, online safety, and diversity well above curriculum and academic attainment.

The report also highlights how schools are supporting children with a wide range of complex needs beyond the SEND system – including those facing housing instability, bereavement, parental imprisonment, and caring responsibilities – often without the professional support they say they urgently need.

More than three-quarters of respondents said they want to see more on-site professionals like counsellors, educational psychologists, and family liaison officers. 

Dame Rachel is calling for urgent reforms, including shared real-time data across agencies, new statutory education plans for children who are persistently absent, and early support to ensure all children are "school ready."

She said: “My school census confirms what children have already told me: that they deeply value education, but where they need extra help, it should be easily accessible and available locally. Now school leaders have agreed, with powerful results, as they lay bare the challenge of filling the gaps left by years of neglecting other services, without the structures and systems to support them.  

“School leaders acknowledge that they have benefitted from the energy, investment and focus of the last 30 years of education reform. For most children, this transformed their outcomes and opportunities. For many of the most vulnerable, it failed.  

“The next great wave of education reform must fill those gaps by redefining how we think about need in school, because for some children even the best teaching will not be enough unless the systems around them can respond to the daily complexities of their lives. Too often, these additional needs – those which require extra help to attend and engage at school – are ignored, unrecognised or shoehorned into a SEND system that cannot provide the right support.” 

The findings will be launched at an event with high-profile speakers including Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, Baroness Hilary Cass OBE, and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.

Phillipson echoed the concerns, saying: “We’ve inherited a system that has failed generations and left teachers carrying the weight of society’s broken safety net. But we are changing that – with mental health support in every school, expanding free school meals, and overhauling children’s social care through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill."