Will £740m transform schools for SEND pupils?

The UK Government has announced £740m in funding for schools in England to use to invest in changes to school buildings, targeted towards adapting school buildings to make them more accessible for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

There is cautious welcome for this funding from both schools and parents, with both groups having been crying out for much needed investment for many years (see BBC commentary on a recent National Audit Office report ‘Parents Lose Hope As Report Says SEND System Broken’).

A lot of schools in England are in desperate need of work to make them accessible for children with SEND, but is this investment going to be enough to bring about the change that is needed?

A recent report by the Times Educational Supplement (TES) reports that there are 24,072 schools in Englandso this new investment is the equivalent of just over £30,000 per school.

In the BBC report on this new investment ‘Schools Given £740m To Adapt Buildings For SEND Pupils, we meet the Headteacher of Brighouse High School in West Yorkshire who told the BBC that the school recently spent £10,000 on “on building adaptations, such as handrails and accessible bathrooms, for incoming students, making a “big dent” in its budget.”

The BBC report goes on to state that “the school lift remains broken and would cost about £250,000 to fix, which there is “absolutely no way” the school can afford.”

The implications of this lift being broken are serious, with “one wheelchair-using pupil having to go outside and through car parks to reach some classrooms.

“On wet December mornings, it’s just not good enough,” Mr Horsfield says.” Many of us would say that it is just not good enough at any time of the year.

We wait to see how this extra funding will be distributed to schools, although it is clear to see that if Brighouse High School was finally able to get the funding for the lift repairs, then other schools may miss out.

There are over 1.6m pupils in England with SEND according to the UK Government , which is almost 1 in 5 pupils. The new funding represents less that £500 per pupil, although clearly some building adaptations will support multiple pupils.



As well as building adaptations, the new funding will also be used to “create SEN units that will deliver more intensive specialist support” according to the Department for Education.

These units would be a mid-way step between standard mainstream education and specialist schools.



The BBC report picks up on comments from the UK Government Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, who said that “Just putting more money in the system without reforming it isn’t the answer. What I’m also keen to make sure we do is reform the system overall. I know it’s frustrating but it’s so important we get it right.”

Part of these reforms would be to ensure that SEND pupils are able to attend a school nearer to where they live. Another recent BBC report shows how much needed this change is ‘Special Educational Needs System ‘Has Burst’’.

The government says children with SEND should be able to go to a school closer to home and wants more of them to remain in mainstream education.

“We’ve had schools that have done excellent work to put in place that provision but they didn’t have government backing to do it – and that’s what we have to change,” Phillipson added.

The £740m announced is welcomed and will have a positive impact. How much of an impact, and what that will mean for SEND pupils across the country, will depend on how quickly this funding becomes available, how it is distributed, and what schools use it for.

As part of the bigger £6.7b of education spending announced in the recent budget, it is help that schools and parents have been crying out for.

We now need to see this funding provided quickly, targeted well, and used effectively, with the needs of SEND pupils at the heart of all decisions.

Mark Arnold, Director of Additional Needs Ministry at Urban Saints. Arnold blogs at The Additional Needs Blogfather. This article was re-published with permission.