12 December 2025

The Government has today announced £3 billion of funding to increase the number of specialist places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools. 

Madeleine Cassidy, Chief Executive of IPSEA, said: 

“Investment in the SEND system is welcome, but funding alone will not solve a crisis rooted in meeting the individual needs of children and young people. While investment in specialist units may appear proactive, it does not address the growing threat to statutory rights signalled in the forthcoming White Paper. The cancellation of planned special schools poses a real danger that fewer children will secure places in specialist schools they require, and that new units will become siloed, isolated spaces rather than engines of genuine inclusion within mainstream settings.

We need clarity on how these units will operate, and a national workforce plan to address severe shortages of specialist teachers, educational psychologists and therapists. Such units will only succeed if they provide properly trained staff and genuinely individualised support, as set out in children’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.

Above all, statutory protections must be safeguarded. Investment must be matched with robust accountability and a clear commitment to upholding the Children and Families Act and the Equality Act. Only then will this funding deliver real, lasting change for children and young people with SEND.”

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