Responding to the announcement from the Department for Education that an additional £740 million will support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union, NAHT said:

“We’ve long highlighted that there simply isn’t enough capacity in either mainstream or special schools to offer all children with additional needs the support they deserve.

“Mainstream schools in particular often lack the essential facilities needed at a time when they are they are trying to cater for increasing numbers of pupils for whom there is simply not space in special schools.

“This is a legacy of the failure by previous governments to provide anything like enough investment to meet increasing demand over the last decade.

“While this funding will be welcomed by mainstream schools, it must be just the beginning of sustained investment not only in specialist facilities, and increased special school places, but also support for children with special educational needs (SEND) and the professionals who provide this.

“That must mean reforms backed by a huge injection of new funding over this Parliament to tackle the current postcode lottery and ensure pupils with similar needs can access equitable and sufficient provision, irrespective of where they live or whether they attend a mainstream or special school. We also want to see local authority ‘high needs’ deficits written off and action to address workforce shortages affecting vital roles like educational psychologists and speech and language therapists.”