The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has released a report calling for urgent reform of England’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system.
The report, titled ‘Reforming SEND finance: meeting need in a sustainable system,’ proposes a roadmap for overhauling the current system to ensure it is financially sustainable and meets the needs of children and young people with SEND.
It highlights a decade of missed opportunities, leading to a crisis in the SEND system.
It sets out five principles for children and young people while addressing the financial challenges faced by local authorities.
These principles call for holistic, needs-based funding that is responsive to local demands, a rebalancing of spending towards early identification and intervention, and a consistent outcomes framework.
Additionally, the report suggests better coordination of financial resources between education, health, public health, and care partners.
It also calls for a reformed role of the independent sector to reduce costs and address inequality, as well as ensuring financial accountability aligns with decision-making.
CIPFA chief executive Owen Mapley said: “The SEND system is broken. Well intentioned reforms seriously underestimated the need and related demand creating years of misaligned priorities. This has left too many children and young people facing delays and deficiencies in the support they need and created unsustainable financial and operational pressures for councils and education and health care providers.
“CIPFA’s five principles contribute to the debate on how to transform this fragmented system, improving outcomes for children while improving financial stability for all relevant providers.”
CIPFA Social Care Policy advisor William Burns said: “Our research highlights the urgent need for a system overhaul. To stabilise the SEND system, CIPFA recommends immediate short-term actions followed by medium- and long-term reforms to ensure lasting change.”
This publication comes after the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) designated CIPFA’s Diploma in Local Audit as a pre-approved local audit specialist training programme last year.
This initiative was a part of the FRC’s efforts to enhance the local audit system’s capacity and capability, supporting the sustainability of financial reporting and audits for local entities.
