A Call to Action for SEND Reforms in England: An ADHD Specialist Perspective

England's system for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is set for major reform. I am an ADHD specialist who recognizes both the need for reform and the fears among families. Local councils are facing crippling SEND budget deficits as the government proposes SEND reforms which favour investment in state schools rather than costly but unaffordable private place provision. These proposals are designed to make mainstream schools more inclusive for children with ADHD and other SEND conditions but they also carry risks – including the potential for limitations on parental choice and questions about whether regular schools are able to meet complex needs. This article offers an impartial look at the ideas, its financial implications, prospective positives and negatives and lessons learned from past policy changes such as the 2014 SEND overhaul.

SEND Funding Crisis and Councils' Budget Blackhole

Local authorities in England are in a financial crisis caused by the rising cost of supporting children with SEND. Across many local authorities, high needs education budgets (which pay for support for children with EHCPs, as well as other SEND services) have gone into deficit. Councils' individual high-needs deficits are set to be £5bn by next year, despite the fact that councils will spend approximately £12bn on SEND support.

These shortfalls are so acute that more than half of authorities indicate they won't balance their budgets once a temporary accounting measure (the "statutory override") ends in 2026. Some councils could even go bankrupt without further measures.

One of the biggest factors behind these deficits has been the surge in the number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) – the legal documents that entitle pupils to support when they have significant needs. In the nine years since the Children and Families Act 2014 reformed SEND provision, the number of children and young people with EHCPs has exploded, climbing 140 percent, from around 240,000 in 2014/15 to nearly 576,000 by 2023/24. That means close to 5% of all pupils now hold an EHCP, compared to less than 3% a decade ago.

And much of that increase comes with conditions like autism and speech-language struggles are median social, emotional and mental health needs (a category that encompasses ADHD). In a nutshell, many more children — including those with ADHD — are recognized as needing extra assistance, but funding has not kept up with the demand. Councils are legally bound to deliver the support outlined in a child's EHCP, so when the finances do not stack up, deficits begin to accumulate.

Why Government is Proposing SEND Reforms

The government is now trying to address this situation, which is increasingly unsustainable, by enacting a battery of SEND reforms aimed at getting control of costs while at the same time improving support. One main tactic is to place a heavy emphasis on state-funded provision – whether in mainstream schools or local authority special schools – and move away from costly private-sector placements. And at present, there are thousands of children that are sent to independent special schools because the needs of children cannot be met by local mainstream or special schools.

But this private placement has a jaw-dropping cost — an average of £61,500 per pupil per year versus about £24,000 in a state special school. In other words, the cost of a single private placement can equal the cost of two or three public school students. For the past 10 years, councils bewitched by such expensive options had increasingly used them because state special schools ran out of spaces and mainstream schools were at a loss on how to support complex needs. This "capacity crunch" — finite state special school places and uneven inclusivity in mainstream settings — meant that external placements had to be funded at cost.

The proposed reforms aim to fix those and other root issues. In its Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Improvement Plan (2023), the Department for Education sets out steps to make mainstream education more inclusive across the country, so that fewer children need to leave mainstream education. Included in the plan are proposed new national standards for how schools address SEND, earlier intervention to prevent children's needs from escalating, plus additional training and resources for teachers.

By supplying a consistently strong baseline of support in every local school, the government hopes to restore Parent's confidence that their child's needs can be met near their local school gate – reducing the incentive to "battle" for a specialist placement or EHCP. Crucially, the plan would also standardize and digitize the EHCP process to speed it up and make it less adversarial for families, who currently often have to battle for months or years before they receive support.

A main announcement in late 2024 saw the state make a £740million capital investment to get these reforms moving. This funding enables mainstream schools to enhance their one hundred for every cent covered new specialist provision and accommodate, for example, a sensory room, access facility or small-group teaching hub in a mainstream primary or secondary school. Ultimately, this should facilitate more pupils with special education needs and disabilities (SEND), who might currently be placed in segregated special schools, to attend mainstream schools with the appropriate level of support. This cash injection is one we want to ensure that thousands of pupils will benefit from, as we want to ensure more children with SEND can achieve and thrive in mainstream schools instead of being sent away. For children with ADHD, children who can often thrive in a traditional classroom given reasonable accommodations, this investment sends a message that their inclusion is a priority.

A separate part of the reform drive has been the government's "Safety Valve" deals with councils. Under these agreements, councils with the worst deficits will get additional funding on the back of reforming policies that help drive down spending – such as, where appropriate, "repatriating" some pupils from independent schools back into state provision. This is controversial but reflects the wider policy intent: to educate more children in local authority schools and reduce the runaway costs of private placements. In practice, that would mean growing capacity in state special schools and mainstream resource units, and tightening oversight so that only children with truly no local option are sent to costly independent schools.

The potential benefits for children with ADHD and other SEND

As an ADHD expert, here are some of the potential uplifting benefits if these transformations are executed properly:

More Inclusive mainstream education: A principle of the SEND system — strengthened through the 2014 reforms — is that children should be educated in mainstream schools where they can. Many children with ADHD have no learning disability yet require specific interventions (including behavioral strategies, classroom accommodations, or medication management) to thrive in a typical classroom. Greater mainstream inclusion means students with ADHD can stay with their peers in their own local school — reducing stigma and isolation.

Proper inclusion means that children with ADHD can enjoy the full curriculum and social development activities normally offered in mainstream education, rather than segregated. Government investments (e.g. specialist facilities in mainstream settings) might be used to ensure calmer, more supportive settings – e.g. sensory breakout spaces or trained staff – which help neurodiverse learners achieve appropriate levels of alertness and attention. The more closely teachers feel that they have been trained to deal with neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD, the more confidence they will have in setting targets that are achievable, seeing through to the end of the school day, that shouldn't be an exclusion, leading to lower exclusion rates for these pupils.

More Effective Use of Funding to Support All SEND Pupils: Capping the most unjustified expenditure (such as out-of-area independent school placements) would free up funds to be reinvested into building local services. Instead of, say, spending £60k on one child's placement, that money could fund extra special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs), teaching assistants, or ADHD specialists, to support dozens of children in mainstream classrooms. In practice, this theoretically results in more equal support – every school being able to some degree to support kids with ADHD, dyslexia, autism etc, not just those who have an EHCP or those who "fight" the hardest for services.

The reforms also focus on earlier identification and intervention, which is crucial for ADHD. With early support (classroom behavior plans, or school counselling when problems first appear), an ADHD student doesn't fall 'years behind' in their learning — or descend into serious delinquency. From a child's perspective, early identification and intervention can mean better long-term outcomes, academically and emotionally.

Retaining the Right to a Mainstream Education: The government has indicated that as it creates more capacity in the special school sector for those who require it, it will also preserve families' right to choose mainstream education if that's what they wish. As detailed in the SEND Improvement Plan, parents will now "have the right to request a mainstream setting for their child, even where they are eligible for a specialist setting."

This gives hope to mothers and fathers of ADHD children who believe their child can succeed in a traditional school with a little extra aid. It gives families the confidence that inclusion is still the default position, and that having a disability such as ADHD will not immediately push a child out of mainstream education. For lots of ADHD kids, though, remaining in a beloved, familiar community school, friendships maintained and no jarring jump to some distant special school, makes a huge positive difference in their confidence, and well-being.

National Standards for SEND provision: It is hoped that this will promote quality of SEND provision, which will also apply to children with ADHD, and consistent SEND service provision across England. This might help tackle the present-day "postcode lottery" whereby some schools or regions are able to manage ADHD beautifully, with others in the Deep End. Respondents often told of outcomes hinging on the attitude of individual teachers or headteachers. Clear national guidelines on things like reasonable adjustments for ADHD, how to use behavior policies, when to involve specialists etc, would ensure that wherever an ADHD pupil is educated, staff will have your best practice blueprint as a guide.

This kind of consistency can also smooth out transitions between schools for neurodiverse children. And as mainstream provision becomes increasingly skilled and accommodating for ADHD and similar needs, fewer families will feel they have to fight their corner in a tribunal or to go private in order to gain support.

These reforms — with adequate funding and implementation — collectively provide a vision for an education system that is more inclusive." A system where an ADHD diagnosis doesn't trigger a struggle for services, because every school is already able to accommodate attention and behavior differences to a reasonable extent. A system in which money is less locked up in administration or a few expensive placements and more spent on ground-level assistance, like additional adult support, teacher training and mental health services in schools. For children with ADHD and many other SEND, it could be a more positive school experience, less time out of class, and greater achievement in the long run.

Risks and Concerns Surrounding the Reforms

Several lessons emerge from the post-2014 experience:

• Unfunded Mandates Overwhelm Systems: The expansion of eligibility (like support to age 25) and rising awareness of SEND meant many more people qualified for help, but government funding did not rise proportionately. Councils were tasked with delivering a much more ambitious SEND offer without extra resources, leading to an untenable squeeze. One official analysis noted that after 2014, councils lacked the tools and money "to meet the needs of children with SEND or hold health and education partners to account" for doing their part. The lesson is clear: reforms must be funded in line with demand. If mainstream schools are to take more students with additional needs, they need budgets for staff and training to match that responsibility. Likewise, if early intervention is expected to reduce EHCPs, there must be investment in those early support services. Good intentions alone cannot deliver results; sustained funding and oversight are critical.
• Inconsistency and "Postcode Lottery": The 2014 reforms decentralized a lot of decisions to local areas without strong national standards, which led to wide variations. Some councils embraced inclusion and put money into SEND services; others, constrained by budgets, became very restrictive (triggering more tribunals). Parents learned that outcomes could depend on where you live or which school you attend – something the new national standards aim to fix. The current push to standardize EHCPs and SEND provision is a direct response to the uneven implementation post-2014. The takeaway is that equity matters: families should expect a similar level of support for a given need, regardless of locale. National benchmarks and clearer accountability can help achieve that, so long as they don't become a lowest common denominator.
• Inclusivity Requires Culture Change: The 2014 law affirmed the right to mainstream inclusion, but cultural and practical change in schools lagged. Mainstream teachers often didn't feel empowered or trained to support complex needs, and specialist help (like educational psychologists or CAMHS for mental health) remained scarce. As a result, many parents still felt they had to "battle" the system, just as they did pre-2014. One positive from that era is the recognition that parents and young people must be partners in the process – their voices need to shape support plans. The new reforms should double down on co-production with families, a lesson learned after initial implementation sometimes sidelined parental input despite formal rights. If reforms are done to parents rather than with parents, they are likely to falter.
• Avoid Creating an Adversarial System: Post-2014, the surge in demand and lack of resources led councils to tighten criteria and parents to appeal in record numbers. The tribunal system became flooded; in recent years over 90% of parents won their SEND tribunals, indicating that support was often being withheld until legally forced. This adversarial climate benefited nobody – it strained council budgets (legal costs, delayed interventions become costlier), and it exhausted families. The SEND Improvement Plan 2023 explicitly notes that too many parents find the system "increasingly adversarial" and have "lost faith" in its fairness. A key lesson is that a collaborative, trust-based approach works better than a combative one. If mainstream schools can meet needs early and well, fewer parents will need to fight for EHCPs or special placements. Building that trust will be an important measure of success for the new reforms – something the 2014 changes did not manage to accomplish.

The upcoming reforms should incorporate these lessons: ensure funding matches promises, enforce consistency without crushing flexibility, and always keep the focus on the child's best interests.

My last thoughts ...

In conclusion, the SEND reforms on the table have the potential to usher in a more inclusive, equitable era for education in England – one where children with ADHD and other needs are better understood and supported in their local schools, and where local authorities can sustain that support without facing financial ruin. Achieving this will require a delicate balance: cost efficiencies must come from doing things smarter, not from denying support.

As an ADHD expert, I am cautiously optimistic: the emphasis on early help and mainstream inclusion is exactly what many families have long waited for. But I am also vigilant about the pitfalls, remembering the lessons of 2014 and listening to the valid concerns of parents and teachers.

If the reforms proceed with care, collaboration, and adequate resources, we could see a system where every child with SEND gets "the right support, in the right place, at the right time," as promised. The ultimate test will be whether, in a few years, children with ADHD and others with SEND are thriving more in school and parents are spending less time fighting for their child's future – outcomes that would benefit everyone.

Dr. Adeel Sarwar, PhD, is a mental health professional specialising in a broad spectrum of psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, eating disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Armed with years of experience and extensive training in evidence-based therapeutic practices, Dr. Sarwar is deeply committed to delivering empathetic and highly effective treatment.