THE CONVERSATION: The British government is failing pupils with special needs – here’s how to change that

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Children, parents and teachers in England recently took to the streets to march over a “national crisis” in special educational needs (SEND) funding.

The Send National Crisis campaign say special needs funding is failing to keep pace with demand and that reductions in school and college funding has led to teaching assistant support being cut. They also say that special needs provision in England has lost out on £1.2bn since 2015 as central government has failed to provide sufficient funding increases to keep pace with increased demand. Indeed, research by the national education union found that 93% of local authorities have been affected by this funding shortfall since 2015.