Action Cerebral Palsy welcomes the Education Committee Report on Solving the SEND Crisis and its clear and honest account from parents and professionals of current SEND provision and robust recommendations for reform. This report’s strong recommendations echo the findings of numerous others including the Ofsted recent report into its consultation into improving the way it inspects education, the All Party Parliamentary Group on SEND Report, the Public Accounts Committee report on the SEND crisis, the Children’s Commissioner’s Report on the waiting times for assessment and support for autism, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental conditions , the recent campaign to Save Our Children’s Rights and the ensuing petition to retain the legal right to assessment and support in education for children with SEND that gained over 128,000 signatures and that led to the debate in Parliament on SEND on 15 September 2025 which demonstrated the cross-party support of these vital rights.
The SEND system continues to fail too many children and young people with SEND and their families it is supposed to support and help to thrive. We strongly support the Education Committee’s recommendations to:
- Define inclusive education: Clearly articulate what inclusive education means, ensuring a systematic understanding of every child’s needs, personalised support, and multi-disciplinary collaboration;
- Invest in the workforce in health and education: Strengthen initial and ongoing training for all education staff and expand paediatric therapy resources;
- Ensure shared accountability: Make education, health and care sectors equally responsible and accountable for delivering fit for purpose SEND services through joint commissioning and collaboration between Local Authorities and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)/NHS providers and the third sector;
- Protect existing legal rights: Retain the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST) as an essential safeguard and extend Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s (LGSCO) powers over EHCP delivery and inclusion;
- Reform and prioritise: Embed early, proactive support and curriculum reform; and
- Ensure sustainable funding: Establish a fair and realistic funding model that reflects the true cost of high-quality SEND provision.
We searched throughout this document for reference to children with the most complex level of need and those with physical, sensory and/or neurological challenges which affect their learning, development and participation. Whilst there were fleeting references, the overwhelming focus was that of creating inclusive mainstream schools for those with LD, ASD or SEMH needs. This was disappointing in a review that had the capacity to look comprehensively at solving the SEND crisis for ALL children with SEND.
We remain concerned that the needs of children with physical, sensory and neurological SEND needs are being forgotten and that there is a rigidity in the proposal for mainstream for all but the most complex which fails to acknowledge the fluctuating needs of many children with neurological conditions who require a flexible continuum of educational options including mainstream and specialist to meet their changing needs.
The current legislation framed by the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice remains largely sound whilst the failings in its implementation and necessary funding mechanisms result in the very poor SEND services children and families have endured for far too long. We strongly maintain that all current legislation and legal safeguards for children and families is retained and strengthened during this period of reform.
Children with cerebral palsy have a very broad range of needs from mild to very complex which fluctuate during the child’s growth and development. Every child with cerebral palsy will require at points in their growing years, high levels of expertise across many domains; movement, postural control, learning, communication, independence skills, health and wellbeing and social participation. Whilst high quality inclusive mainstream provision for all is of course an ideal aspiration, it is going to be a long journey and so the demonising of so called “expensive” specialist schools, many of whom deliver outstanding outcomes for children with complex but low incidence needs such as cerebral palsy through their expert multidisciplinary teams, is an unjust and dangerous position for these children and their families. These specialist schools, alongside Local Authority special schools, are vital components of comprehensive SEND provision and must be valued for the specialized expertise they provide.
We remain committed to represent children with neurodisability, including the 30,000 children and young people with cerebral palsy, throughout the reform process and to support those developing policy and practice in any way we can. In anticipation of the publication of the Schools White Paper, and in order to drive more effective Special Educational Needs and Disabilities policy and practice, Action Cerebral Palsy has provided all Parliamentarians with our detailed response to the Education Select Committee report which highlights key areas where policy development is urgently needed.
September 2025
