Our response to the autumn budget – 2024

Leading up to the Government’s Autumn Budget we at Kids had hoped to see signs that the Government were serious about directly tackling the problems faced by disabled children, young people and their families in the long-term. By their own admission, the SEND system is broken and in crisis.

The recent National Audit Office report on how the SEND system is working also concluded that the system is not financially sustainable and not achieving outcomes for children with SEND.

There was some good news – alongside the uplift in SEND funding, the Chancellor announced increased school and college funding as well as extra investment in breakfast clubs, extra funding for local government and changes to carer’s allowance that will allow people to earn more whilst in receipt of the benefit.

We’ve summarised how some of these announcements might impact disabled children, young people and their families, acknowledging the positive signs whilst also reflecting on the long road ahead to reform.

£1bn uplift in SEND funding: how will this directly benefit children and families?

Whilst the £1bn uplift in SEND funding is particularly welcome, its impact on children with SEND is not yet known, and will depend on how it is utilised by local areas. Rising waiting lists across health, care, education and other services are impacting more and more disabled children, young people and families every day.

Will this funding be used to reduce waiting lists for the thousands of children and young people waiting three years for an assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), or those waiting years for an ADHD or autism diagnosis?

We hope that the extra funding would mean children and families in these situations feel an immediate impact, so that fewer families fall into crisis. We note there is speculation that local councils may use this extra funding to plug the current SEND deficits they are facing. This would lead to yet more disappointment for families, and as stated previously, we believe that money meant for children with SEND, must be spent directly on children with SEND.

Children and families need support here and now and have been left to fight a failing system on their own for too long.

Funding for breakfast clubs and core schools’ budget: will this support inclusion in mainstream schools?

Alongside the announcement of extra SEND funding, came welcome news of an extra £2.3bn for schools, as well as breakfast clubs receiving tripled investment so that thousands more schools can provide them. As always, the devil is in the detail and we look forward to seeing how this funding will be implemented.

For every child to have the best start in life, any wraparound care including breakfast clubs in schools must be inclusive. Children with SEND must be considered and central to implementation plans, to ensure this welcome expansion is properly resourced across all schools, and caters for their support needs.

The Chancellor signalled her intention for the core schools’ funding to help recruit more teachers into key subjects. We urge her planning for the Spending Review to take into account investment in SEND training for all teachers and the wider education workforce. This will be essential to providing inclusive educational settings, especially with the rising numbers of children in receipt of EHCPs, now standing at a record half a million children.

The need for SEND training and development for the workforce applies also to early years settings and will be crucial to the success of the 300 new nurseries the Government has committed to funding. They must equally be accessible to children with disabilities and training, as well as input from SEND specialists, to make this a reality.

Just last month it was reported by the Children’s Commissioner that hundreds of children with special educational needs are completely missing from education in England. Whilst there are complex factors at play, investment into the system must also help to tackle this issue, and help children back into school.

Funding for further education: can this help ‘flatten the cliff edge’ in the transition to adulthood?

An additional £300million for further education (FE) is being made available so that, as the Chancellor said, ‘our young people can develop the skills they need’. This must include young people with SEND.

As our report ‘On the cliff edge’ shows, it is increasingly difficult for young people with SEND to find appropriate further education provision. Many young people and professionals told us that higher and further education settings lack the capacity and expertise to support pupils with SEND.

The success of the extra funding for FE will depend on how it is implemented, and we urge the Government and FE providers involve young people with SEND when making decisions about how to most effectively use the money. This transition stage is crucial to young disabled people being able to learn and acquire the social, educational skills for success in employment and wider adult life.

What happens next? A long road to reform

The Chancellor stated that this Budget represented Phase 1 of a wider 2025 spending review, with the Autumn Budget focused on stabilising and supporting public services.

The Spending Review in Spring 2025 represents Phase 2 and this will be a crucial opportunity for the Government to continue to take action that helps to rebuild the trust of disabled children and their families who must be able to rely on their basic entitlements from public services. This will mean showing how their actions are addressing the long waiting lists, the lack of early diagnosis and support, and ensuring there is a plan to provide families with timely and appropriate interventions.

Only a long-term, fully costed plan can bring about the change that families have been waiting for whilst starting to ease pressure on the system.