Oxfordshire County Council has this week provided evidence to the Parliamentary Education Select Committee’s inquiry into solving the national SEND crisis.
In its written contribution, the council said that despite rapidly rising expenditure, reports from the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee show that outcomes are not improving nationally for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and neither are families’ day-to-day experiences of the system.
The council explained that it believes the current SEND system is unsustainable and requires immediate and comprehensive reforms to meet the growing number of children and young people requiring support.
Its evidence to the committee focuses on actions required to stabilise the system, such as increased funding, which would then allow more time for necessary medium to long-term reforms to be implemented.
Councillor Sean Gaul, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “The situation is unsustainable. The SEND high needs block deficit is expected to hit £100 million in Oxfordshire by March 2026, with many other councils across the country in similar situations. The whole system is in urgent need of extensive reform.
“It’s a national problem – a national crisis – not a local one, but of course it impacts many families and children here in Oxfordshire.
“We’re calling for clarity on funding and long-term sustainable reforms to ensure we have a system fit for purpose that will meet the needs of every SEND child and young person wherever they live, and whatever their individual needs.
“Here in Oxfordshire, we are absolutely committed to supporting our children and young people with SEND and have committed significant investment in next year’s budget. However, we are acutely aware this will still not be enough and national government intervention is urgently needed.”
Oxfordshire County Council’s budget for the 2025/26 financial year, approved at its full council meeting on Tuesday, 11 February, includes £1.141m of extra funding for SEND services and education, health and care plans (EHCP).
A total of £641,000 of this would be additional money to complete EHCPs quicker and £500,000 to facilitate the provision of expertise from special schools focused on children with EHCPs who are in mainstream schools.
An EHCP is put in place to support a young person with SEND if their educational setting doesn’t have the resources and expertise to support them.
In the council’s 2025/2026 budget, there is also £2 million of new money, partly funded by new government grant funding, to support families to overcome challenges at the earliest opportunity, prevent escalation and effectively intervene with problems.
Alongside this, a total of £400,000 additional funding has been allocated to cover the costs of the increase in the number of children with SEND requiring home-to-school transport.
