Most parents of SEND children forced to quit work or reduce hours

Three out of four parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities forced to give up work or cut hours, new research shows.

The research by charity Support Send Kids, commissioned by Sky News, shows that two out of five (40 per cent) parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities had to leave their jobs, and more than one in three (33 per cent) reduced their hours.

The majority of respondents said it was because there was a lack of local authority help, and a large proportion said not enough school support was the reason. Some also said it was down to a lack of flexibility from their employer.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “This is a serious issue across the country. It reflects the unsustainable pressure being put upon overworked school staff who review Education Health and Care Plans, the under-capacity specialist services which feed into them, and ultimately, the local authorities responsible for updating them.  

“Local authorities have faced a big increase in numbers of plans, in part due to both the pandemic and the extension of plans until the age of 25 back in 2014. At the same time, councils are struggling to recruit and retain staff crucial to the process like educational psychologists and case workers, a situation compounded by the stress staff face. This means there is a heavy reliance on agency staff in some areas.

“Some children with SEND have not had their plan substantially updated for consecutive years due to the erosion of local authority capacity. This is completely unacceptable.

“The entire SEND system has suffered from a chronic lack of funding over many years, which means many children and families are being badly let down."