Children and families across Cumbria will benefit from a landmark £4 billion national investment to transform support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), ensuring every mainstream school is equipped to meet additional needs.
The funding, announced alongside the government’s schools white paper, ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’, represents a generational reform of the SEND system – ending the “one size fits all” approach and rebuilding parents’ confidence by making support available earlier and closer to home.
The reforms follow extensive engagement with parents, teachers and sector experts across the country, including public meetings held here in Cumbria by local MP and Children’s Minister Josh MacAlister.
Under this major package of reforms, all of Cumbria’s early years settings, schools and colleges will be resourced to deliver earlier support and greater specialist expertise to support children with additional needs. A new £1.6 billion Inclusive Mainstream Fund will provide direct funding to schools and early years settings over three years to introduce targeted interventions. Alongside this, a £1.8 billion “Experts at Hand” service will give schools on-demand access to specialists such as educational psychologists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists, with the average secondary school set to receive the equivalent of more than 160 additional days of specialist support each year.
Josh MacAlister, MP for Whitehaven and Workington and Minister for Children and Families, said:
“I’ve spoken to too many families across West Cumbria who feel worn down by a system that responds too late and only after a battle. Who feel the only way they can guarantee their child a good education is by fighting for a place in a specialist school, which may be miles away.
“Families shouldn’t have to fight and children shouldn’t have to travel miles because their needs cannot be met locally. I’ve taken all those experiences and concerns raised with me directly to ministerial colleagues to help shape these reforms and what the Government is proposing will make sure tailored support is available earlier, in every local school, without parents having to fight for it.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:
“I’ve heard first hand the struggles and exhaustion faced by too many parents who feel they have to fight the system to get their child the support they need.
“But getting the right support should never be a battle – it should be a given.
“That means no more ‘one size fits all’ system that only serves children who fit the mould. Instead, families will get tailored support built around their child’s individual needs, available on their doorstep.”
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said:
“Children with SEND deserve a system that lifts them up, and that puts no limit on what they can go on to achieve.
“That means brilliant teachers and experts providing support where children need it, when they need it – in their local school, without families having to fight.
“These reforms are a watershed moment for a generation of young people and generations to come, and a major milestone in this government’s mission to make sure opportunity is for each and every child.”
Taken together, the measures aim to end the postcode lottery in SEND provision and build a system where opportunity is available to every child – including those growing up in Cumbria’s towns, villages and rural communities.
Josh MacAlister MP 