Wandsworth Council is planning to reduce what it spends on children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), as the cost of support continues to spiral.
The council says it’s not cutting services — just making them more efficient. But with a huge budget gap already and more to come, it’s clear that many children will end up with less help than before.
New council figures show Wandsworth overspent by £7.3 million on SEND services last year — and that gap is expected to rise to £10 million this year. Without big changes, officials warn the shortfall could reach nearly £14 million a year in just a few years.
A shift away from support plans
The main focus is on reducing the number of children who need Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) — legal documents that guarantee a child extra support. These are expensive to deliver, especially when children are placed in private schools that specialise in SEND.
The council is now trying a different approach [pdf]:
- Helping children earlier in nurseries so they don’t need a plan later.
- Offering extra help when children move up to secondary school.
- Building more local places in mainstream schools for children with extra needs.
- Creating an in-house tuition service to avoid costly outside tutors.
Some of these efforts are already showing results. In one nursery project, the number of children who needed a plan dropped from 45% to under 10%. In another trial, only one out of 20 Year 6 children going to secondary school ended up needing a plan.
But there’s a catch
The council says this is about better targeting of support — not denying children what they need. But the pressure to save money is intense, and not every child will get the same level of help as before.
As we reported last month, local school St Anne’s is closing because of falling numbers and rising costs. And a senior official admitted the council had reached the point where “the budget is irrelevant” — because the law says it must support children with SEND, whatever the cost.
Now, that’s changing. With money running out and no extra funding from the government, Wandsworth is trying to bring demand — and spending — under control.
The national picture: problem postponed, not solved
Wandsworth isn’t alone. Councils across England are facing a SEND crisis. Together, they’ve racked up £5.2 billion in overspending. Until now, the government has allowed them to keep these debts off their main accounts — but that protection was due to end in 2026.
Ministers have just extended the deadline to 2028, giving councils more time to sort things out. But experts say that simply delays the pain — and without a proper funding plan, many councils could still be pushed to the brink.
The government has promised to set out a full SEND reform plan in the autumn, but local councils don’t yet know what it will include — or whether it will come with the money they need.
What this means for families in Wandsworth
The number of children in Wandsworth needing extra support is rising — even as the number of pupils overall is falling. In the past year, requests for EHCPs have gone up nearly 10%, while primary school numbers are down 15%.
This mismatch is creating enormous strain. The council says it’s trying to respond by building more local places and improving support earlier on — but it admits that without a change in funding, services could be stretched thinner and thinner.
Even in the best-case scenario, Wandsworth doesn’t expect its SEND budget to break even for at least five more years. Until then, families and schools will be caught in the middle of a broken system — one that’s being patched, but not yet fixed.
