Wandsworth: top of the class on special needs, bottom line in crisis

Wandsworth issued every single one of its education support plans on time last year. Across England, fewer than half of councils managed that. And Wandsworth still has a £21 million hole in its special needs budget.

That is the paradox sitting at the centre of this week’s £4 billion government overhaul of special needs education. The white paper, published on Monday, identifies the 20-week deadline as the critical test of whether a council is meeting its legal duties. Wandsworth passed it with a 100% score in 2024 (404 plans, all on time) against a national average of 46.4%. Passing the test has not fixed the money.

The plans in question are Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), the legally binding documents that set out what extra help a child with significant needs must receive. Getting one issued within 20 weeks is a legal requirement. Most councils are failing it. Five years ago, Wandsworth was failing it too, at 46% in 2019. Something changed around 2021 and the borough has been near the top of the national table since.

Plans issued within 20 weeks. Source: Department for Education.

Why the budget is still broken

The problem is not how fast plans are issued. It is how many children need them, and how much their support costs.

Wandsworth has 27% more children with formal support plans per head of population than comparable boroughs. More plans mean more specialist school places, more therapists, more costs. Wandsworth receives the fourth highest level of special needs funding per pupil in England, at £2,675 per pupil. Only Camden, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea get more. It is still not enough. When Bradstow School closed, each of its placements had been costing around £300,000 a year. The council had to find those children places elsewhere at similar cost.

The result: a special needs budget shortfall of around £21 million, roughly triple what it was three years ago. A Schools Forum paper last December said the budget “remains of concern and a challenge.” Next year’s budget has not been set. That decision has been pushed to 16 March.

What the white paper does (and doesn’t do)

Pre-publication media reports suggested education support plans were being restricted or abolished. They are not. EHCPs are being kept, for children who need more intensive support than mainstream schools can routinely provide.

What the white paper actually introduces is a new, lighter-touch plan for the children who currently have nothing. More than 70% of children with additional needs, over a million in England, have no legal entitlement to support at all. The new Individual Support Plan (ISP) would give them one.

The transition for children currently on EHCPs in mainstream schools will not begin until 2030, and then only as children naturally move between year groups. No child at a special school loses their place. The government is calling this a “triple lock” of protection.

The funding package comes to £1.6 billion over three years paid directly to schools, plus £1.8 billion for a new service to bring therapists and educational psychologists into every local area.

What Wandsworth has already been doing

Two years ago Wandsworth launched a programme to do exactly what the white paper now wants all councils to do: catch children early, before they need a formal plan. The Enhanced Transition Project supports children with additional needs through the move from primary to secondary school. Of the first group of pupils, every child stayed at classroom support level without escalating to a full education support plan. Requests for formal assessments from Year 6 children have fallen since the programme launched. The council’s own figures show Wandsworth is now in the bottom quarter nationally for how fast its support plan numbers are growing.

The programme saves an estimated £120,000 a year. The deficit is £21 million.

What today’s announcement doesn’t fix

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the SEND system “designed ten years ago for a small number of children is now broken.” The government’s answer is a decade-long reform programme. For Wandsworth, the problem lands in three weeks.

The council still needs to set its special needs budget for the coming year. The deficit is real and the money to close it has not been found. The new ISP system could eventually reduce demand for expensive formal plans, but that transition does not begin until 2030. The March Schools Forum meeting will have to decide what to do in the meantime.

What you can do

The Schools Forum meeting on 16 March is open to the public. It will set Wandsworth’s special needs budget for the year ahead. It takes place at Wandsworth Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street. The agenda is published at democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk approximately one week before.

The government’s 12-week consultation on the reform proposals, “SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First,” is now open at gov.uk.

Families seeking support navigating the current system can contact WIASS (Wandsworth Information, Advice and Support Service) at wiass.org.uk or call 020 8871 8061. To request a formal needs assessment, contact EHCArequests@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk.