County Durham school at 'breaking point' over lack of funding for special educational needs pupils

• Katie Cole and Tom Sheldrick report

Teachers are warning that schools in the North East are close to breaking point because of the increasing number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

ITV Tyne Tees has learnt that in several council areas, the number of children being given special educational needs plans has gone up by more than 100% in five years.

Special schools in the region are at full capacity. It means that mainstream schools are under pressure to try and support children in need of additional support, but teachers are warning that sufficient funding is not in place to do so properly.

One school struggling with this issue is Consett Infant School, in County Durham. It is a mainstream primary with 160 pupils. Sixteen of those children have additional needs.

Some require one-on-one support, meaning the school has had to renovate rooms onsite. The cloakroom has been transformed into a sensory room to support children who struggle to concentrate in a classroom environment.

Kerrie Robinson works as a teaching assistant at the school. She offers one-on-one care to a little boy who has autism. He requires constant supervision.

She says staff are under immense pressure, and she is worried about how long this could go on. She knows of other mainstream schools that are unable to cope and are turning SEN pupils away.

Ms Robinson said: "The situation is at breaking point. It is dire.

"We are meeting the needs that we have but I don't know what next year will bring. We constantly have more children joining the school year-on-year who have SEN.

"The level of need is increasing because specialist provisions are full or oversubscribed. Waiting lists are up to two years, so when children are ready to start school, they need to go somewhere.

"It's not as simple as saying 'they shouldn't be in mainstream, they should be in specialist provision'. There isn't the space there. "

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Rachel Findley is also a teaching assistant at Consett Infant School.

She said staff are doing all they can to make sure SEND children can still receive an education.

"Education shouldn't be a golden ticket, where you can have one but you can't," added Ms Findley. "They all deserve an education."

The teaching staff say their goal is to be as inclusive as possible, but a lack of government funding makes it difficult.

She continued: "We are one big school family and we don't want anyone to feel excluded from that. They're not funding it, they're not staffing it, they're not supplying resources. It's just heartbreaking."

Martyn Stenton, Durham County Council's deputy corporate director of children and young people's services, said: "As with councils up and down the country, we have seen a substantial rise in requests for Education Health Care assessments and consequently the number of children with EHC plans.

"We want young people across County Durham with SEND to get best the opportunity to thrive in their local community with their peers. 

"To do this though we feel the current system urgently needs reform to ensure local areas are better equipped and resourced to meet children's needs in a more inclusive education system. 

"The SEND system is currently unable to fully meet children's needs and that is reflected in County Durham as it is across other areas."

A Department for Education spokesperson said: "Councils are responsible for making sure there is appropriate education for all children in their area, including for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

"Our published SEND and AP improvement plan sets out how we will make sure all children with special needs and disabilities receive the support they need, with earlier intervention, consistent high standards and less bureaucracy.

"The Government's investment in the high need budget has risen by over 60% since 2019-20 to £10.5 billion, alongside investment of £2.6 billion in high needs capital over this Spending Review and doubling the number of special free school places to 19,000 once those in the pipeline are complete."