The pressures exerted by SEND demand are being felt across trust budgets. Georgina de Costa sums up discussions about the topic in this year’s MAT Leaders Webinar.

Getting to the Heart of SEND Pressures

This year’s MAT Leaders survey report provided a fresh window on the challenges and tribulations faced by business leaders across the country’s trusts and schools.

And our recent MAT Leaders Webinar was an opportunity to reflect on those findings with a panel of trust business leaders. The discussions were wide-ranging and provided a valuable ‘real-life’ picture of the reality behind the stats that was a morale booster for everyone who attended, including myself.

Budgeting, HR pain points, workload and AI were among the topics but it was that dramatic increase in SEND pressures that proved to be the dominant theme of the webinar, with its impact being felt through almost every area, most prominently staffing.

Staffing Under Strain: The Financial Impact of Rising SEND Demand

“Staffing is the biggest individual cost so that is always where you have to start,” said Samantha Taylor, Chief Finance Officer of the seven primary school Keystone Academy Trust in Lincolnshire. “Our biggest pressures are coming from the EHCPs, and the fact that the funding doesn’t cover the hours that you have to employ someone for.

“We're having to restructure staffing models to get more creative in how we can meet need within the cost limitations that we have. And certainly the smaller the school you have, the more challenging that can become, because you've just got less capacity within your staffing and you must have a teacher in front of a class.”

For Christopher Dryer, Director of Finance and Business Development at St Bartholomew’s CE MAT, a trust of 15, soon to be 16, primary schools in Wolverhampton, the crux of the SEND challenge was the time the EHCP process took.

His comments echoed our survey findings that showed 75% of respondents said faster EHCP processing would positively impact their trust's ability to meet its pupil needs in the current climate.

“You've worked incredibly hard to set these budgets over the summertime and you’ve got them to a position where you might be able to get them to balance to a small surplus or with a slight use of reserves and then the unexpected changes come to play with pupils coming into Reception and the EHCP funding process takes up to 20 weeks,” he said.

EHCP Delays, Inconsistent Systems and Planning Uncertainty

A lack of consistency in EHCP processes across different local authorities was a major issue for SHINE Academies, a small primary trust with six schools across three local authorities in the West Midlands. CEO Gemma Draycott told us: “I think mobility across local authorities is incredibly frustrating for us, because we'll find that the EHCP process has been started in one local authority, a child is then moved, and it's a completely different process. Not only is it a different funding band, but it's a completely different process, so if we don't have the EHCP at that point, you are starting from scratch.”

There are ways of mitigating SEND pressures, in part at least. Christopher Dryer told us that the use of learning technology to support SEND children with lower level needs has helped take some pressure off TAs so they can focus more on higher need pupils.

“We've been able to use technology to make the curriculum more accessible, and that could be simple as devices actually reading to them, so they can understand the questions, especially if they have dyslexia needs,” he added.

“This is not to say that the technology is going to replace people. It’s about using the TAs in a smarter way and allowing children to use technology to access the curriculum independently.”

Samantha Taylor pointed out that delays to the publication of the SEND White Paper, expected later this month, made planning ahead more challenging. “Part of the problem now, and certainly in terms of future planning, is the delay of the White Paper,” she said. “We've been trying to budget without actually knowing what the future landscape's going to look like.”

Funding wasn’t the only barrier to the consistent delivery of SEND provision – teacher training remains a big issue, said Gemma Draycott. “ECTs are coming in with the same training they were receiving six or seven years ago, and it lacks the complexity of what SEN needs are in a classroom and that's having a huge impact on that ability to cope in classrooms,” she said. “That's no fault of the individual teacher, but I think the training needs to catch up so that teachers know what to expect. I think that also drives retention and recruitment issues.”

Increased Use of Technology and Partnerships with Education

Partnership working and collaboration does provide an answer to the challenge of delivering consistent SEND provision across a trust, said Christopher Dryer. “We're seeing such an increase in the level of need coming through, especially in Reception and Key Stage 1, and that does have an impact on the expertise that we have available.

“Being able to get that consistent SEND approach across all our schools, especially in those that haven't previously experienced that level of need, has been challenging.

“We do have network groups where our SENCOs share knowledge and expertise, and we do a lot of training across the trust.

“We've developed very close links with other special school provisions and we can tap into their expertise and their knowledge on supporting the children effectively, but they also tap into some of the knowledge that we have as a primary trust that might possibly help with their curriculum design, or even some of their back office, so we look at ways that we can share that knowledge and expertise to benefit all the children we're working with.”

What the Schools White Paper Means for Trusts

With the Schools White Paper now published, trust leaders will be examining closely what the proposed reforms mean in practice. While the ambition to improve consistency and accountability in SEND provision has been welcomed in principle, questions remain about whether the changes will translate into faster EHCP processes, clearer funding pathways and reduced administrative burden for schools and trusts already operating at capacity.

While trust leaders face a complex web of challenges it was clear from our panel that they have much to feel positive about, largely because they have a strong sense of personal mission. Samantha Taylor I think summed that up for us all when she told us: “I’ve stayed in this job because I like making sure that every pound we spend is spent the best way possible – to maximise outcomes for our pupils. We can only spend each pound once so we've got to get the most out of it and make sure that it enables our teachers to teach.”

The MAT Leaders Survey report and webinar recording are now available for download.

Download here