Funding postcode lottery for SEND pupils

A recent report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), published on 13 November 2025, exposes stark inequalities in how pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are distributed across England’s mainstream schools. This uneven spread is not just a statistical anomaly. It is a structural challenge that risks undermining the government’s ambition for inclusive education.

Key findings from NFER

• Rising inclusion, uneven spread: Over half (56 per cent) of pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) are now educated in mainstream schools, up from 49 per cent in 2015/16. However, this inclusion is far from evenly distributed
• Variation between schools:
  • Primary schools with the highest EHCP rates have six times more pupils than those with the lowest
  • Secondary schools show a fivefold difference
  • Schools with the highest overall SEND rates have more than double the proportion compared to those with the fewest
• Impact on schools: Those with high SEND intakes often serve disadvantaged communities and report lower average test scores. While these schools may develop expertise, they face disproportionate pressures on staffing, funding, and specialist support.
• Drivers of clustering: Parental choice, school ethos, identification practices, and accountability pressures all contribute to SEND pupils being concentrated in certain schools. Resourced provision can attract more EHCP pupils, further increasing demand.

NAHT’s response: funding and workforce gaps

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of NAHT, warns that these findings expose a deeper systemic flaw.

“What we currently see is a postcode lottery in funding allocated to schools by local authorities, meaning children with similar needs can receive vastly different levels of provision depending on where they live. The lack of any genuine correlation between numbers of pupils on roll with additional needs and the total funding schools receive makes no sense to families or schools themselves.”

Whiteman’s comments underscore the urgency of reform. While many schools have developed exemplary provision, the absence of consistent funding and coordination across education, health, and social care perpetuates inequality. NAHT calls for:

• Better funding: align resources with actual need, not arbitrary local formulas.
• Systemic reform: address structural inefficiencies and accountability pressures that deter inclusion.
• Workforce planning: tackle shortages of specialists such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists.

Implications for policy

The government’s delayed schools white paper, expected early next year, will outline SEND reform ambitions. If these reforms fail to address the funding disparities and workforce shortages highlighted by NAHT, the postcode lottery will persist. Inclusive schools will continue to shoulder unsustainable burdens.

The end goal

As Whiteman concludes:

“The end goal must be a system in which parents can be confident their children will get the support they need at any local school.”

Achieving this vision requires decisive action – fair funding, coordinated services, and a commitment to equity. Without these, the uneven distribution of SEND pupils will remain a barrier to true inclusion.