THE government’s announcement of £200 million for Send training is being hailed in the press as a major investment in inclusion. But anyone working in education — or fighting alongside parents for children’s rights — can see it for what it is: a cynical attempt to plaster over a system the Tories have spent more than a decade destroying.

Send provision is not in crisis because teachers lack training. It is in crisis because the government has cut, outsourced, marketised and hollowed out every part of the system that children with additional needs rely on. A one‑off pot of money for continuing professional development (CPD) will not reverse years of austerity, nor will it fix the structural violence inflicted on disabled children and their families.

A system on the brink

Across the country, families are waiting months — sometimes years — for assessments. Local authorities are collapsing under the weight of Send tribunals. Schools are absorbing needs that used to be met by specialist services that no longer exist. The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is overwhelmed. Speech and language therapy is rationed. Educational psychologists are in short supply.

This is not a training issue. It is a funding issue. A staffing issue. A political issue.

The government want to pretend that the problem lies with teachers who “don’t know enough about Send.” But the truth is that teachers are already doing the impossible — supporting children with complex needs in overcrowded classrooms, with no time, no resources, and no specialist backup.

Shifting blame onto schools

The new “expectation” that every teacher will receive Send training is not a gift. It is a trap.
Once the government can claim that the workforce is “trained,” they will use it to justify:

• Fewer EHCPs,
• Tighter thresholds,
• More children pushed into mainstream without support, and 
• More pressure on schools to absorb needs they cannot meet.

This is not about inclusion. It is about cutting costs and shifting responsibility from the state onto individual teachers and schools.

The government’s message is clear: “We’ve invested. If things don’t improve, it’s your fault.”

Austerity in disguise

£200 million sounds like a lot — until you spread it across every school, college, and early years setting in England. It amounts to little more than a tokenistic CPD budget bump.

Meanwhile, billions have been stripped from local authority Send budgets since 2010. Specialist provision has been decimated. Early intervention has been gutted. The entire system has been pushed to breaking point.

This announcement is not investment. It is political cover.

Workers and parents know better

Teachers, support staff, Send co-ordinators (SendCos) and parents have been sounding the alarm for years. They know what real inclusion requires:

• Smaller class sizes
• More specialist staff
• Properly funded local services
• Time off timetable for SendCos
• A system built around children’s needs, not Treasury spreadsheets

None of this is delivered by the government’s announcement.

Organise to win the system our children deserve

The NEU, parents’ groups, disability rights organisations and education workers must treat this announcement for what it is: a distraction from the real fight.

We need to build pressure in schools, districts and nationally. We need to expose the government’s lies and demand the funding, staffing and structural change that inclusion actually requires.

Send children deserve more than warm words and glossy training packages. They deserve a system that meets their needs. And that will only be won through collective struggle, not government spin.

Inclusion without resources is not inclusion — it is abandonment.

Leigh Seedhouse is a Send educator, member of the National Education Union national executive & chair of the Send organising forum.