NHS Redundancies Threaten Implementation of SEND Reforms

A large-scale NHS reorganisation that will cut 18,000 administrative and managerial posts is disproportionately affecting teams that deliver special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services. The Institute for Government (IfG) reports that redundancies are falling on health professionals who provide speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and child mental-health support—services already stretched by a record number of education, health and care plans (EHCPs). The timing coincides with the Department for Education’s £1.8 billion “experts at hand” investment and broader SEND reforms backed by £4 billion of funding.

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SEND reforms are anchored by the Education for All Bill announced in the King’s Speech and aim to raise school standards, expand early-intervention provision and reserve special schools for pupils with the most complex needs. As of January 2025, the number of EHCPs has risen to 638,700, a 10.8 % increase on the previous year and 80 % higher than in 2018/19. The Education Policy Institute has called for more educational psychologists, speech-and-language therapists and better access to paediatric and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Simultaneously, the NHS has signalled that SEND services will “remain” under Integrated Care Board (ICB) responsibility, but without clarifying management arrangements, prompting further staff cuts.

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The Department of Health and Social Care said it was “shocked to hear where redundancies were falling and insisted this should not be happening,” while deferring decision-making authority to the NHS. The IfG criticised the lack of cross-departmental oversight, calling it “unacceptable” that the government had not provided “greater oversight of a system it is expected to lead in under a year.” The report recommends a new cross-government working group to create a shared vision for SEND reforms and to commission health input locally rather than through the NHS.

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Amber Dellar, a researcher on the IfG’s public services team, described the situation as “counter-productive,” noting that government rhetoric about needing more SEND professionals clashes with NHS-driven redundancies. The National Education Union has warned that without additional investment in the SEND workforce, the government’s targets cannot be met. An Education Policy Institute analysis also highlighted a “lack of coordination” between the Department for Education, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Cabinet Office.

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• “recent ICB redundancies have fallen disproportionately on SEND teams, who were already severely stretched” — Institute for Government report

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• “Cuts of this magnitude risk eroding institutional knowledge and capacity, and leaving front-line staff doubtful that SEND is a priority – yet all this is happening entirely independently of the government’s SEND reforms,” — Institute for Government report

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• “That going on alongside other parts of government saying, ‘what we really need is for health services to have more special educational needs professionals’… While at the same time the NHS is potentially making a disproportionate number of them redundant, it’s really just very counterproductive,” — Amber Dellar, researcher, Institute for Government

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• “shocked to hear where redundancies were falling and insisted this should not be happening” — Department of Health and Social Care

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• “threatens to derail SEND reform before it has properly begun” — Institute for Government report

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