In 2018, we described that the SEND system in England had reached a "tipping point”. It is now at breaking point. The “SEND system” in England is broken. There is broad consensus that the system is in need of urgent reform, but less agreement on the root causes of the current crisis and what can be done to address them. In our new report, we set out the scale of the challenge, our analysis of the root causes, and a set of eight proposals for whole-system reform.
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Childcare in England is becoming a publicly-controlled market. Under the new expansion of funded places, local authorities will be responsible for distributing vastly more funds to more providers, supporting more parents to take up the offer, and ensuring there are more of the right places. How well placed are they to perform this role and, if they are, how do they need to change to deliver the best possible services for families? We tested these questions out with some local authorities and providers, with some interesting results …
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Many of us will be familiar with a triangle model of public services, but in recent years the mountain has got taller for many, as specialist services have become harder to attain. In this blog, Sally Hogg argues that the traditional triangle model reflects a system stuck in the mindset of late intervention, and proposes an alternative “two triangle” model where there is a more equitable deployment of specialist expertise.
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In 2019, we published research into the financial pressures of home to school transport. Four years later, our latest research on this topic shows councils facing a perfect storm in relation to expenditure on home to school transport.
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