Thousands of children with special educational needs or disabilities are missing out on the education they are entitled to because of huge delays in the system designed to support them.
A record half a million pupils now have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) – a legal document setting out a child or young person’s special educational needs, the support they require, and the outcomes they would like to achieve.
The plans must be issued within 20 weeks of being applied for, but analysis of government data by Sky News reveals this deadline is missed in a staggering half of all cases, meaning thousands of children are having to wait.
Councils accuse the government of “losing its grip” on the crisis and have called for more funding to address the soaring demand.
George is due to go to high school next year but cannot read or write.
He has a complex speech disorder that makes it hard for him to learn, and he has been waiting years for a diagnosis to see if he has autism.
The 10-year-old was turned down twice for an EHCP but finally secured one last year. It was meant to give him access to extra help – including support for his speech and learning disorder.
He spent all of his education in a mainstream school until his mother Rachael reluctantly withdrew him because she says the school could no longer meet his needs.
“His plan says he should be getting speech therapy. But he isn’t. Everything on his plan should be provided. That’s the whole point. But he’s not getting it,” she told Sky News.
Advertisement
In response to this crisis, the government has set out a plan to improve SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) provision – including a pledge to spend more than £2.6bn building more special schools. But the measures will not be rolled out until at least 2025.
In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan admitted the government’s SEND improvement plan needed time to make an impact.
Asked specifically about George, who is currently not receiving any formal education, Ms Keegan said: “So there isn’t a place for George and George needs a place. That’s why we are putting an extra £2.6bn to build those new places. He will be helped, but he won’t be helped as much as we want to, as quickly as we want to.”
George has not been to school for the last six months, and his mum says he is slipping behind on his education as each day passes.
“I’m actually really sad. I think that George has been let down – not only by the school and local authority, but sometimes I feel like by me,” Rachael told us.
“I’m his mum and I should be able to give him really simple things like an education. And I am struggling to do that.”
Rachael has no teaching experience but has turned their living room into a makeshift classroom. She’s been forced to quit her job to educate George.
“There isn’t another option at the moment, but it can’t be a permanent thing. We are a household that is used to two wages and we live in a way that means we need two wages. It’s not doable.”
Rachael is paying for George to access online courses and for educational trips to places like the zoo.
They have applied to four special schools in their local area but have had a rejection letter from all of them. George’s education is on hold.
A spokesman for BMAT Education, which runs George’s primary school, told Sky News they had worked closely with George and his mum since he joined the school aged three.
“Funded education is available [to George] both in school, and remotely, though he is not currently attending,” he said.
“The school … has worked with the local authority and has successfully obtained an Education Health and Care Plan for George. At time of writing, no additional SEND funding has been received.
“We are confident that, with the EHCP in place, the local authority will find the right provision, with the resources, to meet George’s needs.”
Essex County Council has a legal obligation to find George appropriate educational provision.
A spokesperson told Sky News: “It would be inappropriate to comment on individual cases.
“Any concerns raised by parents are dealt with according to our established processes and we are in touch with the family directly.
“Essex County Council is committed to ensuring that every child in the county has the support they need to meet their educational potential, and that they receive all the necessary support and resources to meet any special educational needs or disabilities.”
Councillor Louise Gittins, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said: “Councils share the government’s ambition of making sure every child with special educational needs and disabilities gets the high-quality support that meets their needs.
“However, while the measures announced will help to fix some of the problems with the current system, they do not go far enough in addressing the fundamental cost and demand issues that result in councils struggling to meet the needs of children with SEND.”
The man who served 14 years in jail for the murder of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen has been recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions.
It follows reporting in The Sun newspaper that Jake Fahri, 35, was a drill rapper releasing music under the name TEN, who conceals his identity with a balaclava, and was played on BBC 1Xtra.
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with Jimmy Mizen’s family who deserve better than to see their son’s murderer shamelessly boasting about his violent crime.”
Jimmy’s father Barry told Sky News: “We’re not gloating or anything, in a way it’s quite sad.”
His son bled to death after Fahri threw an oven dish at him in a south London bakery on 10 May 2008.
The dish shattered on his chin and severed an artery in the schoolboy’s neck.
Fahri was 19 when he was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years and was released on licence in June 2023.
More from UK
His music was played on BBC 1Xtra less than 18 months later, the Sun reported, adding that DJ Theo Johnson named him an “up-and-coming star”.
Jimmy’s father earlier said he and his wife Margaret were “stunned into silence” when they were told about Fahri’s music, which often features violent themes.
In one song, which appears to reference Jimmy’s death, he raps about “sharpening” a blade.
“Judge took a look at me, before the trial even started he already knows he’s gonna throw the book at me,” the lyrics say.
Another track includes the lines: “See a man’s soul fly from his eyes and his breath gone… I wanted more, it made it less wrong. Seeing blood spilled same floor he was left on.”
The BBC has said the artist’s tracks do not feature on any BBC playlists, and that a track which appeared to reference Jimmy’s death had never been played on its channels.
A spokesman for the broadcaster added there were “no further plans to play his music”, adding: “We were not aware of his background and we in no way condone his actions.”
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “All offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions. As this case shows, we will recall them to prison if they break the rules.”
Jimmy’s parents founded the Mizen Foundation after their son’s death. The charity helps young people in London who are escaping violence.
Mr Mizen said: “It appears that if he’s been recalled to prison, he must’ve breached his licence conditions
The man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann won’t face any charges in the foreseeable future, a prosecutor has told Sky News.
German drifter Christian B, who cannot be fully identified under his country’s privacy law, is expected to be freed from an unrelated jail sentence this year while police in three countries continue to search for evidence against him.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “There is currently no prospect of an indictment in the Maddie case.
“As things stand, the accused Christian B’s imprisonment will end in early September.”
Madeleine, aged three, was asleep with her younger twin siblings in the family’s Portuguese rented holiday apartment before mother Kate discovered her missing at around 10pm on 3 May, 2007.
Her parents were dining nearby on the complex with friends and taking turns to check on all their sleeping children every half an hour.
Madeleine’s disappearance has become the world’s most mysterious missing child case.
Philipp Marquort, one of Christian B’s defence lawyers, welcomed the prosecutor’s pessimism about bringing charges.
He said: “This confirms the suspicions that we have repeatedly expressed, namely that there is no reliable evidence against our client.
“We regret that we have not yet been granted access to the investigation files. We have not yet been able to effectively counter the public prejudice arising from statements made by the prosecutor’s office.”
Christian B, 47, is in jail and coming to the end of his sentence for the rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese resort where Madeleine disappeared.
In October, he was acquitted on a series of rape and indecent assault charges after a non-jury trial in Germany, in which several references were made to his status as the main suspect in the Madeleine case.
The prosecutor said he was awaiting the court’s written judgment before launching an appeal against the acquittal. He believes the trial judges were biased against the prosecution.
If successful, he could apply for a new arrest warrant for Christian B to keep him in custody until a retrial with new judges.
He said: “We hope that the Federal Court of Justice will decide before the end of the accused’s imprisonment. If the Federal Court follows our legal opinion, we could apply for a new arrest warrant for the accused’s offences, so that the accused would then remain in custody beyond September 2025.
Mr Marquort said the defence team would oppose the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittal.
Prosecutor Mr Wolters has said in the past that he believes Madeleine is dead and that Christian B was responsible for her death. The suspect denies any involvement.
The case against Christian B is purely circumstantial; he’s alleged to have confessed to a friend that he abducted Madeleine, he has convictions for sex crimes against children, he was living in the area at the time, his mobile phone was close by when the young girl vanished and he re-registered one of his vehicles the next day.
The prosecutor won’t say what evidence he has to convince him Madeleine is dead, but he admitted he is still trying to find forensic evidence to link Christian B to the girl.
Jim Gamble, former head of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, said he had expected the prosecutor to charge Christian B soon.
“He’s implied the whole way through that he has something more than the public are aware of,” he said.
“He’s made fairly definitive statements about whether Madeleine is alive or dead so you would expect their strategy to have been to charge him sooner rather than later.
“From what he’s said today I wonder if we’re witnessing the re-positioning of something to manage the disappointment that’ll come.”
Mr Wolters, who is based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, is investigating the case with the help of Portuguese police and detectives from Scotland Yard.
An investigation, led by the Surrey and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, is under way and inquiries remain ongoing, police said.
Senior Investigating Officer DCI Kimball Edey said specialist officers “are working around the clock to gather as much information as possible,” and that the force’s “thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims at this unbelievably difficult time”.