There’s a crisis in supporting children with special needs. This is George’s story
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.
Rachael is helping George with his education
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.”
Gillian Keegan says George will be helped but not ‘as quickly as we want to’
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.”
Rachael has been taking George to the zoo
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.”
US federal prosecutors and the co-founders of the crypto mixer Samourai Wallet have asked a court for more time to consider potentially dismissing the case after the Justice Department rolled back its crypto enforcement.
Lawyers for Samourai Wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez and chief technology officer William Hill said in an April 28 letter to Manhattan federal judge Richard Berman that they jointly requested with the government “for a continuance of the pretrial motions schedule by 16 days.”
The Samourai executives’ lawyers said on April 10 that they wrote to Acting Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton to request the dismissal of the case after an April 7 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche shuttered the Justice Department’s crypto team.
“On April 24, 2025, defense counsel met with the prosecutors and their supervisors in person at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to discuss this request,” the lawyers said.
“The Defendants believe that a continuance of the pretrial motions schedule is warranted to permit Defendants to avoid the significant expense of preparing their motions while the Government determines its position,” the letter stated.
It added that prosecutors agreed to adjourn “without expressing any views on the merits.”
Samourai Wallet’s Rodriguez and Hill were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business in April 2024, to which they both pleaded not guilty.
Blanche’s memo said, “The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator,” and it would abandon enforcement and investigations besides those which “focus on prosecuting individuals who victimize digital asset investors, or those who use digital assets in furtherance of criminal offenses.”
Currently, motions in the Samourai executives’ case are due May 13, responses are due on June 10, and replies on June 24. The letter proposes to put this back to May 29 for motions, June 26 for responses, and July 10 for replies.
The continuance would not affect the trial date, which is slated for early November.
Quashing crypto litigation list lengthens
The move is the latest in a long list of court actions to have prosecutors’ crypto cases quashed under the Trump administration’s favorable stance toward the industry.
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On April 9, SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony, who is charged with wire fraud and money laundering, cited Blanche’s directive in a bid to get his case dismissed.
Meanwhile, on April 28, the DeFi Education Fund petitioned the White House to drop charges against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm and requested immediate action to “discontinue the Biden-era Department of Justice’s lawless campaign to criminalize open-source software development.”
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The crypto lobby group, the DeFi Education Fund, has petitioned the Trump administration to end what it claimed was the “lawless prosecution” of open-source software developers, including Roman Storm, a creator of the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash.
In an April 28 letter to White House crypto czar David Sacks, the group urged President Donald Trump “to take immediate action to discontinue the Biden-era Department of Justice’s lawless campaign to criminalize open-source software development.”
The letter specifically mentioned the prosecution of Storm, who was charged in August 2023 with helping launder over $1 billion in crypto through Tornado Cash. His trial is still set for July, and his fellow charged co-founder, Roman Semenov, is at large and believed to be in Russia.
The DeFi Education Fund said that in Storm’s case, the Department of Justice is attempting to hold software developers criminally liable for how others use their code, which is “not only absurd in principle, but it sets a precedent that potentially chills all crypto development in the United States.”
The group also called for the recognition that the prosecution contradicts the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) guidance from Trump’s first term, which established that developers of self-custodial, peer-to-peer protocols are not money transmitters.
“This kind of legal environment does not just chill innovation — it freezes it,” they argued. The letter added that it also “empowers politically-motivated enforcement and puts every open-source developer at risk, regardless of industry.”
In January, a federal court in Texas ruled that the Treasury overstepped its authority by sanctioning Tornado Cash.
Stakes could not be higher
The group thanked Trump for his support of the industry and his stated goal to make America the “crypto capital of the planet.”
They added, however, that his goal can’t be realized if developers are prosecuted for building tools that enable the technology.
“We ask President Trump to protect American software developers, restore legal clarity, and end this unlawful DOJ overreach. The job’s not finished, and the stakes could not be higher.”
Related: Tornado Cash dev wants charges dropped after court said OFAC ‘overstepped’
Variant Fund chief legal officer Jake Chervinsky said the Justice Department’s case against Storm is “an outdated remnant of the Biden administration’s war on crypto.”
“There is no justification in law or policy for prosecuting software developers for launching non-custodial smart contract protocols,” he added.
At the time of writing, the petition had attracted 232 signatures from industry executives and developers, including Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, and Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko, among others.
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Migrants convicted of sex offences in the UK or overseas will be unable to claim asylum under government plans to change the law to improve border security.
The Home Office announcement means foreign nationals who are added to the sex offenders register will forfeit their rights to protection under the Refugee Convention.
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As part of the 1951 UN treaty, countries are allowed to refuse asylum to terrorists, war criminals and individuals convicted of a “particularly serious crime” – which is currently defined in UK law as an offence carrying a sentence of 12 months or more.
The government now plans to extend that definition to include all individuals added to the Sex Offenders’ Register, regardless of the length of sentence, in an amendment to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which is currently going through parliament. It’s understood they also hope to include those convicted of equivalent crimes overseas.
Those affected will still be able to appeal their removal from the UK in the courts under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
More than 10,000 people have now been detected crossing the Channel. Pic: PA
It is unclear how many asylum seekers will be affected, as the government has been unable to provide any projections or past data on the number of asylum seekers added to the Sex Offenders’ Register.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Sex offenders who pose a risk to the community should not be allowed to benefit from refugee protections in the UK.
“We are strengthening the law to ensure these appalling crimes are taken seriously.”
Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Minister Jess Philips said: “We are determined to achieve our mission of halving violence against women and girls in a decade.
“That’s exactly why we are taking action to ensure there are robust safeguards across the system, including by clamping down on foreign criminals who commit heinous crimes like sex offences.”
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The Home Office would like voters to see this as a substantial change. But that’s hard to demonstrate without providing any indication of the scale of the problem it seeks to solve.
Clearly, the government does not want to fan the flames of resentment towards asylum seekers by implying large numbers have been committing sex crimes.
But amid rising voter frustration about the government’s grip on the issue, and under pressure from Reform – this measure is about signalling it is prepared to take tough action.
Conservatives: ‘Too little, too late’
The Conservatives claim Labour are engaged in “pre-election posturing”.
Chris Philp MP, the shadow home secretary, said: “This is too little, too late from a Labour government that has scrapped our deterrent and overseen the worst year ever for small boat crossings – with a record 10,000 people crossing this year already.
“Foreign criminals pose a danger to British citizens and must be removed, but so often this is frustrated by spurious legal claims based on human rights claims, not asylum claims.”
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Has Labour tackled migration?
The Home Office has also announced plans to introduce a 24-week target for appeal hearings (known as “first-tier tribunals”) to be held for rejected asylum seekers living in taxpayer-supported accommodation, or for foreign national offenders.
The current average wait is 50 weeks. The idea is to cut the asylum backlog and save taxpayers money – Labour have committed to end the use of asylum hotels by the end of this parliament.
It’s unclear how exactly this will be achieved, although a number of additional court days have already been announced.
The government also plans to crack down on fake immigration lawyers who advise migrants on how to lodge fraudulent asylum claims, with the Immigration Advice Authority given new powers to issue fines of up to £15,000.
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