Too many children are struggling in unmet-needs-limbo, writes Lisa Haycox.
The system is stretched and slow to respond, often forcing children to struggle in silence and wait for help until their problems become impossible to ignore. For families of children with special educational needs and disabilities, these challenges can feel far greater. This is not a failure on their part. They are in a system that can’t currently keep pace with their needs.
Behind the numbers of children who have an EHCP, there’s an even larger number who rely on non-statutory support, and a still larger group of children whose needs are suspected but not yet recognised—whose difficulties are masked by good behaviour, quiet coping strategies or sheer effort. These children often reach a crisis point before they are noticed. Ofsted has repeatedly highlighted “multiple missed opportunities to identify children’s needs early”, with widespread delays in assessing children’s needs and issuing EHCPs where required. I see firsthand that those missed opportunities manifest not as abstract statistics, but as children who have spent years feeling confused or ‘behind’ without understanding why. The longer a child goes without the right support, the harder it becomes to rebuild confidence in themselves and their education. These early years matter, not only because low attainment during school years is consistently linked to limited future study and career options, but also because it shapes how a child views themselves as a learner.
Early support matters. One of the most striking patterns I see is how much progress children can make once support becomes consistent and tailored, even without a formal diagnosis. Too often, the system treats diagnosis as a gateway to help. Unfortunately, families can spend months or even years on waiting lists for formal assessments, seeking paperwork to legitimise support while their child’s needs remain unmet. In reality, what helps children most is timely, practical support that adapts to their needs.
Progress should matter more than process. Taking steps to understand how a child learns, where they need structure or flexibility, and how to build their confidence can begin long before a diagnosis is formalised. Capacity is the real constraint. Classrooms are stretched, and individualised support is challenging to deliver at scale without additional capacity. Without the right legislation or funding, it is impossible to implement meaningful change.
This is where new models of support can make a difference. Technology, used thoughtfully, can help scale and tailor support, by tracking progress and providing feedback in real-time, thereby reducing some of the pressure on educators. Tools such as adaptive learning platforms and assistive technologies can help children work at the right pace, express their thinking more effectively, and practise skills in a way that feels manageable. For example, AI-driven speech-to-text and automated transcription can help pupils with literacy or motor difficulties record their ideas independently, reducing the immediate bottleneck of one-to-one teaching for each task. For many children with SEND, this kind of structure and responsiveness can be transformative.
SEND reform is firmly on the national agenda, and rightly so. But reform will only matter if it leads to practical change on the ground in a timely manner. Other educational reforms, including those to the curriculum, will take a few years to be fully implemented, but children cannot be expected to put their needs on hold for the support they need now. We need to focus less on frameworks and gatekeeping support and more on delivery and building capacity. I have seen the detrimental effect that comes when support arrives too late, and I have also seen what is possible when children receive the right help at the right time. The question is no longer whether the need is there. It’s whether we are willing to act early enough, and consistently enough, to meet it.