Teaching union claims extra £4bn for Send overhaul just ‘drop in bucket’ compared with what’s needed – UK politics live

The UK government announced a £4 billion package to overhaul Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision in English schools this morning, following criticism from teaching unions that the funding is insufficient compared to the system's needs. The Department for Education revealed that the investment will be allocated across several key initiatives including £1.6 billion over three years for early years settings, schools and post-16 institutions to provide targeted interventions, and £1.8 billion for the 'Experts at Hand' program which will commission local professionals like educational psychologists and speech therapists to be routinely available in every area. Additional funding will support family hubs, teacher training to ensure all educators can support children with SEND, and the creation of 60,000 new SEND places. The announcement comes after the government faced backlash for shelving plans to restrict some disability welfare payments, a U-turn that reportedly left a £5bn hole in the budget. The Department for Education emphasized that these reforms are designed to dramatically improve support in mainstream schools and rebuild families' confidence in the system. Once fully implemented, an average secondary school will receive over 160 days—equivalent to an additional full school year—of dedicated specialist time annually. The government claims this investment will create a SEND system 'unrecognisable from the one families experience today,' with comprehensive support from local outreach through classroom interventions. However, teaching unions have immediately criticized the funding package as inadequate, describing it as merely a 'drop in the bucket' compared to what is actually needed to address the crisis in SEND provision. The announcement follows months of pressure from parents and advocacy groups who have reported significant gaps in support for children with special educational needs. While the government has highlighted this as its biggest SEND training investment ever, critics argue that without additional resources and systemic changes, the reforms may not deliver meaningful improvements for the hundreds of thousands of children and young people with SEND in England. The £4 billion figure represents a significant commitment but falls short of what many experts estimate would be required to comprehensively address the challenges facing the current system.