Beyond the Cliff Edge: Supporting Educators to Secure Success for Learners with SEND

When the Education Select Committee published its report Solving the SEND Crisis (18/09/25), it gave national prominence to challenges long recognised within further education (FE) and skills. For years, practitioners have voiced concern that too many young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) face a steep drop in support once they reach 16: A moment when continuity and investment should matter most.

Entitlements may, in theory, run to the age of 25. But the reality is a cliff edge. Legal rights on paper are meaningless without the workforce, resources and systems to make them real. And here lies the heart of the matter: unless we invest in and support the educators who stand beside these learners every day, no amount of strategy will prevent young people from falling.

This report is therefore timely. It highlights what those working with young people in FE and skills already see each and every day: that with the right support, learners with SEND can and do blossom, but that the current system often leaves them under-served. What comes next must be about building capacity, ensuring equity and recognising the vital role of the workforce that make inclusion possible.

The Reality on the Ground: Brilliant Work Under Pressure

Step into a learning environment that places learners with SEND at its heart, and you will see something remarkable. Across colleges and training providers, there is much well-established work that already transforms the life chances of learners: educators adapt lessons, build confidence and create pathways to independence and work. They break down barriers and enable young people, who are too often told what they cannot do, to discover what they can.

This is brilliant, complex, skilled and deeply human work, carried out by a workforce that, even when stretched thin, continues to bring creativity and inspiration to learning. Yet such dedication cannot overcome structural barriers. Vacancy rates for speech and language therapists stand at almost 19 per cent, and the absence of a ring-fenced funding stream for post-16 SEND provision leaves many providers struggling to sustain specialist support (House of Commons Education Committee, 2025). These pressures risk eroding the ability of even the most dedicated professionals to deliver the consistent, personalised provision that learners deserve.

FE and skills providers sit at the unique intersection where education, social inclusion, and workforce development overlap. They educate a quarter of young people with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, yet less than ten per cent of the high needs budget is directed towards this group (House of Commons Education Committee, 2025). This imbalance is not simply a significant budgetary concern; it represents a huge, missed opportunity to invest in young people at a pivotal stage of their lives.

Colleges and training providers also serve learners who face multiple and overlapping disadvantage (UNESCO, 2020), such as poverty, disrupted schooling, poor mental health unstable housing. In this context, FE and skills provision is more than a qualification route; it is a lifeline, supporting young people to find the confidence, self-worth, resilience and pathways they need to participate fully in society and to move into sustainable work and independence (DfE, 2015). The stakes could not be higher.

Supporting Those Who Support: The Key to Real Change

The link between learner outcomes and workforce capacity is clear. Every policy ambition depends on whether teachers and support staff have the training, the capacity and the recognition they need. If teachers, lecturers and support staff are to deliver the level of personalised provision the report envisions, they must themselves be supported. That means embedding SEND training into initial teacher education, to ensure ongoing professional development is refreshed throughout careers. It means recognising the expertise of specialist staff such as teaching assistants, SENCos and therapists and embedding collaboration across education, health and care.

It also means valuing the wellbeing of those who do this emotionally demanding work. Staff supporting learners with complex needs need their own scaffolding. We must recognise that this is emotionally demanding work and look again at manageable workloads, staff ratios, access to cross-sector wellbeing support and professional recognition (NFER, 2024). When educators are given the tools and trust they need, they can focus on what they do best: teaching, guiding and inspiring learners.

The Committee’s recommendations point in the right direction: dedicated funding for post-16 SEND, reform of the GCSE resit policy so that progress feels achievable, and a more coherent workforce strategy (House of Commons Education Committee, 2025). The reality is that to support any learner, we need to support those delivering their education. Every person with SEND deserves so much more than to just get through their education; they deserve to excel and to thrive in it. FE and skills professionals hold the key to making that possible. Our role, as policymakers, funders and system leaders, is to make sure they are not holding that key alone. To turn these ideas into reality, collaboration across education, health and social care is essential. International evidence shows that inclusive systems work best when workforce development, specialist provision and cross-sector partnerships are aligned (OECD, 2019; UNESCO, 2020).

I am thankful to the Education Select Committee for shining a spotlight on an issue that has long demanded attention, and I agree with their recommendations 100%.

But shining a light is only the first step. If the Government truly wants to solve the SEND crisis, then it must invest in the people who make inclusion real. When the workforce is valued, resourced and empowered, learners with SEND, including those facing multiple layers of disadvantage, will not only succeed, but truly blossom.

By Dr Vikki Smith, Executive Director, Education & Standards at the Education Training Foundation (ETF)

References

Department for Education (2015), Special educational needs and disability: 0 to 25 years. London: DfE.

House of Commons Education Committee (2025), Solving the SEND Crisis: Report of the Education Select Committee [online]. Available from: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/203/education-committee/news/209313/solving-the-send-crisis-report-calls-for-culture-shift-and-funding-to-make-mainstream-education-genuinely-inclusive/ [Accessed 18 September 2025].

National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) (2024), Building a stronger FE college workforce How improving pay and working conditions can help support FE college teacher supply

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2019), Education Policy Outlook: England [online]. Available from: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/education-policy-outlook-2019_2b8ad56e-en.html [Accessed 18 September 2025].

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2020), Global Education Monitoring Report 2020: Inclusion and education – All means all [online]. Available from: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373718 [Accessed 18 September 2025].