What the New SEND Funding Means for Mainstream Schools
If you work in a mainstream school right now, you already know the pressure. The number of pupils with EHCPs has risen by around 140% since 2014-15, SENCOs are stretched across statutory paperwork and parent liaison, and schools have quietly cross-subsidised SEND provision from core budgets for years just to keep up.
That picture is now set to change. The Government's long-awaited SEND reform package, published alongside the Schools White Paper this week, lands with a £4 billion headline figure and a clear ambition: to make every mainstream school genuinely inclusive. Here is what it actually means in practice.
The Two Funds You Need to Know About
The Inclusive Mainstream Fund: £1.6 Billion Over Three Years
This fund goes directly to schools and early years settings to strengthen their inclusive offer. The DfE says it equates to "thousands of pounds extra every year" per setting, though critics note that spread across tens of thousands of schools over three years, it amounts to roughly a part-time teaching assistant for an average primary.
Schools are expected to use this money to run targeted, small-group interventions at the earliest signs of additional need, invest in adaptive teaching, and build inclusive practice before children require a formal diagnosis or EHCP. Think structured literacy groups led by trained TAs, staff CPD around communication and language, or early speech and language sessions. Crucially, support kicks in early rather than waiting for a statutory plan.
The Experts at Hand Service: £1.8 Billion Over Three Years
This larger fund creates a new pool of local specialists including SEND teachers, speech and language therapists, educational psychologists, and occupational therapists, commissioned jointly by councils and Integrated Care Boards and available on demand.
A child does not need an EHCP to access this service. Schools can call on expertise early, reducing the adversarial race to secure statutory plans that has defined the system for too long. The Government expects an average secondary school to receive the equivalent of more than 160 days of specialist time per year. Whether that becomes reality depends heavily on workforce supply, which is one of the biggest open questions hanging over this entire reform.
What Schools Will Be Expected to Do
The new model works in clear layers. Every mainstream school must meet a universal offer covering inclusive leadership, evidence-based teaching, and strong family engagement. Above that, targeted support through small group interventions and access to the Inclusive Mainstream Fund sits between universal provision and the more intensive specialist support.
New Individual Support Plans (ISPs) replace EHCPs for less complex needs, and schools have a statutory duty to produce them. EHCPs remain for only the most complex cases, but the threshold tightens from 2029. Ofsted will be scrutinising implementation throughout.
Why Staffing Is the Real Challenge
No funding delivers outcomes on its own. It is the people in schools who turn policy into practice, and right now the sector faces serious workforce pressures.
Shortages of educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, and specialist SEND teachers are already significant. The Experts at Hand service depends on recruiting these professionals at scale, and that won't happen quickly.
Inside mainstream schools, the new system asks more of everyone, not just the SENCO. Teachers need genuine competence in adaptive teaching. Teaching assistants need to lead structured interventions independently. SENDCos are being asked to own inclusion strategy, staff development, and a new documentation framework all at once.
Schools that invest in the right people now will be best placed to make this funding work. Those that don't will find the money arrives without the outcomes following.
What This Means for Your Workforce
SENDCos are becoming genuinely strategic roles. The right SENCO isn't just an administrative necessity; they are central to how schools perform under Ofsted's updated inclusion lens.
Teaching assistants trained in structured literacy, speech and language support, or behaviour frameworks will be in growing demand as schools shift from one-to-one EHCP-attached support to flexible, group-based intervention.
Specialist SEND teachers with experience in autism, communication difficulties, SEMH, or physical disabilities will be increasingly sought after in both mainstream settings and the new Experts at Hand service.
If your school is planning its workforce for the next two to three years, now is the time to act.
At Link3 Recruitment, we have been connecting schools across the East Midlands with exceptional SEND support staff, SENDCos, and specialist practitioners for years. We are here to help your school build the team it needs to make these reforms work, not just for compliance, but for the children in your classrooms.
