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For a long time, I've been eager to produce a documentary focusing on Send.

You might know me as my EastEnders role, but I am equally a mum to an autistic child diagnosed with dyslexic traits and ADHD.

Required many months of determination and effort from both of us to obtain the right education for him. At times, it felt like a battle.

This is the reason I decided to create this documentary, so I could meet other parents going through the same thing, and discuss with educators, councils, and the government about how Send children are supported in England.

Understanding Send in the UK

There are more than 1.7 million children in the country with Send. This represents a wide-ranging category, including autistic children and individuals who face challenges in communication, have ADHD, and mobility issues, along with other needs.

Schools in England already provide some support to these pupils, but if parents think their son or daughter requires extra help, they can make an application to their council for an EHCP.

An Education, Health and Care Plan is a vital document because it is enforceable by law, states where a pupil should go to school, and details how much extra support they should get.

We spent hours filling in the forms to apply for an plan, and numerous parents find the procedure very frustrating.

Buddy and Tunde

Not long after I meet 15-year-old Buddy, he presents his beloved stuffed animal, Reindeer Dog.

Buddy's autistic, meaning his brain experiences and reacts to the environment in a different way from others. He faces difficulties in socializing his own age, understanding his emotions, and nervousness. Buddy likes to keep Reindeer Dog close to him.

Following their move to the capital from Scotland in October 2024, Buddy's mum, the parent, began searching for schools. She explains she tried at least 11 schools, but several didn't get back to her, and those that did said they were at capacity or could not give Buddy the necessary help without an Education, Health and Care Plan.

By the beginning of the current year, more than 638,000 plans had been issued to children and young people in England, a 10.8% rise on the previous year and an substantial growth in half a decade.

This rise is in part because parents and schools have become more skilled at identifying pupils who have special educational needs, especially autism, as opposed to there being an increase with special needs.

This marks the repeat the family have applied for an plan. Their first application was turned down before Buddy was evaluated. Local authorities decline about a quarter of EHCP applications at the assessment stage, as per official figures.

During their time in the Scottish system, Tunde notes they were not required to request the comparable of an EHCP. His secondary school arranged assistance for his learning, although not for his emotional needs.

The Scottish system has a different system for helping pupils with special needs; schools there strive to deliver more support without the need for families to apply for the similar of an EHCP.

"It's a madness," Tunde states. "[Getting extra support] was so easily done, and it could be easily done again."

Although Buddy is unable to attend classes, the council is providing him with 19 hours of lessons per week in the community library.

Tunde tells me the process of applying for an plan has been so time consuming she had to stop working as a birth attendant and community nurse for a period.

"I can't do the parenting. I cannot take him to these appointments, and work at the same time… I couldn't secure appointments for my child in the right amount of time and see other people's babies in the necessary period. And it was a difficult choice - and he won," she says.

I reconnect with the youth after a long speech and language evaluation.

"Exhausting… that is the only word I've got for you," he says as he leans against a barrier, Reindeer Dog tucked under his arm.

A School for Buddy

It's September and while countless children start term, Buddy is still be taught in the public library. Two months after I first met him, he's getting an Education, Health and Care Plan but his schooling is still not settled.

The council agreed to Tunde's appeal that he go to an independently run school that works with children who struggle in mainstream schools.

Prior to Buddy can start there, the school has assumed responsibility for the sessions he gets in the library. But Tunde's currently uncertain the school will be able to deliver what she believes her child requires to improve his interpersonal abilities and self-assurance with peers his own age.

"We were all prepared for September… and he's still not at school, he continues to receive one-to-one instruction," she said.

"I think … getting ready to be around fellow students and then still only having solo with adults has really knocked him back and made him not want to go to school."

The local authority says it views the family's worries with utmost importance and it will continue to support her household to make certain they obtain the provision they require without additional waiting.

Officials note it understands how difficult it can be for families to manage the system, and how distressing holdups in securing support can be.

The council adds it has invested in a specialist information and advice service, and currently guarantees children are evaluated by expert educators at the earliest stage, and it is open to reviewing the circumstances when families are worried about school placements.

Existing Framework is Broken

I know there is a different perspective to this issue.

The significant increase in the number of EHCPs is placing councils under severe budgetary strain. According to projections that UK local governments are set to run up a combined Send deficit of £4.3bn and £4.9bn by March 2026.

The government says it has invested a significant sum to help councils pay for EHCPs and further investment on special educational needs placements.

I went to a local authority to speak with among the few officials in local government willing to discuss publicly about special needs financing.

The councillor is a Conservative councillor and official for education and youth.

"Today's framework is in fact highly confrontational. Families are increasingly tired and worried and frustrated of fighting… Employee absence rates are really, really high at the present time," she explains.

"This system is ineffective. It is broken. It's not delivering the optimal results for children."

The need for EHCPs is now exceeding resources in the region. In a decade ago, the authority had about 3,400 children with an EHCP. Now there are more than 10,000.

As a result the special needs budget gap has been growing year-on-year, so that at the conclusion of the fiscal year it reaches over £123m.

"That [money] is primarily intended for community resources. {That would have|