Donna Jones is the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and the Conservative Candidate as Mayor for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Recently, as a group of Conservative Police and Crime Commissioners, we wrote to the Home Secretary setting out the clear links between unmet educational need and vulnerability to crime.
The letter makes a fundamental point: SEND reform is not an education-only issue.
When children become disconnected from education and the support around them, the consequences stretch far beyond the classroom. They appear years later in unemployment, poor health, social isolation, exploitation and, in some cases, contact with the criminal justice system.
As a Police and Crime Commissioner, I see this pathway first hand.
Police forces across the country encounter young people whose route into offending has been shaped by unmet educational needs, exclusion, persistent absence, placement breakdown and disengagement from school.
SEND is not a predictor of criminality. But children whose needs are not properly identified or supported can become more vulnerable to exploitation, including county lines activity, serious violence and organised crime.
By the time a young person encounters the police, the opportunity for early intervention has often been missed many years earlier.
That is why the Home Office must have a voice in the development of SEND reform. The Government’s ambition to strengthen prevention cannot be achieved by policing alone. Preventing crime begins much earlier, and education is one of the most important protective factors available to us.
We are particularly concerned about reforms that could unintentionally increase exclusion, absenteeism or disengagement from education, or reduce access to specialist provision for children with complex needs.
Some 1.7 million pupils in England have special educational needs, and 638,700 children and young people now hold an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Yet independent special schools provide just 33,000 or so places. Specialist settings are a modest share of the system, but an indispensable one.
Even with better support, mainstream education will never be the right setting for every child.
Many of the young people we are talking about have already been through a string of failed placements, exclusions or long spells out of school altogether. A specialist educational place is frequently their final realistic chance to settle, reconnect with learning and build a life.
Cutting back that provision in the name of inclusion might save money on paper but would cost far more in practice, and the children paying the price would be those with the greatest need.
Reforms must also take far more seriously the social, emotional and mental health needs of children. School refusal, chronic absence, exclusion, trauma, anxiety and difficulty regulating emotions are often signs of deep-rooted need, not simply poor behaviour.
Responding with sanctions where support is required only makes matters worse.
The costs of getting this wrong will not simply be borne by the education system. They will be felt by families, communities, health and social care, policing and the criminal justice system.
According to research by Sonnet Impact, every child with complex needs who receives the right SEND provision generates a lifetime benefit to society of at least £380,000, even after the cost of their education is deducted.
About two-thirds of that value goes to the wider economy, with the rest benefiting councils, the NHS and the justice system.
Failing these children costs far more. A child without a suitable school place affects the whole household: parents lose income, caring demands grow, and dependency can become lifelong.
In 2023-24, holding a 15 to 17-year-old boy in a young offenders institution cost on average £179,496 a year in direct resource costs. That is over double the annual cost of an independent special school place for children with the most complex needs.
Many of these young people are at risk of ending up not in education, employment or training, with costs that follow them for life. By the time a vulnerable young person reaches 18 or 19 and arrives in the employment and skills system as NEET, the system has often already failed them.
That is why SEND reform must be treated as a cross-government priority.
Education is the starting point, but successful reform requires the Department for Education to work closely with Health, Work and Pensions, the Treasury, the Home Office and local government.
We welcome the Government’s aim of spotting needs sooner and building up support in mainstream schools, and the additional funding that comes with it. But more money for mainstream settings will not, on its own, meet the needs of children with the most complex conditions.
Specialist places for these children are already in short supply, and their needs call for something different. From here, reform needs to safeguard specialist places for the children who have nowhere else to go and take social, emotional and mental health needs seriously. It must intervene earlier, well before families hit breaking point, and weigh long-term outcomes and costs, not just immediate savings.
Success should be judged not by how far specialist places are cut, but by how many children finish their education with real prospects, and how many never come into contact with the police or the courts at all.
The children with the most complex needs, and those whose social, emotional and mental health needs go unmet, must not be left to the end of the queue. They should be where this process starts.
Our letter to the Home Secretary is an invitation to work together and keep prevention at the core of reform.
Donna Jones is the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and the Conservative Candidate as Mayor for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Recently, as a group of Conservative Police and Crime Commissioners, we wrote to the Home Secretary setting out the clear links between unmet educational need and vulnerability to crime.
The letter makes a fundamental point: SEND reform is not an education-only issue.
When children become disconnected from education and the support around them, the consequences stretch far beyond the classroom. They appear years later in unemployment, poor health, social isolation, exploitation and, in some cases, contact with the criminal justice system.
As a Police and Crime Commissioner, I see this pathway first hand.
Police forces across the country encounter young people whose route into offending has been shaped by unmet educational needs, exclusion, persistent absence, placement breakdown and disengagement from school.
SEND is not a predictor of criminality. But children whose needs are not properly identified or supported can become more vulnerable to exploitation, including county lines activity, serious violence and organised crime.
By the time a young person encounters the police, the opportunity for early intervention has often been missed many years earlier.
That is why the Home Office must have a voice in the development of SEND reform. The Government’s ambition to strengthen prevention cannot be achieved by policing alone. Preventing crime begins much earlier, and education is one of the most important protective factors available to us.
We are particularly concerned about reforms that could unintentionally increase exclusion, absenteeism or disengagement from education, or reduce access to specialist provision for children with complex needs.
Some 1.7 million pupils in England have special educational needs, and 638,700 children and young people now hold an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Yet independent special schools provide just 33,000 or so places. Specialist settings are a modest share of the system, but an indispensable one.
Even with better support, mainstream education will never be the right setting for every child.
Many of the young people we are talking about have already been through a string of failed placements, exclusions or long spells out of school altogether. A specialist educational place is frequently their final realistic chance to settle, reconnect with learning and build a life.
Cutting back that provision in the name of inclusion might save money on paper but would cost far more in practice, and the children paying the price would be those with the greatest need.
Reforms must also take far more seriously the social, emotional and mental health needs of children. School refusal, chronic absence, exclusion, trauma, anxiety and difficulty regulating emotions are often signs of deep-rooted need, not simply poor behaviour.
Responding with sanctions where support is required only makes matters worse.
The costs of getting this wrong will not simply be borne by the education system. They will be felt by families, communities, health and social care, policing and the criminal justice system.
According to research by Sonnet Impact, every child with complex needs who receives the right SEND provision generates a lifetime benefit to society of at least £380,000, even after the cost of their education is deducted.
About two-thirds of that value goes to the wider economy, with the rest benefiting councils, the NHS and the justice system.
Failing these children costs far more. A child without a suitable school place affects the whole household: parents lose income, caring demands grow, and dependency can become lifelong.
In 2023-24, holding a 15 to 17-year-old boy in a young offenders institution cost on average £179,496 a year in direct resource costs. That is over double the annual cost of an independent special school place for children with the most complex needs.
Many of these young people are at risk of ending up not in education, employment or training, with costs that follow them for life. By the time a vulnerable young person reaches 18 or 19 and arrives in the employment and skills system as NEET, the system has often already failed them.
That is why SEND reform must be treated as a cross-government priority.
Education is the starting point, but successful reform requires the Department for Education to work closely with Health, Work and Pensions, the Treasury, the Home Office and local government.
We welcome the Government’s aim of spotting needs sooner and building up support in mainstream schools, and the additional funding that comes with it. But more money for mainstream settings will not, on its own, meet the needs of children with the most complex conditions.
Specialist places for these children are already in short supply, and their needs call for something different. From here, reform needs to safeguard specialist places for the children who have nowhere else to go and take social, emotional and mental health needs seriously. It must intervene earlier, well before families hit breaking point, and weigh long-term outcomes and costs, not just immediate savings.
Success should be judged not by how far specialist places are cut, but by how many children finish their education with real prospects, and how many never come into contact with the police or the courts at all.
The children with the most complex needs, and those whose social, emotional and mental health needs go unmet, must not be left to the end of the queue. They should be where this process starts.
Our letter to the Home Secretary is an invitation to work together and keep prevention at the core of reform.