In my role as president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS), I have the privilege of regularly meeting with my directors of children's services colleagues. While children's social care is always at the forefront of our minds, education, in particular special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), is now arguably the top issue keeping us awake at night. This is due to the enormous financial pressures, the risk this poses and ultimately, the fact that outcomes are not improving for this cohort of children and young people despite record spend.

Understanding how we got to this position is important and it would be disingenuous to lay the blame solely with the 2014 SEND reforms. This has been compounded by an education system that has, over time, become increasingly fragmented and lacking in coherence and ultimately has elevated academic attainment and inspection outcomes above all else. This in turn has marginalised learners who are not well suited to a narrow curriculum.