Crisis in our SEND System: Private Profiteering
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is being pushed to the brink, with families struggling to secure vital support for their children.
Children with SEND deserve the same opportunities as every child. They should get all the support they need to get the best education, so they can thrive not only in childhood, but throughout their lives. But it’s deeply disturbing that our country is currently failing in this basic duty. Many parents are desperate, fighting tooth and nail to give their children the best start in life.
Sadly, the system is letting children and their parents down far too often. This week, research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats reveals that private SEND providers are shamefully profiteering from this crisis. The top private equity companies providing SEND schooling have made profits of over £100 million a year, with some making margins of over 20%. Some of them are backed by companies based in tax havens or foreign sovereign wealth funds, while they pay their directors six-figure salaries.
Munira Wilson MP
Lib Dem education spokesperson has raised this issue in parliament, alongside other MPs.
Read more in the BBC News article regarding this story.
Watch our education spokesperson Munira Wilson on Sky News discussing this issue below.
Top private SEND providers are raking in millions while families fight to receive basic support. We are demanding a profit cap to stop this exploitation and put funding back into the SEND system, where it belongs.
— Liberal Democrats (@libdems.org.uk) 2025-08-01T10:00:59.217Z
Companies shouldn’t be making such astronomical profits off the backs of disabled children, especially when council finances are on the brink, with many facing bankruptcy and having to reduce or even end service provision for vulnerable groups. It’s clear: they are exploiting the shortage of SEND services for profit, viewing children with special educational needs as cash cows.
This must end. That’s why we’re calling for private providers to face an 8% cap on their profits, so money is channelled back into the SEND system and not into the pockets of shareholders. Firms exceeding this level should face sanctions, including returning these excess profits to local authorities.
Liberal Democrats in parliament proposed a cap as an amendment to the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, but sadly Labour voted to block it and the Conservatives refused to back it. With the true scale of this scandal now revealed, will the Government now listen?
Leader of the Lib Dems, Sir Ed Davey
Ed Davey has written to the Prime Minister expressing his disappointment that the government voted down the proposed cap on private companies' profiteering off the needs of vulnerable young people.
This cap should go alongside other measures to boost the SEND system, including supporting councils to build their own schools. Here in Norfolk, our county council is facing spiralling costs to provide SEND care, especially in schools, and yet provision is still far from adequate to meet the needs of our area.
With Government plans for SEND reform due out later this year, now’s the time to make our voices heard. In July, leader of the Lib Dems, Ed Davey wrote to the Prime Minister to outline our five fundamental principles which we believe should underpin these upcoming reforms. If the Government follows these priorities, they’ll have our support.
It's time to put our children first, not corporate greed.