SEND complaints in Cambridgeshire almost 20 times higher than in lockdown
Since 2020, county council figures show complaints have risen each year
Last updated 11th Mar 2026
A mum whose son has learning difficulties is carrying on the fight to reform the special educational needs and disabilities system in Cambridgeshire.
We can reveal the number of complaints made around SEND provision at a mainstream school to the county council is nearly 20 times higher than it was in 2020.
The biggest gap in complaints at stage one of special educational needs provision was between 2023 and 2025, while for the current 2025-26 year, this total was almost 700.
"I think there is room for improvement," mum Chloe said.
"After a handful of sessions, it was very clear there'd be no assessments, no ascertaining of his actual needs, so my argument was if you can't provide me anything supportive or demonstrative of identifying his needs, this isn't working."
Rising trend
Figures from Cambridgeshire County Council show each year since 2020, the number of complaints has risen:
- 2020/21 - 38
- 2021/22 - 77
- 2022/23 - 190
- 2023/24 - 198
- 2024/25- 480
- 2025/26 (partial year) - 692
Some of the reasons for complaints made include distress and impact on the family, loss of education provision for a child with an education, health and care plan, and avoidable inconvenience due to council failings.
While for every financial year since 2020-21 apart from 2022-23, the council's high-needs deficit had increased.
'You're going to fit in that circle' approach
Chloe's youngest son - who has certain learning difficulties including dyslexia - was taken out of mainstream education in May last year due to safeguarding issues.
"We are preparing these young people for a life of hardship, pressing them, putting them into (an idea that) 'you're going to fit in that circle or that square box'," she said.
"We have provisions of social, emotional and mental health needs, county schools for placements for autism and ADHD, but nothing that is directly for specific learning difficulties."
Last month, the Government announced a £4 billion package to allow mainstream schools to receive direct funding to support children with SEND to make the system more inclusive.
Targeted interventions such as small-group language work, as well as help for staff to introduce adaptive teaching styles, will be focused on as part of the overhaul.
Chloe's previously described the SEND system locally as in "crisis" and wants the Government to act further.
It is something that Ian Sollom - MP for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire - also backed.
"The Department for Education (DfE) have got to be more open to change and actually wanting to make those changes more positively, rather than setting the picture of writing these policies with no consideration of actual impact," she added.
Call for action
The Government has already announced plans to spend £200m during this Parliament to give all teachers SEND training.
The DfE has said the money will be used to develop new courses for teachers to take in order to help them adapt to meeting different needs, such as speech and language requirements.
Councillor Edna Murphy, chair of the Cambridgeshire County Council's children and young people committee, said the authority faces a high-needs deficit of "nearly £200m by the end of 2028.
Because of this, the council could face bankruptcy, but Cllr Murphy has denied that the SEND situation is at crisis point.
"I think we just don't have enough money and we don't have enough support for children in enough schools and don't have the means to get there without Government support," she previously told us.
Cllr Murphy said that the council is "campaigning hard" to improve the SEND system for families.
"Every complaint is a failure," she said.
"We are extremely conscious of each complaint and delay of an education, health and care plan is causing distress for families, but we are working very hard to address that."