The Children’s Plan: What it means for schools in the North East
The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, has used her statutory powers to carry out the first national school census of its kind. Every school and college in England was asked about the needs of their pupils and the support they can offer.
This landmark report echoes long-standing concerns raised by Schools North East over many years.
The aim was simple but ambitious: to capture a true national picture of children’s additional needs (both inside and outside the classroom) and to understand whether schools have the capacity to meet them. For the North East, where levels of disadvantage are among the highest in the country, this work has particular relevance.
Hidden challenges, overlapping needs
The findings are sobering. They paint a picture of children facing overlapping challenges: poverty, SEND, persistent absence, and exclusion often come hand-in-hand, creating a cycle that is hard to break. And yet, many of these needs are poorly understood.
Most schools could not say how many pupils had been bereaved or were living in unsuitable housing. The numbers of children in kinship care, with a parent in prison, or on CAMHS waiting lists were often underestimated. What emerges is a portrait of hidden need, much of it invisible in the data and therefore in the planning.
Schools feeling the strain
The census also shows that schools are deeply worried about issues that extend well beyond the classroom walls. CAMHS access was named as the biggest concern by most schools – both primary and secondary – closely followed by attendance and the challenges of delivering EHCPs and SEND support.
Many school leaders said that funding for wider children’s services was a bigger worry than their own school budgets. They feel the weight of being asked to plug gaps in health and social care, with too little money, too few staff, and a lack of specialist support.
Unequal provision across regions
Importantly, the report highlights how uneven provision has become. Secondary schools are far more likely than primaries to have access to a counsellor, and provision varies widely across the country. In some respects, North East schools fare well: our primaries are much more likely to have nurseries than those in the South East. But deprivation is a powerful driver, shaping the level and type of support available to children.
Schools want to do more
What is striking, but unsurprising to those who know them, is that schools want to do more. Leaders are calling for greater access to mental health counselors, speech and language therapists, family liaison officers, and educational psychologists. But much of this provision relies on external providers, bringing challenges over cost and quality.
Meanwhile, the SEND system – with its slow, adversarial EHCP process – is seen as failing too many children, despite spending rising exponentially.
The Commissioner’s call for change
The Commissioner’s message is clear and reflects what Schools North East has been advocating for since inception: schools are stepping up heroically, but they cannot do this alone. Wider children’s services have been stripped back over decades, leaving schools to fill the gaps.
The focus on narrow categories like FSM, SEND and looked-after status does not capture the complexity of children’s lives. A broader, more flexible “additional needs” approach is needed.
Seven pillars of reform
To achieve this, the report proposes seven pillars of reform. It calls for a national statement of ambition that sets clear targets for attendance, attainment and inclusion; a broader definition of additional needs that includes health, housing and family circumstances; and an “Inclusion Premium” to give schools the resources to respond. Statutory support should be reformed into more holistic Children’s Plans, supported by a shared digital platform.
Locally, new mission boards would bring together education, health and social care, with joint funding to make integrated support a reality. And crucially, the plan calls for statutory early help in every community, ring-fenced funding for children’s mental health, and violence reduction units across the country.
Implications for the North East
For schools in the North East, this agenda brings both opportunity and challenge. There is the potential for better access to mental health support, more recognition of the challenges linked to deprivation, and stronger collaboration with local agencies.
But it will require our region to make its voice heard as the government develops its Schools White Paper; to push for fair funding, equitable access to services, and a system that sees the whole child, not just their test scores. Fortunately, that is the precise reason why our unique network exists.
Schools North East is calling on government to:
- Guarantee access to specialist staff in every school – including Educational Psychologists, speech and language therapists, school nurses, and mental health practitioners.
- Urgently reform SEND and EHCP processes to reduce waiting times, ensure plans are high-quality, and provide consistent support across the region.
- Strengthen local services beyond the school gate – particularly CAMHS, children’s social care, and family hubs – so schools are not left filling the gaps alone.
- Acknowledge the impact of context on education, so that schools in disadvantaged areas like the North East are supported to meet the greater level of need among their pupils.
Harnessing the power of the Schools North East Network
The Children’s Plan represents a huge opportunity. Schools North East has long championed priorities that align closely with the Commissioner’s recommendations: improving attendance, reforming SEND, strengthening multi-agency working, ensuring fair funding, and recognising the expanded role schools play in supporting children and families.
As The Voice of all 1,150 schools in the region, we will continue to push what joined-up support can achieve when education, health and social care work together.
We encourage school leaders, partners and policymakers to engage with our Schools North East Manifesto and work with us to ensure these reforms deliver for every child in our region. Together, we can make sure the North East is not just included in this national agenda, but leading it — starting with the Schools North East Summit 2025.
Rebooting education on our own terms
This latest news reaffirms the fact that the education system is at a turning point. For too long, reform has happened to the sector rather than with it. The Schools North East Annual Summit 2025, on Thursday 16 October at St James’ Park, Newcastle, is our collective power button to reboot the system.
This year’s theme – Rebooting Education: The Future of our Region is in School – will challenge us to rethink what leadership looks like in a reimagined education landscape and explore how we can shape change, not just react to it.
We are inviting school leaders from across the North East to come together, share expertise, and set the agenda for the future. This is our chance to influence national reforms exactly like this one, and make sure they work for our schools, our pupils, and our communities. Let’s use this moment to get our voice heard on a big scale and ensure the Children’s Plan recommendations translate into meaningful action for our region. Book now.