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For ages, I was eager to create a documentary focusing on special educational needs and disabilities.

You might know me as my EastEnders role, but I am equally a mother to an neurodivergent son who also has dyslexia and ADHD.

Required many months of determination and hard work from both of us to obtain the right schooling for him. At times, it felt like a battle.

That is why I decided to make this documentary, so I could meet other families going through the same thing, and discuss with educators, councils, and the government about how children with special needs are educated in the UK.

The Scope of Send in the UK

Currently, there are more than 1.7 million children in the country with Send. This represents a broad category, encompassing those on the autism spectrum and people who struggle with speech and language, have attention disorders, and mobility issues, along with other needs.

Schools in England do offer assistance to these students, but if families believe their son or daughter requires additional support, they can make an application to their local council for an EHCP.

An Education, Health and Care Plan is a crucial legal document because it is legally binding, specifies where a pupil should go to school, and outlines how much extra support they should get.

My husband and I devoted countless hours filling in the forms to apply for an EHCP, and numerous parents describe the process very frustrating.

A Mother and Son's Journey

Shortly after I encounter 15-year-old Buddy, he shows me his beloved cuddly toy, Reindeer Dog.

He is on the autism spectrum, which means his mind processes and reacts to the world in a unique manner from many people's. He struggles with socializing his own age, understanding his emotions, and anxiety. He likes to keep Reindeer Dog nearby.

After moving to London from Scotland in last autumn, his mother, Tunde, started applying for educational placements. She explains she contacted at least 11 institutions, but several didn't get back to her, and those that did indicated they were full or were unable to give her son the necessary help without an EHCP.

At the start of the current year, over 638,000 EHCPs had been issued to children and young people in the country, a 10.8% rise on the year before and an 80% increase in half a decade.

The increase is partly because families and educators have become more skilled at recognizing pupils who have Send, particularly autism, as rather than there being more children with special needs.

This marks the repeat Buddy and Tunde have sought an plan. Their first application was turned down before Buddy was assessed. Local authorities decline about a quarter of EHCP applications at the assessment stage, as per official figures.

During their time in the Scottish system, the mother notes they were not required to apply for the equivalent of an Education, Health and Care Plan. His secondary school provided support for his learning, but not for his well-being.

Scotland has a different system for supporting children with Send; schools there aim to deliver more support without the need for parents to apply for the similar of an plan.

"It's a madness," she says. "[Securing help] was so easily done, and it should be simple to repeat."

Although Buddy is not able to attend classes, the council is offering him with 19 hours of tuition per week in the community library.

The mother explains the procedure of seeking an plan has been so time consuming she had to stop working as a birth attendant and community nurse for a time.

"I can't manage my duties. I cannot take him to these appointments, and work at the same time… I couldn't secure appointments for my child in the appropriate timeframe and attend to other people's babies in the right amount time. It became a difficult choice - and my son prevailed," she comments.

We catch up with the youth after a long communication assessment.

"Exhausting… that's all I've got for you," he says as he leans against a barrier, his toy held close.

A School for the Teenager

As autumn begins and as countless children begin classes, Buddy is still be educated in the library. Two months after I initially encountered him, he's receiving an Education, Health and Care Plan but his schooling is yet to be resolved.

The council agreed to Tunde's request that he go to an private institution that specializes in children who struggle in standard education.

Prior to he can begin there, the institution has assumed responsibility for the sessions he receives in the library setting. But the parent's now not sure the school will be able to deliver what she thinks her son needs to improve his social skills and self-assurance with peers his own age.

"We were fully ready for September… and he's still not at school, he continues to receive individual lessons," she said.

"I think … getting ready to be around fellow students and then still just being solo with adults has really knocked him back and made him not want to go to school."

The local authority states it views Tunde's concerns very seriously and it will keep support her household to make certain they obtain the support they need without further delay.

It says it knows how hard it can be for families to manage the system, and how upsetting holdups in obtaining help can be.

The council adds it has invested in a specialist support team, and now ensures children are assessed by expert educators at the initial phase, and it is open to reassessing the circumstances when parents are concerned about education placements.

Existing Framework is Failing

I know there is another side to this issue.

The huge rise in the number of Education, Health and Care Plans is putting local authorities under intense budgetary strain. It is estimated that English councils are set to run up a total accumulated Send deficit between £4.3bn and £4.9bn by March 2026.

The government states it has committed a billion pounds to help councils fund plans and further investment on special educational needs placements.

I traveled to a local authority to interview among the few officials in local government prepared to discuss on the record about Send funding.

The councillor is a Conservative councillor and official for education and youth.

"The current system is in fact very adversarial. Our parents are more and more exhausted and anxious and frustrated of fighting… Staff sickness levels are really, really high at the present time," she explains.

"The current system is ineffective. It is broken. It's not delivering the best outcomes for children."

The need for EHCPs is currently exceeding funding in the region. In 2015, the authority had about 3,400 pupils with an EHCP. Today there are over 10,000.

As a result the Send deficit has been growing year-on-year, so that at the end of 2025 it stands at more than £123m.

"That [money] is really essentially meant to be for local services. {That would have|