SEND funding reform: what it means for local authorities in 2027
The most significant overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities provision in a decade is rapidly gaining momentum. What do councils need to do to prepare for this landmark change in what promises to be a critical transition year?
Under the Government’s long-awaited Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) reform package, local authorities will need to adopt a more strategic and supervisory role across local partnerships, representing a major cultural and structural shift for local authority SEND teams.
Why 2027 will be a critical transition year for local authorities
For local authorities, 2027 represents a critical preparation year as the Government pushes councils to move away from what it sees as an often confrontational and fragmented system to one that is preventative, inclusive, and focused on earlier intervention.
This will be a crucial phase of the overhaul. Local authorities must implement and scale up the "Experts at Hand" (EaH) tier of early support in mainstream schools, finalise rollouts of specialist provision packages, and prepare to transition to a new upfront SEND funding formula.
What must local authorities do to prepare for 2027 now?
To effectively prepare for the upcoming phase of reform, local authorities should consider prioritising the following actions:
Enhance local SEND strategies
Strengthen financial oversight
Expand partnership engagement
Prepare for national standards
Promote cultural and workforce readiness
How local authorities will do this
Enhance local SEND strategies:
The EaH offer is at the core of the SEND reform programme. This funding is used to bring specialist health and education professionals directly into mainstream schools, early years settings, and colleges. It provides early, needs-based support for children and young people with SEND without requiring a formal diagnosis or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Local area partnerships will need to shift their focus towards providing early interventions in mainstream education settings to help address children's needs more quickly and effectively. Authorities will implement a new standardised framework so that these settings have access to the health and specialist education experts they need.
Strengthen financial oversight:
Local authorities are expected to have begun allocating elements of the EaH financial offer in September 2026. By this time, the Inclusive Mainstream Fund (IMF) will also have been assigned to support the financial year 2026-27.
Local authorities will need to manage their Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficits alongside the Government to prepare for changes in how high-needs deficits are handled in future years. Considering substantial historical overspending and concerns raised by the Local Government Association, councils will implement stricter controls to guarantee that independent special schools set fair prices.
Expand partnership engagement:
Local authorities need to support the final publication of nationally-established specialist provision packages, designed to provide structured options for school placements. This will guarantee uniformity and cost-effectiveness. Councils will be less involved in the direct commissioning of individual cases. Instead, they will focus on leading the creation of local area SEND reform plans (the EaH offer), which will be co-developed with schools, health partners, and families.
Prepare for national standards:
Local authorities must map current local provision against expected baselines, review early-intervention pathways, and engage local schools on mainstream consistency frameworks. With Government support, including the launch of the IMF and Inclusion Bases, authorities will aim to enhance the capabilities of mainstream schools, reducing the number of children who need specialist placements.
Promote cultural and workforce readiness:
Investment must be made in mainstream inclusion training and building collaborative local networks to meet EaH requirements. Local authorities need to engage staff in national professional development programmes with mandatory SEND training for all teaching and support staff being rolled out from September 2026. Councils must continue to deliver professional development and inclusive practice programmes to upskill mainstream teachers and local authority staff.
Local authorities are focusing on early intervention
Local authorities are shifting their focus towards mainstream inclusion and early intervention through more structured sensory regulation to improve pupil attendance and staff wellbeing, and boost classroom manageability. Councils are starting to identify needs, providing intervention and monitoring progress before planning the next steps.
Cubbie is an early intervention system; a personalised regulation and inclusion platform that combines a controlled environment, occupational therapy-informed programmes, and measurable outcomes to help pupils develop, regulate, and process their senses and return to learning. Cubbie helps mainstream settings remove sensory and regulation barriers so children can attend, engage, participate, and learn — without relying on staff to guess what sensory input each child needs. Learn more about the science behind Cubbie.
A local authority partnered with Cubbie to deliver a 24-month programme across five schools in one of England’s most densely populated cities outside London. The study explored whether structured sensory regulation could improve attendance, reduce time out of class and improve day-to-day inclusion for pupils with sensory, emotional, or behavioural needs.
The study revealed:
Classroom attendance rose from 75% to 83% overall. Pupils went from 20–30 minutes of lost class time per day to full-time attendance.
Hundreds of hours of learning time were recovered over the year. Across three mainstream schools over three terms, this amounted to 30 additional learning hours per day.
There were fewer behavioural incidents, meaning staff spent more consistent time in the classroom.
16 pupils with SEND successfully transitioned back into full-time mainstream education. One pupil, previously at risk of permanent exclusion and on a reduced timetable, returned to class full time, after the school introduced short, structured sensory breaks as part of everyday provision. Four other pupils, at risk of permanent exclusion, were also reintegrated back into school.
Cubbie: an early-intervention solution providing measurable outcomes
Cubbie is a scalable, OT-informed early-intervention platform that can be deployed consistently across schools and gives authorities measurable evidence around participation, attendance, classroom time and escalation. This early-intervention and specialist-support asset can sit across the whole continuum of need. Cubbie is the only sensory-regulation platform designed to address the full range of needs: Universal, Targeted, Targeted Plus, and Specialist Provision. Learn more about how Cubbie works.
By helping local authorities strengthen mainstream inclusion, through supporting children with SEND and Social, Emotional, Mental Health (SEMH) needs, Cubbie helps reduce pressure on exclusions, alternative provision/pupil referral unit placements, and specialist provision. Financially, Cubbie helps create opportunities for cost avoidance through earlier intervention and reduced escalation into more intensive support.
Cubbie is perfectly positioned to demonstrate that sensory regulation can effectively:
Reduce exclusions and reduced-timetable placements
Recover meaningful classroom time
Ease pressure on SENCOs and pastoral staff
Generate consistent, comparable data which can be used for Ofsted and resource planning
Reduce reliance on stretched specialist services by intervening earlier
Strengthen the case for early intervention as a cost-avoidance strategy, not just a wellbeing one
As local authorities begin implementing the reforms, many are already recognising that early intervention is the key to a successful outcome for young people with SEND. Councils need look no further than Cubbie for an infrastructure solution that is evidence-informed, with emerging real-world outcome data.
To find out how local authorities can utilise Cubbie as part of their local inclusion strategy, get in touch with our team.
