Kellie BrightPresenter, BBC Panorama (with additional reporting by Doug Faulkner, BBC News)

Kellie Bright

I’ve been desperate to make a documentary about special educational needs and disabilities (Send) for ages.

You might know me as EastEnders’ Linda Carter but I’m also a mum to my autistic son. He’s also dyslexic and has ADHD.

It took months of perseverance and hard work from my husband and I to try to get the right education for him. At times, it felt like a battle.

That is why I wanted to make this film for Panorama, so I could meet other families who were going through the same thing, and speak to teachers, councils and the government about how Send children are educated in England.

There are more than 1.7 million children in England with Send. It is a broad group, including autistic children and people who struggle with speech and language, have ADHD and physical disabilities, among other conditions.

Schools in England already provide some support to these students but if parents think their child needs extra help they can make an application to their council for what’s called an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

An EHCP is a crucial document because it is legally binding, states where a child should go to school and outlines how much extra support they should get.

My husband and I spent hours filling in the forms to request an EHCP and many families find the process very frustrating.

Buddy and Tunde

Not long after I meet 15-year-old Buddy, he shows me his favourite cuddly toy, Reindeer Dog.

Buddy’s autistic, meaning his brain experiences and reacts to the world in a different way from many people’s. He struggles with meeting people his own age, understanding his emotions and anxiety. Buddy likes to keep Reindeer Dog close to him.

After moving to London from Scotland in October 2024, Buddy’s mum, Tunde, started applying for schools. She says she tried at least 11 schools but many of them didn’t get back to her, and those that did said they were full or could not give Buddy extra support without an EHCP.

At the start of this year more than 638,000 EHCPs had been issued to children and young people in England, a 10.8% rise on the year before and an 80% increase in six years.

The increase is partly because parents and schools have got better at identifying children who have special educational needs, especially autism, as opposed to there being more children with Send.

It is the second time Buddy and Tunde have applied for an EHCP. Their first application was turned down before Buddy was assessed. Councils reject about a quarter of EHCP applications at the assessment stage, according to the Departmen
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Kellie BrightPresenter, BBC Panorama (with additional reporting by Doug Faulkner, BBC News)

Kellie Bright

I’ve been desperate to make a documentary about special educational needs and disabilities (Send) for ages.

You might know me as EastEnders’ Linda Carter but I’m also a mum to my autistic son. He’s also dyslexic and has ADHD.

It took months of perseverance and hard work from my husband and I to try to get the right education for him. At times, it felt like a battle.

That is why I wanted to make this film for Panorama, so I could meet other families who were going through the same thing, and speak to teachers, councils and the government about how Send children are educated in England.

There are more than 1.7 million children in England with Send. It is a broad group, including autistic children and people who struggle with speech and language, have ADHD and physical disabilities, among other conditions.

Schools in England already provide some support to these students but if parents think their child needs extra help they can make an application to their council for what’s called an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

An EHCP is a crucial document because it is legally binding, states where a child should go to school and outlines how much extra support they should get.

My husband and I spent hours filling in the forms to request an EHCP and many families find the process very frustrating.

Buddy and Tunde

Not long after I meet 15-year-old Buddy, he shows me his favourite cuddly toy, Reindeer Dog.

Buddy’s autistic, meaning his brain experiences and reacts to the world in a different way from many people’s. He struggles with meeting people his own age, understanding his emotions and anxiety. Buddy likes to keep Reindeer Dog close to him.

After moving to London from Scotland in October 2024, Buddy’s mum, Tunde, started applying for schools. She says she tried at least 11 schools but many of them didn’t get back to her, and those that did said they were full or could not give Buddy extra support without an EHCP.

At the start of this year more than 638,000 EHCPs had been issued to children and young people in England, a 10.8% rise on the year before and an 80% increase in six years.

The increase is partly because parents and schools have got better at identifying children who have special educational needs, especially autism, as opposed to there being more children with Send.

It is the second time Buddy and Tunde have applied for an EHCP. Their first application was turned down before Buddy was assessed. Councils reject about a quarter of EHCP applications at the assessment stage, according to the Departmen
Read More