Council leader under fire after remarks about SEND

Cllr Alan Graves, the leader of Reform-led Derbyshire County Council, has been criticised after stating that children are being "over diagnosed" with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

In an interview with the BBC, Cllr Graves stated he agreed with the party's national leader Nigel Farage, who has said there is a "massive" overdiagnosis for "general behavioural disabilities". 

"I personally think there are too many people in the system," Graves said. "I think there are reasons for that and it's to do with schools getting extra money for dealing with that. Most people are just about on the spectrum but they're coping." 

Graves said while many children did need support, there was an "ideological" element to the issue: "What I'm saying to [parents] is if you've applied for it, the council will deal with that situation. At the end of the day, we have to deal with things within a legal framework. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have a discussion about how things should be. We need to make sure, as a local authority, as a government, that we're spending the money in the right places. 

"Sometimes people have to cope with those issues. I possibly feel that maybe even I'm on the spectrum somewhere... but I've never had any help with it." 

Latest figures show that there are almost 8,000 children in Derbyshire with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) in place. An EHCP is a legally binding document which ensures a child or young person with special or educational needs in England gets the right support from a local authority. 

The authority's SEND services are currently being monitored by the government after a damning Ofsted report last year. Following the report, back in October 2024, Derbyshire Council said it was working hard to improve its services for children during a “difficult time” when the regulator found "widespread and systemic failings.” 

In the report, inspectors said children "wait too long" for their needs to be assessed which has led to some "missing large amounts of their education". They found there were "not enough" special school places to meet the increasing number of children and young people with SEND. 

Families with SEND children who took part in the inspection told the regulator they were "in crisis" and felt their requests for help were being ignored. 

The council was also accused of errors leading to around a quarter of a million pounds in compensation having to be paid to families with children with special educational needs, and of having a poor complaints response record. The review revealed that within a 12-month period, 55 complaints were investigated by the Ombudsman and 47 were upheld. This led to a total of more than £230,000 being paid in compensation to families which had increased from £36,000 in the previous year. 

At the time, Derbyshire County Councillor Alex Dale, the Cabinet Member for Education, said “We have been very clear publicly and transparently, we are going through a very difficult time with these services. We are working hard to make things better and there are a number of improvements in several different areas to improve things and there is still a lot of work to do and it is far from complete.” 

Cllr Dale stressed the significant number of complaints received was not surprising, but the authority was trying to improve its own system while facing a huge rise in demand and requests for services – like many other councils across the country – and that it is a national issue. 

To address SEND concerns, Derbyshire County Council introduced a digital case management system called iDOX to improve efficiency with children’s EHCP assessments and communication between the council, families, schools, health and other agencies. 

This technology was part of a £1m investment which included a redesign, a new team set-up, additional staff and specialist training. The council also invested £11m to create 500 additional special needs school places and it also remodelled other services within its schools and learning service to develop the inclusive capacity of mainstream schools and set up a SEND Coordinator Network and an SENDCo Helpline. 

Cllr Dale said the council acknowledged it must do significantly better: “While there’s plenty of hard work still ahead, we’re already making progress on several fronts and as with the Ombudsman’s Letter, we’ll use the outcome of our Local Area SEND inspection to further develop and strengthen our services across the partnership and will continue driving forward with improvements.” 

Reform took control of Derbyshire County Council in May 2025 after a historical election. Parents across Derbyshire are now worried that the positive steps taken to improve SEND services under the previous leadership may now be halted. 

Cllr Graves acknowledged he did not have any evidence for his claims on overdiagnosis, but said the Labour government's intention to reform the national SEND system showed there was an issue. He has also suggested that some schools encouraged parents to apply for things their children did not need. 

MPs in Derbyshire have said that a lot of their casework is made up of parents seeking help for their children with SEND provision. In a statement shared on social media, High Peak MP Jon Pearce, said, “Derbyshire’s SEND families deserve better – not insults from their County Council leader. 

“The Reform UK Leader of Derbyshire County Council’s comments about so-called “over diagnosis” of SEND are disgraceful. 

“Families know how long, exhausting, and stressful it can be to get a diagnosis for a child with SEND - and then to fight for the support they need. Remarks like this insult their struggle and undermine the children who need our help most. 

“Over diagnosis is not the problem. The real problem is a broken system and a lack of proper support for these children. Derbyshire County Council’s support for SEND children has already been found to be wholly inadequate. I had hoped the new leadership would focus on fixing this - but these comments show the wrong priorities. 

“Derbyshire’s children deserve better. I will fight every day to make sure they get it.” 

Comments in response from local residents are mixed with one saying, “As the parent of a child that’s been waiting for an EHCP mediation since December last year, I hold no hope of ever getting one under the current council” and another “Agree, far too many children are being diagnosed with special educational needs to the detriment of the genuine cases.”