Dr Gavin Morgan says the ability to access professional help and an educational health and care plan is a postcode lottery

It is distressing to read that thousands of pupils with special educational needs (Send) are being refused additional funding due to increased financial pressures faced by local authorities (Special needs funding claims in English schools ‘increasingly being refused’, 8 October).

Buckinghamshire council has said it will not provide top-up funding for pupils without an approved educational health and care plan (EHCP). The grim reality, however, for parents and pupils is that getting appropriate access to Send support and an EHCP is becoming a postcode lottery.