The Education Secretary announced an International SEND Alliance this week and pointed to Norway as the model. The Education for All Bill in the King's Speech promises a new legal duty to put an Individual Support Plan in place for every child with SEND, backed by £4 billion.
The ambition is right. The starting line is not.
What Norway actually built
When ministers reference Norway, they usually mean early intervention written into law, teachers trained to spot need before crisis. That's true. But it's also a small part of a much bigger structural picture. Here's what's actually underneath it:
- A 5-year integrated master's for every primary and lower secondary teacher. Not a 1-year PGCE.
- Pupil-to-teacher ratios capped in law — 15:1 in Years 1–4, 20:1 in Years 5–10.
- A statutory duty on municipalities to provide intensive support to any pupil falling behind in reading, writing or numeracy in those early years. Not a parent fight. A legal obligation.
- Special needs education enshrined in Section 5-1 of the Education Act, with the duty on the authority, not the family.
- School assistants on full-year contracts earning roughly £31,000–£36,000.
That is what "early intervention written into law" rests on. Not a slogan. A workforce, a ratio, and a budget.
Where England stands
- 1-year PGCE for most new teachers.
- 26 pupils per class on average — the highest in Europe.
- 288,800 teaching assistants — about 30% of the entire school workforce — holding the SEND system together.
- Most TAs take home £15,000–£18,000 a year on term-time-only contracts. They are the closest adult to most SEND children in this country.
- "Early intervention" too often means a parent fighting for an assessment that takes years.
The uncomfortable truth about our workforce
England has built a two-tier workforce, and we don't talk about it honestly.
Since 2011, teaching assistant numbers have grown by 67,000. Teacher numbers have slid. The Education Policy Institute is clear: in primary schools outside London, the growth in TAs has more than offset the loss of teachers. They warn that compensating for falling numbers of teachers with more teaching assistants is not a route to improved teaching — and may harm provision in the years ahead.
We have leant on the lowest-paid, least-protected staff to absorb the gap. We've called it support. It looks more like substitution.
Norway uses assistants too. But the model is different. A 15:1 statutory ratio in the early years means teachers can teach. Assistants supplement. They don't substitute.
What "if we want what Norway has" actually means
We have to build what Norway built. That is not the same as legislating that we want it.
It means:
- Early intervention that's funded, not just legislated
- Support for all that's enough for each — not thin for everyone
- Properly paid, properly trained TAs — recognised as professionals, not stopgaps
- Stakeholder training for every adult around a child — not just SENCOs
- Access designed in from day one — physical, digital, sensory, communicative
The fault lines already in play
- What legal weight does an Individual Support Plan carry compared to an EHCP?
- What happens to existing EHCPs in the transition? The "triple lock" needs definition, not branding.
- Who pays for the workforce — and who trains them?
- Will teaching assistants finally be in the workforce plan, or left to absorb the gap again?
- Who is accountable when it fails?
The bill is the intention
The consultation, the funding settlement, the workforce plan, and the National Inclusion Standards will tell us if it's real.
Designing well for neurodivergent children results in better design for everyone. That is the whole argument. It always has been. But you can't design well on a workforce stretched thin and a definition of "support" that costs as little as possible.
Let's get the foundations right.
Sources: DfE press release, 18 May 2026. Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, Meld. St. 6 (2019–2020). European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, Norway Country Report. DfE School Workforce in England 2024 Census. Education Policy Institute analysis. NJC Pay Scale 2025. Statistics Norway (SSB).