Violet in north London is six years old and loves butterflies and moths. She’s autistic with speech and language difficulties and even before she started nursery, her mother, Tamara, began pursuing extra support from her local authority. Years later, the process of obtaining an educational health care plan has become an emotional and financial ordeal for the family.

The Guardian’s education editor, Richard Adams, explains to Hannah Moore that a decade of underfunding has left local authorities under great strain, encouraging an adversarial dynamic between parents seeking educational support for their children and the councils that have to pay for it.

For Dominic, a primary school teacher in Nottinghamshire, the funding crisis means that in the classroom there are simply fewer adults in the room, affecting all children and their development, with or without special educational needs and disabilities.

As councils have been allowed to borrow to fill the gap, Richard warns that 2026 is now a fast-approaching financial cliff edge that must be addressed.