More than a million children with SEND will receive a new legal entitlement to a support plan, under major reforms to the sector.
The long-awaited Schools White Paper, published today, focuses largely on changes to the SEND system.
Under the proposals, EHCPs will remain but will be restricted to children with more complex needs which can’t routinely be met in mainstream schools.
Ministers also pledged to protect every child’s special school place as part of “triple lock transitional protections”.
No more one size fits all
The government said its proposals as “generational reforms” that would end the “one size fits all education system” that has “traumatised too many families, and damaged the lives of too many children”.
Under existing arrangements, more than 70% of children with SEND have no legally enforceable rights, it said.
However, under the reforms, there will be a new legal requirement for schools to create Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for every child with a SEND.
Background shouldn’t mean destiny. How a child grows up shouldn’t dictate where they end up
These will draw on support from a local network of experts and a national framework of high-quality interventions “that lead to the best education and life chances, personalised by the teachers and specialists who know children best”.
Ministers said the ISPs will be “easily available, without a fight, thanks to the government’s multi-billion-pound investment in services like speech and language therapy and small group teaching in schools”.
EHCPs will offer a wider legal entitlement beyond the ISP to more intensive or complex support.
Reviewing provision through phases
The triple lock of transition protections means that no child will lose the support they already have in place. It means that every child who is in a special school in 2029 will keep that place if they want it, until the end of their education.
From 2030, children in the mainstream with an EHCP may have their provision reviewed and changed to an ISA, but this will be reviewed as they move from primary to secondary. This change is dependent on the system in mainstream being ready for the changes.
Both systems will be digitised to reduce bureaucracy and improve transparency.
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said: “I believe – and this government believes – that background shouldn’t mean destiny. How a child grows up shouldn’t dictate where they end up.
“The SEND system designed ten years ago for a small number of children is now broken. Parents end up fighting tooth and nail for entitlements on paper that don’t see them getting additional support. Children’s educations and lives have suffered.
“Today’s plans will take children with SEND from sidelined and excluded to seen, heard and included. Every child will get the brilliant support they deserve, when they need it, as routine and without a fight.”
Widespread changes
Other reforms include:
- An update to the school complaints process, with an independent SEND expert added to the complaints panel, where there are concerns around a school granting an ISP, or the content of the ISP
- Basing the legal entitlement to support in an EHCP on a Specialist Provision Package, similar to clinical pathways used in health – to improve the quality and consistency of support across the country
- Publishing draft packages, designed with independent experts and parents, to provide guidance on the provision of specialist places in mainstream and special schools – for example, physical disability requiring personal care assistance or severe learning difficulty
- Setting out how education delivery will work in practice for children with EHCPs, who also have an ISP
- Bringing independent special schools under a new regulatory regime to make sure they deliver the high-quality support set out in Packages at a fair and reasonable price
Transitional protections
Transitional protections mean that no child currently in year 3, or older, will move on to an ISP if they don’t want to until the end of secondary school – although the government believes many will see the new system as an improvement and chose to make the switch.
Parents of children in mainstream school transitioning from an EHCP to an ISP, as they move from primary to secondary, will be able to choose the school they wish to attend. This will provide families with a preferred school place for their child.
SEND Tribunals will continue as an important legal backstop, and parents will retain the ability to appeal decisions on behalf of their child, including which school they should attend and which specialist support they should receive.
There will be strengthened mediation services and an improved complaints process — enabling concerns to be resolved earlier and more collaboratively, with quicker time-scales for tribunals.
Extended support
Other pledges include:
- Trained teachers and support staff to meet the needs of children with SEND, based on the latest evidence, and backed by £200 million of investment
- Dedicated funding from the £1.6 billion inclusion grant to deliver proven programmes such as small group speech and language support to respond to the most commonly occurring SEND needs
- In time, an inclusion base in every secondary school to deliver additional support and small group work, following the government’s £3.7 billion investment to create more tha 60,000 additional specialist places
- Families being able to send their child to their local school with confidence, with support from the £1.8 billion backed “Experts at Hand” such as education psychologists.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “We welcome the publication of the government’s White Paper today, and are optimistic that it contains the foundation of a successful new approach to education and support for children with SEND.
“Success will require sufficient funding and availability of support services and we are pleased to see new money committed to the plans and ambitions to expand support services.
“Parents, teachers and school leaders will now assess if the commitments are sufficient to ensure success.”
