Politics
Labour Announces Major Reforms For SEND Children
Labour has announced major reforms for children with special education needs and disabilities in England after years of being “sidelined”.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has today promised to overhaul the one-size-fits-all approach so children will receive more tailored support.
Here’s what you need to know and why it matters.
What Is SEND?
SEND stands for special education needs and disabilities, and applies to both children and young people who need extra support.
Just under a fifth of all pupils (1.7 million) receive some kind of support for SEND in England.
EHCP – education, health and care plans – are legally-binding documents, available for those who might need extra help than is usually provided in mainstream schools.
Local councils have to enforce EHCPs, which can apply to individuals up until they’re 25 years old as long as the person in question is still in education.
A total of 639,000 young people up to the age of 25 have EHCPs, including about 5% of all pupils (483,000).
Why Does The SEND System Need Reform?
The number of young people with EHCPs has more than doubled over the last decade, mostly due to the rise in autism diagnoses – and the system has buckled under this increased pressure.
The Covid pandemic has also driven up demand for speech and language services.
As Phillipson said, despite staff efforts, the “disadvantaged gap is still wide, children with SEND are sidelined and bright children from ordinary families are still not achieving all that they should”.
The National Audit Office said the system was “broken” in 2024 and it was “financially unsustainable for councils.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) believes spending on SEND has increased by two-thirds in the last decade.
It’s expected to more than double in real terms between 2015 and 2028.
Meanwhile, EHCPs have been criticised for taking too long, offering inconsistent decisions, and difficult processes.
What Has The Government Announced?
Labour has announced major changes to its system which Phillipson said is one “for all children”.
She wants support to go from “birth to workplace”, saying the government will increase funding to where it’s needed most.
“We have a moral responsibility to work together on this,” Phillipson said.
Phillipson said: “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.”
Specialist And Targeted Categories
The government wants to put children with SEND into two categories, either Targeted, which is for those who are in mainstream schools, or Specialist, which is for the children with the most complex needs, by 2035.
More than a million other children with SEND will then be legally entitled to a school support plan, this time called Individual Support Plans (ISPs).
Only the Specialist children with especially complex cases will be entitled to EHCPs on top of their ISPs.
Children will gradually be moved onto ISPs from 2030 onwards, once that system is fully established.
No child in year 3 now, or older, will be forced to move on to an ISP if they don’t want to until the end of their time at secondary school.
They will be reassessed as they progress through their education from 2029.
Phillipson said these plans will be “guided by nationally defined and evidence-based specialist provision packages”.
Both EHCPs and ISPs will be digitised to reduce bureaucracy and increase transparency, too.
Extra Funding And Training
The government said it will announce plans to recruit 6,500 new teachers – one of its manifesto pledges – to accompany these reforms.
Phillipson added that it is crucial to start supporting SEND children early, so the government is investing £200 million in “start hubs” with SEND professionals.
Teachers and support staff will be trained to meet the needs of children with SEND based on the latest evidence, too.
Every school will be entitled to some funding from a £1.6 billion inclusion grant to deliver proven programmes like small group speech and language support.
Every secondary schools will have an inclusion base where they can deliver additional support and small group worth, due to the £3.7 billion investment to create more than 60,000 more specialist places.
The government hopes to offer more support for children with severe behavioural and processing needs too, with its £1.8 billion backed “experts at Hand” scheme.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has said he hopes these changes will stop children from having to travel miles away from home every day to go to a school which can meet their needs.
Draft packages will be published later this year with input from experts and parents.
Are These Reforms A Good Idea?
Specialists fear that these changes will not add up to much in reality.
Andrea Dixon-Boldy, founder of the SEN Parent Support Group, told HuffPost UK: “While the government presents a two‑tier, standardised model as transformational, the financial reality is that once the headline of billions is diluted across 24,000 schools and 152 local authorities, a typical school sees the equivalent of one extra TA and limited access to overstretched specialists.
“How does this meet our children and young people’s needs when they are already struggling?”
Similarly, SEN psychotherapist Gee Eltringham said “Giving every child a plan sounds positive, but without real and relevant training for the staff writing those plans or understanding the reasons behind why the child needs certain intervention, it risks becoming paperwork over practice.”
She said it was key to establish two priorities, one for children already in crisis and another group for those who can still avoid burnout and secondary mental health conditions.