Parents React As EHCPs In Mainstream Schools To Be Replaced

Parents have expressed concern after the government announced major changes to education, health and care plans (EHCPs), which almost 640,000 children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) currently have in place in England.

As part of new SEND reforms, the Labour government has pledged £4 billion to “make every school truly inclusive”, with mainstream schools receiving extra investment to help children get tailored support where and when they need it.

It has also promised £1.8 billion to create a “bank of specialists” like SEND teachers and speech and language therapists in every local area which schools can utilise on demand.

Going forward, the plan is for EHCPs – a legally-binding document outlining the needs of a child and what support is required to meet those needs – to be reserved for the most complex special educational needs, which can’t routinely be met in mainstream schools.

In addition to this, the government said there will be a new legal requirement for schools to create Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for all children with SEND.

“Every ISP will draw from 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,” the government said in a press release.

“The support ISPs set out 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.”

The transition from EHCPs to ISPs for children in mainstream schools will begin from 2030.

ISPs will be in place for children who are transitioning from an EHCP before they move to the new system, so there should be no break in support, the government said. EHCPs and ISPs will also both be digitised moving forward.

Andrea Dixon-Boldy, founder of the SEN Parent Support Group, which was set up as a result of her experience trying to access support for her child, 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?”

She is concerned the reform “replaces enforceable, needs‑led provision with standardised pathways and school‑level responsibility, without the legal accountability or sustainable funding required to change children’s lived experience”.

SEN psychotherapist Gee Eltringham, who is a parent and founder of twigged, the parental support system for children with ADHD, said of the shift to ISPs: “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.

“ADHD is not ‘fidgeting so give them a fidget’. Dyslexia is not ‘slow so give more time’. What we need is trauma-informed, neurodiversity-affirming schools from Reception onwards. If we make mainstream environments genuinely understanding, we prevent crises and reduce the need to respond to burnout years later.”

She wants to see a 50-year cross-party commitment to creating inclusive schools, rather than short-term policy shifts.

“We must separate two priorities: children already in crisis, and those we can still reach early enough to prevent burnout and secondary mental health conditions,” she told HuffPost UK.

“Inclusion bases, exam adjustments and templates will not fix this on their own. Deep neurodiversity understanding and trauma-informed practice will. Children’s nervous systems cannot wait for political cycles, and waiting until 2030 for reform is not good enough.”

Anna Bird, chair of the Disabled Children’s Partnership, welcomed the extra investment promised, but said they are “deeply concerned” about plans to restrict access to EHCPs to those with the most complex needs.

She pointed out that there hasn’t been any mention of which children are considered to have complex needs, either. HuffPost UK has contacted the government for more insight on this.

“Parents and young people up and down the country face months of worry unless the government reassures them that all children whose needs cannot or are not met by individual schools’ plans will be able to get an EHCP,” she added.

Amanda Allard, director of the Council for Disabled Children, said they welcome the commitment to retain EHCPs for children and young people whose needs cannot be met through the new mainstream model.

“We know that many parents will welcome the legal requirement for schools to create Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for all children with SEND,” she added, noting that at the same time, parents “will be concerned to understand how accountability will work”.

Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, called the changes “an opportunity to move to a system that acknowledges that every child, at some point in their lives, will require help and support”.

She added that “no child should fear losing support” so she will be working closely with ministers and families over the coming months to make sure that doesn’t happen.