Protect legal right to support for children with SEND

I believe that the Government’s proposed SEND reforms could limit EHCPs, weaken legal rights, replace individual plans with packages, reduce appeals, and remove school choice. In my view, children could be left without the support they need as a result.

I think the Government’s SEND reforms could limit EHCPs, weaken legal rights, raise thresholds, replace individual plans with generic packages, reduce appeal rights, remove school choice, and push children into inclusion zones without proper support. Many children rely on these rights to support every day, without them many could be left behind, struggling, unsupported, and unheard.

The government’s proposed reforms strengthen the legal duties to support children with SEND in mainstream settings. The SEND consultation proposes a new legal requirement for schools to create individual support plans (ISPs) for all children with SEND, developed by their nursery, school or college in discussion with parents, children and any other professionals such as healthcare experts involved in that child’s care. ISPs would evolve with the child’s needs, enable information about their needs and support to transfer with them as a digital record throughout the education system ensuring support can be planned and parents aren’t having to retell stories or repeatedly fight for support, ultimately helping to transform the life chances of children with SEND. EHCPs will continue for children with complex needs, securing statutory right to education and healthcare support.

Under our proposed reforms, educational provision in a reformed EHCP would be underpinned by evidence-based specialist provision packages commissioned by local authorities (LAs) and delivered by settings. Because settings know the child or young person best, we propose they work with families before EHCPs are finalised to set out the provision aligned with the package(s) that the child needs. Settings will have a legal duty to deliver what is in the EHCP.

Effective early identification and intervention is critical in improving the outcomes of children and young people with SEND. To support schools to meet this legal duty, we have appointed an Independent Expert Panel to develop National Inclusion Standards. The Standards should set out minimum standards that all settings must adhere to, and include a range of evidence-informed tools, strategies and approaches for educators to draw on to identify and support children and young people with additional needs. With earlier identification and a more inclusive mainstream, children and young people with SEND should get the support they need, as soon as they need it. This will be backed by investment of £1.6 billion over the next three years for early years settings, schools and colleges to deliver whole school approaches and individual support in line with the National Inclusion Standards.

In addition, we are investing £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and Integrated Care Boards, to develop a new Experts at Hand offer. This offer is designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings by providing access to support from health and specialist education practitioners, including speech and language therapists, support workers or assistants, occupational therapists and support workers or assistants, educational psychologists and trainees, and specialist teachers, both local authority-based and those based in specialist or alternative provision settings.

This new offer is designed to meet children’s needs earlier and more effectively without needing to wait for a diagnosis or bureaucratic assessment processes. Expert health and education staff will work alongside nursery workers and school and college staff to embed effective interventions, provide training and upskilling and help to accurately identify and assess need.

To support delivery, over £40 million is being invested in the specialist workforce, including £26 million to train more educational psychologists and £15 million to support more speech and language therapists to work with education settings.

The package of proposed reforms aims to put an end to the postcode lottery in support ensuring there are clear national standards for the support every child with SEND should receive. We are reforming the statutory needs assessment, co-designing with families, education and healthcare experts to deliver high quality, fair assessments across the country. Alongside this both EHCPs and ISPs will have a new digital template meaning they can move easily with children and families and preventing the need for reassessments and new local processes if children move between local authority areas.

Under our proposed reforms, the SEND Tribunal would remain a legal backstop for the most important EHC decisions. We propose strengthening mediation services to encourage families to work closely with local authorities and settings to develop solutions to problems, without the need for a Tribunal appeal, in line with the best practice currently seen in some local authorities. However, if early resolution is not possible, under our proposed reforms, parents and young people would be able to appeal to the Tribunal about:

o a local authority’s refusal to assess whether a child or young person needs an EHCP o whether a child or young person needs a Specialist Provision Package and therefore needs an EHCP o which Specialist Provision Package(s) the child or young person should have o the local authority’s decision about which school or setting should be named in the EHCP – although we propose to amend the Tribunal’s existing powers so that it can require the LA to retake the decision, rather than the Tribunal deciding which school or setting should be named in the EHCP. o a decision to amend, not amend or cease an EHCP following review.

We have recently welcomed feedback via the consultation on 'SEND reform: putting children and young people first’, which ran for 12 weeks closing on 18 May. We are reviewing responses alongside feedback from over 200 engagement events held over the 12 weeks.

Department for Education