Children with a legal right to special needs support will face a review when they move on to secondary school, with the first cohort currently in key Stage 1 being affected, the Guardian understands.
A comprehensive overhaul of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (PUMP) system is being unveiled in a landmark schools white paper on Monday, which will face major opposition from Labor MPs.
The changes will increase the number of children in England who qualify for the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), which legally entitles sent children to receive support. EHCPs are reserved for children with the most severe and complex needs, but new plans for children at lower levels still offer additional support and legal rights.
Sources with knowledge of the proposed new system said parents would have legal avenues of appeals under the current Equality Act and through a tribunal.
The SEND system is widely regarded as the most high-profile policy change the government has taken from welfare, when plans were forced to abandon due to a Labor backbench rebellion. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has been leading a lobbying attack by hundreds of MPs for a year, with many backing and recognizing that the system needs to change.
But some in the government are worried that Labor MPs will scrap the plans in the next parliamentary session if MPs push ahead with opposition from parents.
Children with SEND “always have a legal right to support”, Phillipson said, which Labor “will not only protect but improve that support”. But sources say the old system is “broken” and, if the legislation is successful, children in year 2 of the EHCP will be assessed by schools to decide whether they should stay on the EHCP or if their needs can be met “in a more flexible way”.
New style EHCPs will be introduced from 2030. Children with additional needs, including the Autism Spectrum Disorders category and ADHD diagnosis, will be given individual support plans, with support determined and delivered by schools, according to a “clear, credible national framework, independently validated by an evidence-based organisation”.
Schools will also be given budgets to spend on special needs, similar to the systems operation currently in the NHS, which will play a huge role in partnering with schools to establish what support is needed.
“The problem with EHCPs is that they can take a long time to secure, there are too many people waiting for them and too many support which a school can already do and should already be doing,” said one source. “If schools are properly resourced, those needs can be met quickly.”
They added that no child currently in a special school would lose their place and that pupils would not move out of the EHCP until the new system – with new legal rights – was in place.
The cost of high-needs provision has risen since changes to the system designed by Michael Gove were introduced in 2014. Total spending on Send has risen by two-thirds in the past decade to more than £11bn a year, with councils spending more than £2bn on taxis last year and no transport costs.
This has left local authorities £6bn in debt. This month the Local Government Association said four out of five English local authorities would be bankrupted by rising costs of special education unless the government introduced significant changes. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said she would take full responsibility for spending in last year’s budget.
Phillipson has repeatedly said the send changes are not cost-cutting measures, telling MPs and campaign groups she wants to overhaul the system even if funding is not an issue. She told the parliamentary Labor Party that it was “morally wrong” to put children in independent special schools, which often failed at “enormous cost” to them and the taxpayer.
A source said: “We’ve never spent as much money on special needs as we do today, yet the results for that group of children are worse than they were in 2014.”
The white paper will not seek to immediately reduce the current £11bn annual spending, people familiar with the changes said, but stop the exponential rise in costs. “You’re saying it’s not about saving money, it’s about how we live within that envelope.”
A spokesman for the Department for Education said it had already invested £3bn in specialist SEND units in local state schools and £200m to train teachers in SEND. The Schools White Paper expands children’s rights, transforms their lives for the better and ends the “one-size-fits-all school system that deprives too many children of the education they deserve”. held back from promising results”.
They said: “This is about creating a better system for all families, where support needs are addressed, embedded in every community and wrapped around children at an early stage so they can thrive in school close to home.
“We will soon lay out our full plans – building on the work already underway to achieve a truly inclusive system, including investing billions in tens of thousands of new places to meet the needs of children by sending and training every teacher and teaching assistant in line with best practice in the country.”
