Bridget Phillipson has vowed to make it weeks, not months or years, for children to get support in the Government’s overhaul of the special educational needs system – as she prepares to announce controversial changes.
Ahead of the publication of the White Paper on Inclusion, the Education Secretary said children with special needs would be treated as “integral within the school system” rather than as an isolated problem. She said the changes would be brought in as part of a “decade-long shift” to give schools and families time to adjust.
Campaigners are concerned that children with a legal right to special needs support will face a review when they move to secondary school.
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.
Speaking on the BBC, Phillipson said the government “isn’t going to take effective support away from children, and what I’m going to put in place tomorrow will be a decade-long, very careful transition from the system we have, which everyone will recognize doesn’t work”.
Asked if he could really say that children would not lose support, Phillipson said: “Children are reviewed to assess their needs. That has to happen at the moment. We have the EHCP system every year. [education, health and care plan] reviewed. This doesn’t always happen, and where it does, it doesn’t always work out well.
“But what parents will see when we set our vision for tomorrow is a system where, for example, if your child needs speech and language support, the school will be able to provide better than what it currently has.”
Phillipson said the overhaul of the system would mean children “will be supported much sooner than they are now. “And my commitment to parents is that when they look at all the documents published tomorrow they will see a government focused on delivering better outcomes for their children. I am very passionate about every child in our country. “
She said it was “a question of weeks, not months and years” compared to the current system where many EHCPs are issued by local authorities beyond the 20-week deadline.
“Part of what we’ve seen is that support for remitted children is treated almost entirely as a separate issue rather than an integral part of our school system. Most children face some form of challenge at some point in their school life, requiring additional support.
“In order to get the support a child needs, parents have to work really hard to get that education, health and care plan in place. I’ve heard from so many parents how difficult, how devastating it is. It can take years. It’s really adversarial.”
A radical overhaul of the Send system will provide Send with an individual support plan for every child, government sources have confirmed, but the changes will increase the number of children in England who qualify for the EHCP, which legally supports children with Send. 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.
Government sources said those with EHCPs would not lose them, but there are fears that children reaching the age of 11 could be re-assessed under the new, tougher criteria if they have educational support plans. According to government sources, parents have legal avenues of appeals under the existing Equality Act and through the Tribunal.
The White Paper was due to be published last autumn, but has been delayed to allow further consideration of the proposals submitted.
Phillipson said the changes aren’t about saving money. “We’re spending more money and we’ll continue to spend more money, both schools and sending together. We’re going to spend more money to get better outcomes for kids. But what we do is take action where that money isn’t being spent well.”
