The ‘SEND reform: putting children and young people first’ White Paper released today looks to fix the system of special educational needs (SEND) funding and support that is currently not working for far too many children and young people, and their families and carers.  

We have previously highlighted, many of these issues in our 'State of the Nation in SEND Education’ report that found 46% of disabled people we spoke to had their disability undiagnosed throughout their time at school. Our paper called for hubs of best practice in every region, for smaller class sizes to deliver more effective support, and to ensure that SEND pupils are not left behind in Pupil Referral Units due to a lack of support in mainstream settings. 

Some of our recommendations were taken up in 2023, including introducing ‘National Standards for Alternative Provision’, and the introduction of ‘Local Inclusion Partnerships’ across the country.  

We are pleased that this government has continued to highlight the importance of sharing best practice amongst specialist and mainstream settings as a mechanism to deliver long-term change. Although, we would have liked to have seen more focus on how the government plans to tackle the disproportionate number of exclusions that our SEND pupils face.  

The government has recognised that many of the challenges faced can only be addressed with long-term commitments to funding SEND support, and ensuring teachers and children have the resources they need. We welcome the proposals to increase support for mainstream schools, colleges and early years education by more than £4bn, further supported with 60,000 additional specialist school places and £200m for teacher training.  

However, gaps still remain. We understand concerns about potential changes to EHCP plans, that many parents have to fight for in order to receive basic levels of support.  

The government also needs to understand that improving mainstream provision so that inclusion is truly meaningful, and parents get a real choice, is going to take a number of years to implement. The risk is that legal rights are taken away, with no support left in the meantime to plug the gap. We call on the government to ensure that reviews of plans at the secondary school stage are genuinely based on improving rather than removing any support for our children and young people.  

Read the White Paper here