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Thousands fewer students could be entitled to the full package of special education support in England under sweeping changes being considered by Sir Keir Starmer, as Labor seeks to improve the “neglected” system. .
Senior government officials say ministers are looking at legislating for changes to the system that helps children with special educational needs (SEN) receive the support plans they need to access universal access. state support package.
Education, health and support plans (EHCPs) were introduced in 2014 as part of the Children and Families Act, which regulates the support to which local authorities are legally obliged must provide for children with the greatest needs.
EHCP offers additional help to those who qualify, including one-on-one support, transportation services and, in some cases, access to expensive private education.
According to a senior official, proposals being considered relate to changes to the system underpinning support delivery, which would likely affect children to a “softer” extent in range of conditions such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorder.
“It means thousands fewer students will receive reports,” an official said.
The move will be just one part of a series of wider reforms introduced by Starmer to the SEN system.
The government is looking to significantly increase the provision of special education support in mainstream schools, including £740 million announced this month for local authorities to create new SEN places.
It also vowed to improve early intervention services provided to schools to prevent students’ conditions from getting worse over time.
Starmer said this week that his “birthright on SEN is a system neglected to the point of complete crisis”.
“We have to reform, introduce a system that intervenes much earlier and make sure that it is largely mainstream,” he told Parliament’s Liaison Committee on Thursday.
“If we don’t change the way we deliver special education, we will never be able to close the gap and fix the problem,” he added.
Experts say the SEN system is broken due to growing demand for EHCPs and placing huge strain on strained council budgets.
Meanwhile, they argue, very limited support is provided for people with SEN who do not receive a declaration, leaving families and schools to seek EHCP for a number of less serious conditions.
Local authorities have accumulated a deficit in high-needs budgets of around £3.3 billion this year, according to the IFS, which warns this could rise to over £8 billion in the next three years.
Outcomes First Group, England’s largest provider of specialist education for children with SEN, published a report this week calling on the government to redesign the EHCP process with a tiered assessment model.
The proposed model would limit claims to “more severe cases of SEN requiring comprehensive and specialist intervention”, while offering simpler and more targeted interventions for those have less complex needs.
Luke Sibieta, a researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said that with the number of students participating in the EHCP increasing, “it would not be surprising if the government started thinking about classification”.
Sibieta added that “the missing piece of the current system” is state support for those in need who do not qualify for full EHCP benefits.
According to the National Audit Office, the number of children and young people requiring special educational needs support in England has more than doubled over the past decade, from 240,000 in January 2015 to 576,000 in January 2024. .
According to IFS, nearly 5% of all students now have a special needs plan, up from a steady 2.9% between 2000 and 2018.
The increase in demand has outstripped funding, even though the government’s high needs budget has increased by more than 50% over the past decade – from £6.8 billion in 2015 to more than £10 billion in 2015. 2024.
The government said “too many children are not having their needs met and parents are forced to fight for support”, and was determined to “restore the confidence of families” across the country.
