Children with a legal right to special needs support will face a review when they move to secondary school, with the first cohort to be affected currently in key stage 1, the Guardian understands.
A total overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system is due to be unveiled on Monday in a schools white paper that could face major opposition from Labour MPs.
The changes will raise the bar at which children in England qualify for an education, health and care plan (EHCP), which legally entitles children with Send to get support. EHCPs will be reserved for children with the most severe and complex needs, but new plans for children on lower tiers will still confer additional support and legal rights.
Parents would have legal avenues for appeals under existing equalities legislation and through the tribunal, said sources with knowledge of the proposed new system.
The Send system overhaul is seen as the most high-stakes policy change the government has taken on since welfare, when plans had to be abandoned after a Labour backbench rebellion. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has been leading a year-long lobbying offensive of hundreds of MPs, with many expressing support and recognition that the system has to change.
But some in government are worried that Labour MPs could vote the plans down in the next parliamentary session if MPs are bombarded with opposition from parents.
Phillipson has said children with Send would “always have a legal right to support”, and Labour would “not just protect but improve that support”. Sources said the old system was broken and, if legislation is successful, those children currently in year 2 with an EHCP would be assessed by schools to decide if they need to remain on a EHCP or their needs could be met “in a more flexible way”.
New-style EHCPs will be introduced from 2030. Children with additional needs, including those in the autism spectrum disorders category and with an ADHD diagnosis, would be given individual support plans with support decided on and provided by schools, according to a “clear, trusted national framework, properly independently verified by evidence-based organisation”, said a source with knowledge of the plans.
Schools will be given commissioning budgets to spend on special needs provision, in a similar way to systems operation currently in the NHS, which will play a much bigger role in partnering with schools to establish what support is needed.
“One of the problems with EHCPs is that they can take a long time to secure, there are lots of people waiting for them and a lot of the support is stuff a school could already do and should be already doing,” said one source. “If schools have the right resources, those needs can be met sooner.”
They said no child currently in a special school would lose their place, and pupils would not transition off an EHCP until a new system – with new legal rights – was in place.
The cost of high-needs provision has spiralled since changes to the system, devised by Michael Gove, were introduced in 2014. Overall spending on Send has risen by two-thirds in the past decade to more than £11bn a year, with councils spending more than £2bn just on taxis and transport to special schools last year because of a lack of local provision.
This has put local authorities into £6bn of debt. This month the Local Government Association said four in five English local authorities would be in effect bankrupted by rising special educational needs spending unless the government introduced significant changes. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said in last year’s budget she would take over full responsibility for the costs.
Phillipson has repeatedly stated that Send changes are not cost-cutting measures, telling MPs and campaign groups that she would overhaul the system even if funding was not an issue. She told the parliamentary Labour party it was “morally wrong” to put children in independent special schools that often failed them at “enormous cost” to them and the taxpayer.
A source said: “We’ve never spent as much money on special needs as we’re spending today, and yet outcomes are worse than they were in 2014 for that group of children.”
The white paper would not seek to immediately reduce the current £11bn annual cost, said people familiar with the changes, but would aim to halt an exponential increase in costs. “It’s not about saving money, you’re actually saying how do we live in that envelope,” the source said.
A spokesperson 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 would expand children’s rights, transform their lives for the better and end “the one-size-fits-all school system that has held too many children back from the outcomes they deserve”.
They said: “It’s about creating a better system for all families, where support is needs-led, embedded in every community and wrapped around children at the earliest stage so they can thrive at a school closer to home.
“We’ll set out our full plans shortly – building on the work already under way to secure a truly inclusive system, including investing billions in tens of thousands of new places that meet the needs of children with Send and training up every teacher and teaching assistant in line with the best practice across the country.”
