How will children and their families be affected by the government’s overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities (Send) provision in England’s schools? That will depend on their age, with the bulk of changes not taking effect until 2030, according to the white paper and consultation documents.
A 12-year-old child with an EHCP who attends an independent special school and travels there by taxi
The government has pledged that under its transition programme, children with existing education health and care plans (EHCPs) attending special schools provided or funded by local authorities will be able to remain in place “until they finish education”, so they are unlikely to be affected unless their families want to make changes.
Schools will soon face fee limits on what they can charge local authorities, with questions over whether those limits will lead to any providers withdrawing from the sector. The child’s school transport would be provided by their local authority with funding from a separate budget so will be unaffected by the Send changes. For children with EHCPs in mainstream secondary schools in 2029-30, their plans will remain in place until they reach the age of 16.
Summary: No change likely, but impact of fee limits unclear
A five-year-old with an EHCP in year 1 of a mainstream primary school
Children in year 2 or earlier will be affected by the raft of changes being introduced in 2030. The government has said those children’s EHCPs will remain until they transition to secondary school in year 7 in 2029-30 or later, at which point their needs will be reassessed.
Those whose needs require “specialist provision packages” will be reissued new-style EHCPs and will either go to a special school or a specialist unit within a mainstream school, in agreement with their families.
Those whose needs could be met with additional support in mainstream schools, such as speech and language therapy, will transition to an individual support plan (ISP), agreed between their school and family, giving access to therapy commissioned by their school or through local authorities. And the government says that parents of children in mainstream schools transitioning from an EHCP to an ISP as they move from primary to secondary will have priority in applying to the school they prefer.
Being moved to an ISP will also mean that appeals will initially be heard by a school complaints system, rather than the independent tribunals in the ECHP system. That will be viewed by some as a less clear guarantee of legal protection.
Summary: Could face changes and less legal protection
An eight-year-old with special needs who currently does not qualify for an EHCP
About a million state school pupils are categorised as having special educational needs but do not have EHCPs. Support for these children is patchy and erratic as local authority workforces and school budgets have shrunk.
Under the changes, they will have a statutory right to be assessed for an ISP. If they require “targeted” support their school will be able to provide or commission specialist help from the extra funding being provided to schools. If they require a greater level of support, to be called “targeted plus”, they can access a wider range including local authority specialists or therapists as well as alternative provision in specialist units.
The school complaints system will include a Send expert, while the reforms will place a range of new legal responsibilities on schools. All secondary schools will by 2030 have an “inclusion base” for pupils with special needs.
Summary: Improved provision
Children entering the state school system in future
Children born since last September will enter reception classes in 2030, after the bulk of the changes are in place. Those with heightened special needs or disabilities will encounter a familiar landscape, with forecasts of the same proportion of children having EHCPs in 2035 as they did in 2025: roughly 5% of pupils nationally.
But from 2030 EHCPs will be granted on the basis of “specialist provision packages”, standardising the thresholds for support similar to how the NHS uses clinical pathways to manage treatment for different conditions. Families whose children are turned down for specialist provision packages will be able to appeal to a Send tribunal. If their needs are not deemed to require a new-style EHCP, their local authority will be expected to work with their school to ensure support is in place, as detailed in the ISP agreed with their families, which should be simpler to arrange than the current format of EHCPs.
There will be new statutory expectations for schools, guidance on applying reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act, and inclusion bases to provide more specialist support within mainstream schools.
Summary: More options
