Send support for schoolchildren in England to be given £4bn overhaul | Special educational needs

Ministers will unveil a “generational” overhaul of special educational needs and disability (Send) support, pledge £4bn to transform services in schools in England and warn councils they could lose control of Send services if they fail to meet their statutory duties.

The reforms are expected to be a major policy moment for Keir Starmer and education secretary Bridget Phillipson, who delayed the changes last autumn after a fierce backlash from MPs and parents.

Writing for the Guardian, Phillipson said it would be “improved support, not removal of support” and said it was a once-in-a-generation moment “defining the future of education”.

The refurbishment will bring significant extra investment into specific needs provision; This is welcome news as many feared the overhaul would be an exercise in cuts, given the rising costs of services.

Phillipson will pledge billions of pounds of investment, including tailored specialist support in all mainstream schools and 60,000 additional special needs school places.

Long-delayed proposals to transform Send in schools in England have resulted in a major listening drive led by Phillipson to ease his dealings with parents and MPs, many of whom have previously said they were prepared to rebel against the proposals.

MPs wary of the reforms told the Guardian they were optimistic that concerns had been taken into account and that the vast majority of cases, particularly poor children, would receive better services, but warned it would cast doubt on the details yet to emerge in the full technical report.

The prime minister, who backed the reforms, said he was closely observing interactions with parents. “Getting the right support should never be a struggle; it’s an imperative,” Starmer said.

“This means there will no longer be a ‘one size fits all’ system that only caters to children who fit the mould. Instead, families will receive tailored support on their doorstep, tailored to their child’s individual needs.”

Under the changes, schools will receive additional funding for special support for anyone with special needs, but there will be stricter criteria for children with an education, health and care plan (EHCP), which entitles children with Send to legal support.

These will now be reserved for children with the most severe and complex needs, but new plans for lower tier children will still provide additional support and legal rights. Parents have expressed concern that these rights will be reviewed when their children reach secondary school.

Parents will no longer be given a free choice of which school to send their children to, and will instead be given a list of possibilities, although appeals will be allowed and the Sending tribunal may ask local authorities to reconsider the matter.

The change comes amid growing parental distrust of a system where there is record demand for special needs provision and where families have won almost all of their Send court appeals, which now go to full hearings.

Government sources said there would be new obligations for councils to meet their statutory duties towards students with special needs; More than half of EHCPs are still issued outside the 20-week statutory period.

“The white paper will warn councils of not fulfilling their statutory duties and they will be stripped of their powers to run Dispatch services,” a government source said.

The schools white paper will on Monday propose £4bn over three years to improve attendance in every mainstream school; The government will say it responds directly to parents’ concerns that Send support was only provided after years of fighting for it.

Early years settings, schools and colleges will receive £1.6 billion in direct funding over three years, which can be spent on services such as small group language support.

An additional £1.8 billion will be available to create a “specialists on hand” service provided by local authorities to fund additional Send teachers and speech and language therapists who can be accessed whether or not children have an EHCP.

There will also be more funding to meet high needs, additional special needs training for every teacher and the creation of 60,000 extra special school places; The Department for Education said it would end the “postcode lottery” and reduce the cost of private schools and long-distance transport.

In practice, funding is likely to be the equivalent of around £20,000-40,000 per year for primary schools and around £50,000-70,000 for secondary schools.

Once the reforms are fully implemented, the average secondary school will receive more than 160 days of additional specialist time each year

Schools will also need to have a “participation base”, provided through the government’s previously announced £3.7bn capital investment in schools.

Phillipson told the BBC on Sunday: “We’re not going to have effective support from children and what I’m going to set out tomorrow is a very careful ten-year transition from the system we have, which everyone agrees doesn’t work.”

“There will be a legal basis and that will be determined. It will mean that there are clear pathways and clear principles set out in law to guide all of this.”

Aid agencies and think tanks cautiously praised the reforms; but many said they believed the reforms would fail unless significant efforts were made to recruit and retain staff, and because local authorities were already routinely failing to meet their existing obligations.

Jo Hutchinson, director of the Education Policy Institute Send, said that “unless there are significant increases in the number of educational places funded each year, there will not be enough educational psychologists to staff these services”.

Nick Harrison, chief executive of social mobility charity Sutton Trust, said the changes would benefit poor families who do not have the resources to fight for EHCPs.

“These ambitious reforms to the sending system are an important step in the right direction. It is crucial that they overcome the double disadvantage that Send’s people from poorer backgrounds face today,” he said.

“These reforms will stand or fall depending on whether services for students without EHCP have sufficient funding to succeed in mainstream schools and ultimately serve them better than the status quo.”

But Madeleine Cassidy, chief executive of Send legal charity IPSEA, said the announcements “do not yet address the fundamental issue of how to address unlawful decision-making by public bodies and strengthen accountability”.

“At this stage, it also remains unclear whether these reforms will strengthen, maintain or inadvertently limit the existing legal rights of children and young people from Send.”

Learning disability charity Mencap, which has been highly critical of welfare reforms, also said there were reasons for optimism.

“The move to make mainstream schools more inclusive is welcome news,” he said. “Families must ensure their children’s needs are identified early and that they are provided with the right help promptly, backed by fully funded services and legislated rights to get the job done.”

Phillipson said in the Guardian article that he was heeding calls for more funding to improve the system. “Many people, including this newspaper, have said the only way to achieve this is through significant new investment. That’s exactly what we’re doing,” he said.

But he said reform was needed as well as additional investment. “This is a reformist government: it is fixing, brick by brick, the crises our predecessors left behind. It’s hard to think of anything bigger than that.”

“Any parent or teacher who has experienced the Send system will tell you that change is the right thing. Inaction, or action that falls short of real change, is a choice in itself, because Send children have been let down time and time again over the last 10 years and more. Now is the time to turn this around.”

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the region was prepared to be an early adopter of the reforms and had made an offer to the government.

“The current Send system is not working well enough for anyone. This is the unanimous conclusion of the Greater Manchester Send board, which unites parents and professionals,” he said.

“If an area is prepared to go first and share what we’ve learned, it can help increase confidence in the changes. We wouldn’t do this if we thought this reform was only about service and support cuts and reductions.”

“On the contrary, we believe that a less adversarial and more preventive approach, with children and parents at the heart of it all, is achievable and that Greater Manchester is uniquely placed to lead this.”