Pupils with SEND to have support reviewed after primary, leaked plans suggest

According to leaked government plans, children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England would have their right to help as they transition into secondary school.

Children with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), legal documents laying out what additional assistance they are entitled to after primary school from 2029 as part of a larger system overhaul, will be reassessed.

Through school-led Individual Support Plans (ISP), the BBC understands that this will go along with an expansion of legal rights to include all children with SEND.

The new system is failing children and schools, Paul Whiteman, the National Association of Headteachers' general secretary, told the BBC, "The current system fails children and fails schools.

As MPs return to Parliament in full, the radical proposals could be unveiled in full as early as Monday.

Ministers would lay out their full plans shortly in a new Schools White Paper, according to a Department of Education spokesperson, who said the aim would be to create a fully inclusive system and "an extension of children's rights.

The Liberal Democrats have stated that the system needs a "radical shake-up, not minor updates.

Munira Wilson, the party's education, children, and families spokesperson, said, "Tweaking spreadsheets will not fix a system that is fundamentally broken.

Around 482,000 schoolchildren with EHCPs in England, which set out in detail their individual legal rights to assist.

When considering those up to the age of 25 and those not in school, the number of people with an EHCP in England has risen to almost 639,000.

Each child's individual needs determine the type of assistance that can be provided for in an EHCP. They can include topics such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, access to mental health services, or one-on-one with a teaching assistant.

Many parents are looking to get an EHCP in place before the end of primary school, often after a lengthy and difficult process of petitioning local authorities to challenge local authorities.

Parents often pay for their own evaluation and court fees, and there has been a significant rise in those seeking an EHCP in the last year as fear of reforms has risen.

Children are moving through each stage of education, from primary to secondary, then potentially from secondary to college, according to the BBC, who will be reassessed under the new scheme.

If the government continues to monitor rising costs, a smaller number of people will keep these plans, which include health and social care as well as education needs.

Every child with identified special educational needs, as well as those who do not currently have an EHCP, will have an ISP drawn up by the school, which will have some sort of legal status.

This could involve a further 1. A promise of help to 28 million children is being given as a sign of help, but the exact nature of an ISP's legal obligations is uncertain.

According to reports, children's outcomes will be more focused on outcomes than the services they can expect.

The government is expected to claim that this will mean more children get early assistance without the use of a lengthy assessment process, potentially reducing the need for more intensive assistance later.

Bridget Phillipson has also stated that there must be a more specific set of conditions for children's access to which level of assistance.

Three layers of support are anticipated based on the initial information leaked. They will be branded Targeted, Targeted Plus, and Specialist to fit specific needs.

Although every child with SEND will have an ISP drawn up by their school, others will have more complicated plans that will meet national requirements, such as Specialist Provision Packages.

An expert panel will determine these values.

As set out in these national programmes, An EHCP will guarantee legal rights to education, implying that they will eventually be reserved for children with the most demanding needs.

Ministers have reiterated their desire to push for more children's SEND needs to be addressed in mainstream classrooms in recent months in meetings with parents.

Teachers have been promised more training, as well as the desire for an inclusion unit in every secondary school.

The National Association of Headteachers was looking forward to seeing the full details of the plans, according to Whiteman, and the devil will be in the fine of how the changes were funded and managed.

He said that the government's proposals

have the ability to guarantee that children receive the education they deserve

as they currently understood them, and that they could eliminate some of the pressure from schools and families.

One of the increasing costs of SEND provision has been the increased use of the independent sector to provide specialist school places.

The government is expected to place a cap on what they can charge as part of these wider changes, which is expected to be set at £60,000 a year, according to the New Statesman political magazine.

The government has already confirmed that SEND funds will be transferred to central government after 2028.

The leaked information does not specify how the government intends to plug a financial shortfall, which the Office of Budget Responsibility estimates will be around £6 billion by that time and is likely to rise without significant change.

SEND advocacy organisations are concerned that these changes may have sparked fierce resistance from SEND campaign groups, who believe they are a deterioration of legal rights for children.

It's difficult to assess the full implications of any complicated reform scheme until the details are revealed and laid before Parliament.

It comes at a time when Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's personal political capital with Labour MPs has been weakened, potentially sparking backbench rebellions if their postbags are flooded with letters of protest.

According to a Department of Education spokesperson, "Our Schools White Paper will be an expansion of children's rights, improving children''s lives for the better and ending the one-size-fits-all school system that has held too many students back from the outcomes they deserve.

"It's about building a better system for all families, where care is needed-led, embedded in every neighbourhood, and wrapped around children at the earliest age so they can flourish at a school closer to home.

Since education is a devolving issue, each UK country has its own system for assisting students with additional needs.

Students in Scotland are classified as having additional support needs (ASN), according to a broader definition than those used in England. Only for those with the most complicated needs are legally binding "coordinated support services.

In 2021, Wales introduced major changes for children with additional learning needs (ALN). The majority of individual plans are managed by mainstream schools, with local authorities coordinating plans for those with more complex needs or specialisation.

Northern Ireland also uses the term SEND, but its legally binding individual plans are also identified as "statements of particular educational needs.

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