Spotlight on SEND

The government has unveiled dramatic proposals to reform the education of children with special educational needs in England. Journalist Kaye McIntosh asks if this will help or hinder young people, and how CPs can support families.

A broken system. Parents having to fight for years to get the right school for their child. Too many children out of school
altogether; 22% of those out of education have some form of special educational need (Children’s Commissioner (CC), 2024a and 2024b). Education for the 1.7 million children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England has become a battleground (Department for Education (DfE), 2025).

The government wants to change that. At the heart of its reforms is a plan to steer children with SEND in England away from specialist schools and back into mainstream settings. This is reversing government policy for more than a decade. The government says it will offer more support and engagement.

Launching the reforms, Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson said: ‘The SEND system, designed 10 years ago for a small number of children, is now broken. Parents end up fighting tooth and nail for entitlements on paper that don’t see them getting additional support. Children’s education and lives have suffered.’

The question is, can the government truly tackle the issues to win the battle for children and families and take the ‘education system into the 2030s and beyond’? (DfE, 2026a).

LACK OF SUPPORT

Health visitor Louise Walker* says SEND families and the health professions that support them are under huge strain: ‘A family with no identified risk factors will often see a HV once out of their five contacts – and that’s usually for the new-birth visit.

‘Needs, including SEND, aren’t picked up until the child starts school and the process continues in the same vein with school nursing. Intervention only happens after the problem has manifested.’ Referral thresholds are high, she adds. That means the role of the HV in identifying SEND is challenged ‘to the detriment of both the child and the reputation of the profession, which very much wants to do a robust job’.

Instead, ‘kids pick their way through life, often diagnosed with a variety of labels – from autistic to ADHD, for example –
which they may or may not have been so challenged by if more assessment, early intervention and support was available.
HVs and parents want robust assessment and support, not just box-ticking’.

‘More than a third [37%] of parents have been forced to give up work to fight for the support to which their children are legally
entitled,’ highlights Jane Harris, vice-chair of the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP). Its research also showed ‘a quarter
of parents do not feel their child is safe in their nursery, school or college because of lack of support, and 40% feel their child
does not receive the support needed to reach their potential.’

The government’s white paper outlining the SEND reforms, Every child achieving and thriving (DfE, 2026a), promises to change all
this, and more.

Around 1.7 Million children in England have SEND – roughly 1 in 5 children (DfE, 2025)
22% of children who are out of education have some form of special educational needs (CC, 2024a)

THE NEW PLAN

The new SEND system, promises the government, will move from diagnosis-led to needs-led, so children get help when they need it, rather than waiting for a label. ‘We are equipping mainstream schools, and to enable all children to achieve and thrive in education, alongside securing highquality specialist provision for children with complex needs who need a tailored educational experience’, the proposals read (DfE, 2026a).

The white paper promises the following:

• It will be a legal requirement for schools to create individual support plans (ISPs) for all children with SEND
• Education, health and care plans (EHCPs) will be retained for children with the most severe needs
• Investment in services, including speech and language therapy and small group teaching
• Teachers, early years and support staff will be trained to meet the needs of children with SEND
• Every secondary school will have an inclusion base to deliver additional support and small group work
• A £1.6bn inclusion fund to deliver programmes such as speech and language support.

Support will be offered at different levels:

• Universal – for all pupils. High-quality teaching, a safe environment and early identification of needs.
• Targeted – help, such as speech and language support, in small groups or assistance with managing sensory needs.
• Targeted plus – specialist support from professionals, such as speech and language therapists and educational psychologists. Delivered with an Experts at Hand scheme that brings specialists into schools.
• Specialist – children with complex needs will get a specialist provision package in a mainstream or specialist setting if needed. Both the targeted levels will rely on ISPs, setting out a child’s needs and the interventions required to meet them

‘THERE ISN’T MUCH DETAIL ON HOW COMPLEX NEEDS WILL BE DEFINED. THIS EFFECTS THE LEVELS OF SUPPORT THAT CHILDREN WILL BE ABLE TO GET AND HOW PARENTS CAN APPEAL THE DECISIONS’

EXPERT TAKE

Disability charity Sense is hopeful about the government’s proposals in England. ‘We welcome the increase in funding from government and the willingness to address the challenges in the SEND system that have been prevalent for so long,’ says
policy manager Amelia Canning. Sense also welcomes new proposals such as guaranteed support for all children and the
pledge of a dedicated SEND practitioner in every Best Start Family Hub.

Much is unclear, however, says Amelia. ‘There isn’t much detail on how complex needs will be defined. This affects the levels
of support that children will be able to get and how parents can appeal the decisions that have been made.’ The government promises that children under five with complex needs will have ‘a fast-track route to support’(DfE 2026a). Again, it’s not clear how that will work, Amelia adds.

Joey Nettleton Burrows, policy manager at the National Autistic Society (NAS), has concerns about the lack of training for
students on autism. ‘Only 14% of secondary school teachers have had more than half a day’s training on autism,’ says Joey. ‘The
training offer is limited. Every teacher will get training on SEND, but we think there needs to be specific training on autism.

‘The vast majority of teachers will say they know how to support an autistic child. [Yet] the vast majority of autistic children will say
their teachers don’t know how to support them.’ It comes down to teachers lacking the “understanding” of what they need to do, because there’s a lack of training’.

Jane says: ‘One of the DCP’s red lines is the restriction of rights for children and young people. Therefore we are concerned
that the tightening of EHCP eligibility would mean a dilution of delivery and legal safety nets for children.’ Only children with the most complex needs will have an EHCP. Instead, schools, nurseries and colleges will have a new legal obligation to create, maintain and
annually review a digital ISP for every child with SEND, providing a ‘flexible’ plan detailing daily support.

Reaction to the changes in the world of education has been mostly positive, but there is also a feeling that it’s too early to tell, with many unanswered questions.

Who needs support?
⅓ The most common type of need among pupils with an EHC plan is autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)
⅕ have a primary need of speech, language and communication
482,640 pupils in England have EHC plans – 5.3% of pupils, up from 4.8% in 2024
Around 25% the most common type of need among pupils with SEND support are speech, language and communication
23.6% have social, emotional and mental health needs
14.4% have a moderate learning difficulty

Department for Education, 2026b

DO THE NUMBERS ADD UP?

Investment in the proposed SEND reforms in England is due to start in the current financial year and is set to run over
three years. There is a £1.6bn inclusive mainstream fund for schools, colleges and early years. A further £1.8bn will support
Experts at Hand, bringing specialists, such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists, into schools.

A SEND training programme for teachers and early years professionals will be funded by more than £200m, and there will be
capital investment of £3.7bn from 2025-30 to create 60,000 new specialist places and inclusion bases in schools. The bases can be
used for teaching an adapted curriculum or for one-to-one care.

Despite these numbers, Joey from the NAS foresees potential issues. ‘The big concern we have is workforce funding. The NEU [National Education Union] has said that extra inclusion grant investment will only equate to a part-time teaching assistant for the average primary school. ‘Unless you’re going to do a strong workforce plan and invest heavily in workforce improvement and retention, to make sure teachers have the time and capacity to support children, these reforms are not going to work.’

CPHVA Executive chair Janet Taylor fears that the promised improvements will be undermined by shortages of HVs and school
nurses (SNs), highlighting that there’s already ‘a lack of investment in HVs and SNs. HVs are there from antenatal right
through the early years,’ she says. ‘People really need that support, but they are not getting the early intervention because HVs
have huge caseloads.’

The extra money pledged in the reforms ‘needs to be used very wisely’, continues Janet. ‘HVs in England would say we need
more specialist services. We need a quicker route. We need to get children diagnosed as early as possible.’

What is SEND?
A young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) might need extra support to meet their social, emotional and mental health, communication and interaction, cognition and learning needs, or/and physical and sensory needs.
SEND can affect:
– behaviour or ability to socialise (such as autistic spectrum disorders [ASD])
– reading and writing (such as dyslexia, visual impairment)
– ability to understand (such as dyscalculia)
– concentration levels (such as ADHD, ASD) physical ability (such as dyspraxia, sensory disorders – e.g. hearing impairment)

Sense, 2026; Gov.uk, 2026

FAMILY IMPACT

‘Some families welcome the focus on reforming the system, as it’s so needed,’ says Amelia, of the surveys carried out
by Sense.

She also welcomes the promise to offer support based on needs, rather than waiting for a formal diagnosis. ‘At the moment, a lot of support is behind the barrier of diagnosis. Families are often waiting for a long time to get that support, especially in education, because they might not have a diagnosis, or they might be facing long waiting lists for assessments.’

But, Amelia adds, many families ‘are concerned about where their child will fit into the new tier system’, where support will be offered at four levels (see The new plan, above). ‘There are concerns about the legal backing, and whether they will be able to appeal decisions about the support they have been offered, and whether routes for legal challenge are as robust as previously.’

There were 25,000 registered SEND appeals last year, an increase of 18% on the previous year – and 99% rule in favour of
parents (Ministry of Justice, 2025). ISPs will not carry the same right to go to a SEND tribunal as EHCPs. Tribunals
will also lose the power to name the specific school the child must attend. Joey says this ‘will mean the tribunal
can only rule that the council has to reconsider the schools offered’.

He adds: ‘A lot of it is so unclear, especially around EHCPs and specialist packages. No one knows what these specialist
provision packages are or how they work.’ The government’s consultation paper says packages for those with
the most complex needs will set out exactly what interventions, resources and standards are required, and guide
what is included in an EHCP’ (DfE, 2026a).

SEND around the UK

Wales The new English system has echoes of the Welsh model. Children and young people with additional learning needs (ALN) receive extra support through an individual development plan (IDP), for which schools are responsible.

In 2024, the Welsh parliament’s education committee found that providing school-maintained IDPs increased workload and schools did not have sufficient resources to put in place targeted provision for every child with ALN (Welsh Parliament,2024). The number of children identified as having ALN had fallen by almost a third, despite the definition not changing.

Scotland Councils must identify, meet and keep under review the needs of pupils with additional support needs. Parents have rights to mediation, dispute resolution and to go to tribunals for matters concerned with a coordinated support plan.

Northern Ireland The SEN Early Years Inclusion Service supports pre-school children with SEN, and provides training for leadership and early years practitioners. Older children can get help via individual education plans, describing their needs and targets for progress. All children with SEN are recorded on the school’s SEN register under one of five levels of support. Only the school
can decide if a child should be placed on the SEN register

THE CP ROLE AND FUTURE

The SEND white paper mentions HVs only twice – once in relation to trained SEND practitioners in family hubs, who will ‘support
vital join-up between early years settings, HVs and SEND teams’ and once in relation to ‘a new duty on councils to notify
schools, HVs and GPs that a child is in temporary accommodation’. SNs are mentioned once, in a case study.

So what is the role for community health professionals? ‘The place of HVs and SNs in these reforms is unclear,’ says Joey. ‘We need to see a lot about the health element with ISPs.’People need clarity about which support packages for EHCPs will work, and shortages of qualified professionals could undermine the reforms, says Amelia: ‘We’re calling on the government to create a workforce strategy for all the professionals supporting disabled children with complex needs. They need to map the need and map what’s available. We are just not sure if the funding could be enough.’

The focus on more joined-up working between health and education is an element of the reforms that Amelia values, however: ‘The role of SNs and HVs is so important in supporting disabled [and all] children with complex needs. The increase in government
funding is welcome. We know that there are workforce challenges. Hopefully the investment in support will make that a little bit easier.’

She adds: ‘HVs have a really important role within that early years offer. We hope they will be able to engage with the Best
Start Family Hubs to provide support. We imagine that HVs would have a really important role in helping to deliver the
fast track to specialist support.’

Amelia’s hope is that the training offered ‘and the new Experts at Hand will be able to support that workforce’. By the time this issue of Community Practitioner is published, a consultation on the proposed SEND reforms will have closed. The reforms are set to start in 2026/27, with full implementation from 2028/29 onwards. Health professionals, parents and the education world will be watching carefully to see whether the reforms deliver the promised improvements, and whether, ultimately, they will allow all children to achieve their potential.

*Name has been changed

Image: ISTOCK

REFERENCES

Children’s Commisioner. (2024a) Children Missing Education: The Unrolled Story. See: www.assets.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wpuploads/2024/09/Children-Missing-Education-The-Unrolled-Story.pdf (accessed 29 April 2026).

Children’s Commisioner. (2024b) New statistics show a huge increase in the number of children completely missing education. See: childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/news-and-blogs/shocking-new-statistics-show-a-huge-increase-in-the-number-of-children-completely-missing-education (accessed 29 April 2026).

Department for Education (DfE). (2025) Special educational needs in England. See: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england/2024-25 (accessed 29 April 2026).

Department for Education (DfE). (2026a) Every Child Achieving and Thriving. See: www.assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69972c02bfdab2546272c007/Every_child_achieving_and_thriving_print_ready_version.pdf (accessed 29 April 2026).

Department for Education (DfE). (2026b) Special educational needs in England. See:

 https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england/2024-25#section-primary-type-of-need (accessed 29 April 2026)

Gov.uk. (2026) Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). See: gov.uk/children-with-special-educational-needs (accessed 29 April 2026).

Ministry of Justice. (2025) Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2025. See: gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2025/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2025 (accessed 29 April 2026).

Sense. (2026) What is SEND? See: sense.org.uk/information-and-advice/life-stages/childhood-and-school/send/what-is-send (accessed 29 April 2026).

Welsh Parliament Children, Young People and Education Committee. (2024) Implementation of education reforms: Interim Report. See: www.senedd.wales/media/c2sjtv5b/cr-ld16588-e.pdf (accessed 29 April 2026).