(England) Councils see 50% increase in requests for SPED plans; parents worried about reform cuts

Sept 13, 2025, The iPaper:  The eight areas where SEND children face even longer delays for help

Councils have seen requests for education, health and care plans rise by up to 50 per cent from parents 'anxious' over Labour’s major SEND reforms

“Anxious” families are racing to secure funded support for their children with special educational needs and disabilities ahead of Labour reforms.

Councils have seen requests for education, health and care plans (EHCPs) – legal documents that describe children’s additional needs and unlock extra funding – rise by up to 49 per cent, The i Paper can reveal.

The Treasury was briefed by education sector figures this summer about the special needs reforms fuelling a rise in EHCPs that was bigger than expected, this newspaper understands.

Under the reforms, EHCPs will be reserved only for children with the most complex needs from 2030.

But youngsters who already have a plan in place before 2030 will be able to keep them until they are reassessed at either the end of primary or secondary school.

The County Councils Network is now warning rising costs from the “surge of EHCPs that many councils have seen” could fuel council tax rises or further cuts to services – unless additional funding is secured.

The areas with ‘surging’ SEND requests

A memo given to the Treasury, seen by The i Paper, included data from five councils – four of which previously received multimillion-pound government bailouts to help fund their special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services.

In the London Borough of Haringey, EHCP assessment requests rose by 49 per cent between December last year and January 2026, compared with the same period the previous year. . . .

Haringey Council agreed a £30m [$41M] government bailout in 2023 under the “Safety Valve” programme in which 38 areas got extra cash to cut ballooning SEND deficits.

A Haringey Council spokesperson said they continue to monitor the volume of requests, but the increase earlier this year has not been sustained.

Surrey County Council said it received a record 413 requests in March this year alone, up 13 per cent on March last year, when 366 requests were made. The local authority agreed a £100m [$135M] bailout in 2022.

Wokingham Borough Council’s assessment requests jumped by 13 per cent from January to March this year, compared with the same period in 2025.

The local authority, which agreed a £20m [$27M] government bailout in 2023, had previously reported a 13 per cent drop in requests in 2025.

Parent ‘anxiety’ over reforms

Prue Bray, the Wokingham’s deputy leader, said: “The reason for this [rise] is anxiety amongst parents and families about the Government’s SEND reform plans, which aim to educate more children with additional needs in mainstream schools with appropriate support. . . .

The London Borough of Hillingdon, which agreed a bailout of £26m [$35M] in 2022, reported an 8 per cent rise in EHCPs issued in 2025-26, reversing a decline it had reported the previous year.

In Blackburn with Darwen, EHCP needs assessments rose 13 per cent in the year to March, according to the memo given to the Treasury.

SEND rises ‘could fuel council tax hikes’

Despite the bailout, Bray said funding in Wokingham “remains an issue” and they are running a “significant deficit” on SEND spending.

Councils have submitted local SEND reform plans to the Government which, if approved in the next few weeks, will mean that 90 per cent of their deficits until April 2026 will be paid off. Current deficits total more than £5bn [$7B].

But Bill Revans, SEND spokesperson for the County Councils Network and leader of Somerset Council, said local authorities will have to pick up the tab for increased costs to meet rising demand for support after April.

And if EHCP applications continue to rise at the current rate, he said councils’ SEND deficits would surge back to their current levels as soon as next year.

“The perception amongst some parents, understandably, is that their children might be more favourably treated under the current system rather than the proposed system in the White Paper,” Revans said.

“If they were considering applying for an EHCP, that brings forward that application which then puts unexpected and additional pressure onto council resources.”

Any rises in costs for councils would likely fuel council tax rises and cuts to services, the County Councils Network warned.

Three more councils that received SEND bailouts told The i Paper demand was rising in their areas. . . .

Councillor Jon Hubbard, the cabinet member for SEND at Wiltshire Council, said forecasts have been revised upwards to reflect growing requests, which have been accompanied by a rise in EHCPs being agreed.

Medway Council increased its forecasts in April for the number of EHCPs it expects to be granted.

Blackpool had an 8 per cent increase in requests in April to June 2026, compared with the previous year. A council spokesperson said it is seeing “some evidence of parents and professionals seeking to ‘future-proof’ support arrangements”, with more applications for two-year-old children.

‘Support waiting lists seem never ending’

The rise is putting further pressure on already stretched services.

Some parents who have their requests refused are already waiting until March 2028 for a tribunal hearing due to a large backlog of cases, Blackpool Council said.

Dr Elizabeth Rhodes, national lead for student inclusion at Oasis Community Learning which runs 58 schools, said some of their pupils are waiting as long as two years for their EHCPs to be processed.

“We are seeing a lot of our schools really struggling to support children whose assessments have been delayed… on waiting lists that seem to never end,” she said. . . .

Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, a trade body representing academies, said most plan to open or expand SEND resource bases in their schools over the next year to “help meet this growing need”.

But “this is really challenging when budgets are being stretched just to provide routine teaching”, she added.

Wokingham is building more SEND units and planning two new special schools to help meet demand.

Ashlawn School in Rugby, Warwickshire, is setting up specialist SEND provision, having outlined plans for support aimed at children with autism. . . .