(England) Fewer children to get SPED plans by 2035
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Bridget Phillipson has presented sweeping plans to overhaul special educational needs provision in England, with a package of measures designed to make the system less reliant on cash-strapped councils and give schools greater responsibility.
The education secretary’s long-awaited Send proposals will result in hundreds of thousands fewer students getting education, health and care plans (EHCPs) than would otherwise have been the case.
EHCPs are legal documents that protect the rights of children with special needs, the numbers of which have more than doubled since being introduced in 2014.
Instead of EHCPs, millions of pupils will be given individual support plans (ISPs), which will be agreed between parents and schools but will not be subject to independent legal appeal.
The changes are designed to curb the rapid rise in Send spending, which has left councils facing a projected £6bn [$8B] hole in their finances in two years’ time. But they are not expected to bring spending below current levels for almost 10 years.
The proposed overhaul was welcomed on Monday by local authorities but criticised by one teaching union, which said it would pile further pressure on teachers.
Labour MPs, many of whom have been tipped to rebel over the plans when they come to a vote at some point in the next two years, gave a cautious welcome though several said they were concerned about particular elements.
Phillipson said in a speech in Peterborough: “I’ve spent a lot of time speaking with parents, with young people and with those who support children to understand what needs to change.
“What I’ve heard time and again is that increasingly, EHCPs have become the only way to get what your child needs … and we have to change that.”
She added: “These kinds of chances to deliver a better system for children, they don’t come along very often, and I’m determined that we make this a better system of support.”
Helen Hayes, the Labour chair of the education select committee, whose opinion is being carefully watched as a sign of backbench opinion, refused to give the measures her wholehearted support, saying she needed more time to look at them.
She said: “Parents of children with Send are already living with unbearable anxiety and fear about the future for their children. They will need reassurance that the changes that are proposed to EHCPs will still mean that their child will receive the right support for them, and that this support will be properly accountable. . . .
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