England: "Hundreds of thousands of children...face losing legal right to [SPED] support"

May 24, 2025, Times: Ministers ‘to scrap special-needs plans’ in cost-saving measure

Ending support plans for children with disabilities could leave some of the 570,000 affected children without vital help, campaigners warn

Hundreds of thousands of children with special needs face losing the legal right to extra support in schools under plans being considered by ministers.

The number of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) has increased by 140 per cent in the past decade, putting immense financial strain on councils.

Every EHCP, previously called statements, describes a child’s special needs and the tailored support they require in school. They are issued by councils, which are then legally bound to pay for the additional help, often including one-to-one sessions with specialists.

Ministers believe the growth in the number of plans is unsustainable and want to reserve access to only those with “very high and complex needs”, a government source said.

Taxpayer funding for special-needs education is around £11 billion [$15B] and is projected to grow by another £2 billion [$2.7B] in the next two years.

More than 570,000 children currently have a plan, with 185,000 of those in special schools.

The rise in pupils with EHCPs has been driven by three types of needs in particular: autism spectrum disorder; social, emotional, and mental health needs, including ADHD; and speech, language and communication needs.

The 78,000 children with education plans primarily due to speech and language issues are expected to be particularly affected by the changes.

“For the people who just need speech and language therapists, they won’t need the EHCPs because we’ll have that provided in schools,” the source said.

Concerns are growing among parents and experts that the government may scrap the EHCP system entirely.

Dame Christine Lenehan, the government’s strategic adviser on special education needs and disabilities (SEND), told Schools Week that the current EHCP framework was “not fit for purpose” and was likely to be overhauled.

Mainstream schools are expected to receive extra funding to address the gaps in special needs provision created by the changes.

The overhaul will require a bill to be passed in parliament, with a white paper outlining the reforms expected to be published this spring.

Ministers are expected to present the changes as reform of a broken system where the families of children with SEND face burdensome bureaucracy and long delays.

Around half of families do not receive care plans within the statutory 20-week deadline, with tens of thousands of children still waiting for support.

However, there are also likely to be significant cost savings for the government.

The cost of a single spot for a child with an education plan in a state special school is £25,000 [$34K] a year, compared with £8,200 [$11K] for mainstream state school.

A report by MPs on the public accounts committee found that as of June 2024, more than 40,000 children had been waiting longer than 12 weeks for speech and language therapy. It concluded that delays in accessing health expertise posed a “significant barrier in a struggling system”.

Last Friday, the government announced that up to 20,000 more children would benefit from targeted support to overcome speech and language challenges.

A £3.4 million [$4.6M] programme will send specialist teams into primary schools and early-years settings to identify and respond to speech and language needs, with a focus on children with SEND.

It is hoped that a raft of similar programmes will allow children to be weaned off the education plans, but experts warned that the reforms risked failure without adequate funding.

Jane Harris, chief executive of the charity Speech and Language UK, said: “Children with speech and language challenges are in every classroom and many need adapted teaching throughout the school day.

“While we would welcome every school having access to a speech and language therapist — how would the huge number required be recruited and trained to work with the hundreds of thousands of children who need support? So we need to know how the government plans to truly help these children.”

Anna Bird, chief executive of the charity Contact, said that scrapping EHCPs “makes no sense” and risked leaving vulnerable children without vital support.

Bird warned that inadequate support would lead to rising school absences, costly specialist placements and poor outcomes such as exclusion or dropping out of education.

“The government is moving away from more than 40 years of consensus about the need for legal guarantees to ensure disabled children can take part in school life,” Bird said. “This will be devastating news for parents.” . . .

A Department for Education spokesman said: “This government is actively working with parents and experts on the solutions, including more early intervention to prevent needs from escalating and £740 million to encourage councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.

“Any changes we make will improve support for children and parents, stop parents from having to fight for support, and protect provision currently in place.”