England: Phasing out SPED plans; adding more units in mainstream schools

July 6, 2025, i Paper: SEND units in mainstream schools set to replace individual care plans for children 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/content/ar-AA1I8vr5?ocid=sapphireappshare 

Ministers are looking at sweeping changes to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system that would remove the requirement for individual care plans for pupils.

A plan to increase the number of places in SEND units at mainstream schools is expected to eventually phase out the need for individual education, health and care plans (EHCPs) over time.

While officials believe that the reforms will remove the need for parents to go through the often onerous battle of securing EHCPs, individual care plans are likely to remain for those with the most complex needs.

But campaigners have warned they will fight any changes that would restrict or abolish EHCPs, which are legally binding documents that describe a young person’s individual needs and must be obtained before parents can claim council-funded support.

Disability campaign group Let Us Learn Too vowed parents will “not stop fighting” against the reforms and threatened to consider legal challenges “if really necessary”.

The Government believes the current system, which sees many children attending privately run special schools at great expense to local authorities, is delivering poor educational outcomes and not providing value for money.

There is particular concern among ministers that much of the private SEND provision is being run by overseas private equity firms, meaning money is “leeching out of the country”, one official said. . . .

One school system that is being held up as an exemplar is that run by the province of Ontario in Canada, which has better-resourced SEND provision in mainstream schools and only requires individual care plans for pupils with the most complex needs.

While no final decision has been made on England’s SEND reform – and the details are not due until the autumn, when a white paper is due to be published – it is understood that ministers want to “tilt” provision back into mainstream schools, with additional support being funded in state school classrooms.

It comes after England’s schools minister Catherine McKinnell told The i Paper that all teachers should be SEND teachers, in a bid to reassure parents over SEND reforms.

She insisted that the Government was “not looking at taking away any support that’s in place at the moment”.

Instead, officials want to boost in-school provision of SEND support so that, over time, fewer students will require educational health and care plans (EHCPs), with more pupils coming off the plans as they are reassessed.

It will mean the Government effectively creating, in the long term, specialist SEND units in schools that will remove the need for an additional layer of entitlement in the shape of an EHCP, The i Paper was told

In December, the Government announced £740m [$1B] capital investment to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.

The Department for Education (DfE) later said the money would be allocated for 10,000 new SEND places by expanding specialist units in mainstream schools, adapting classrooms to be more inclusive and creating new places in special schools.

As a further signal of intent, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced £760m for “reform of the SEND system” in the spending review last month, with the money coming from the £3.25bn public services “transformation fund”.

It will split over two years, with £547m allocated in 2026/27 and £213m in 2027/28.

The Department for Education has also introduced a new Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (Pins) that will bring specialist health and education professionals, as well as expert parents, into schools to help train staff.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has visited several schools across the country that are able to manage children with an array of additional needs, but without having large numbers of EHCPs.

Officials believe this allows children with additional needs to attend and take part in everyday school life, but with extra support provided on top.

The Government review follows a warning in October from the National Audit Office (NAO) that the SEND system is “financially unsustainable”, with soaring demand for EHCPs, and has left more than two-fifths of local authorities at risk of effective bankruptcy.

The reforms are expected to lead to significant savings for local authorities, which could see their SEND costs rise from £3.3bn this year to £8bn by 2028, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

The latest DfE statistics, published last month, show that the number of children with an EHCP has increased to 638,700 as of January 2025 – 10.8 per cent higher than at January 2024.

The number of EHCPs has increased each year since their introduction in 2014, surging by 80 per cent from 353,995 in 2018/19.

On Monday, Downing Street highlighted that last year (2024/25) saw 24,000 SEND tribunals, a record number for parents and carers, and an increase of 36 per cent. It added that there was a 26 per cent increase in tribunals in the first three months of this year compared to last.

“We are very much aware of the battle that parents face to fight for support,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman said. “That’s why we are listening to them and looking at how we can make this system work better.”

Labour MP Helen Hayes, chair of the Education Select Committee, told The i Paper: “Everyone concerned with SEND provision wants to see the Government’s forthcoming reforms positively transform what is currently a broken system.

“But I would strongly urge the Government to engage openly, transparently and meaningfully with parents, carers and professionals who are desperate for change and whose experience must be central to this process.

“Ad hoc announcements and rumours about what’s to come are only increasing the fear and anxiety of families who are already being let down and won’t help to rebuild trust and confidence in SEND.”

Some parents have vowed to fight any changes that restrict EHCPs.

Hayley Harding, a parent of two SEND children and the founder of Let Us Learn Too, welcomed the Government looking towards the system in Ontario, which she says “puts children and its families at the centre”.

But she said: “Parents will not stop fighting against support being removed until we have nothing else left. We have a rally planned for September and will look at legal challenges if really necessary.

“We’d much rather that Bridget Phillipson and her team just sat down and talked to us about what they are planning, though. So much of this could then be avoided.”

Campaign group Save Our Children’s Rights said: “It’s impossible to know what to make of this until it is laid out in detail. But the idea that ‘units’ could somehow replace or supersede EHCPs and the rights they embody is worrying and wrong.

“The rights that have been a cornerstone of provision for 40 years will remain the only sure way of securing what individual SEND children need in mainstream schools – whether they are in ‘units’ or not.”

Downing Street insisted it would be “totally inaccurate” to suggest children, families, and schools would lose any support under its reform of the SEND system.