The Lead Untangles: Will reform of SEND provision just be a cost-cutting measure?

We examine a system in clear need of change - but whether those changes are being done for the right reasons

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. Picture by Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street

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At a glance facts

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said in the Commons this week that she won’t rule out abolishing education, health, and care plans (EHCPs) in the Government’s schools white paper due to be released in the autumn.

An EHCP is a legally binding document outlining tailored support needed by young people and children aged 25 and under to meet their needs in either mainstream or specialist settings.

There have been rapid rises in the number of children with EHCPs, the main needs being autistic spectrum disorder, speech, language and communication needs (including ADHD), and social, emotional and mental health needs. These have fuelled a nearly 140% increase in EHCPs between 2015 and 2024, which is costly – to the point of bankruptcy – for many local councils. In January 2025, there were 638,745 EHCPs in - up 10.8% on the same point last year.

While the SEND system is in need of reform, a fact agreed on by all sides, backbencher MPs, parents, and SEND activists are concerned that the upcoming changes will focus on cutting costs and saving money, rather than on providing effective provision for some of the most vulnerable children in England.

A new campaign group, Save Our Children’s Rights, has since launched, warning that the “basic legal rights of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are under threat.”

“We aren’t going to sit around and wait for it to happen, and if you care about children and young people with SEND, neither should you,” Save Our Children’s Rights’ press release reads.

Although there hasn’t been any confirmation of what the white paper will or won’t include or cut, there is a bubbling risk of another Labour rebellion – following the successful rebellion to the battle fought over cuts to PIP - to fight financial cuts for SEND children.

Context

Last month, Keir Starmer was forced to abandon parts of his welfare bill to avoid a major Labour rebellion from backbenchers, leaving his political authority damaged.

Just as the Government tried to save money by cutting welfare for disabled people, there are now concerns they will attempt to cut costs for another vulnerable group – children with special needs and disabilities.

Some are asking why a Labour Government, traditionally the party most concerned about vulnerable people in society, continue proposing budget cuts instead of taxing the richest in society.

Coming off their win with potential welfare cuts, backbencher MPs have anonymously expressed similar dissatisfaction with potential cuts to the SEND system after Bridget Phillipson refused to confirm that she wouldn’t rule out the use of EHCPs in the upcoming school’s white paper.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Cleo Watson, former special advisor at No. 10, suggested the lack of confirmation could have been a way for the Government to measure MPs and the public’s reactions.)

Spending on SEND education is no doubt expensive, and at the moment, the money being spent on it hasn’t been shown to be widely effective for children, as the it’s been put into a broken, inefficient system.

Parents, campaigners, councils and politicians agree that waiting times for assessments are too long, children’s needs are going unmet in and out of schools, local authorities are buried in debt, and that the huge amounts of funding for SEND is still insufficient to meet demands.

But Save Our Children’s Rights argues the law, including EHCPS, isn’t the problem. Without a legal right to support, there is no statutory certainty that a child will get support in an overstretched and underfunded local authorities and schools. They say EHCPs are one of the only legal rights available to support SEND children.

“Whatever the SEND system’s problems, the answer is not to prioritise the demands of local politicians and bureaucrats over the rights of children and young people,” Save Our Children’s Rights said. “Families cannot afford to lose the precious legal protections they have.”

Findings from the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that when problems are caught early in a child’s education, there was less need for SEND plans in schools. Armed with this knowledge, the Government relaunched Sure Start under the name of Best Start, in hopes of addressing poverty and SEND education.

At The Lead we recently looked deeply into the SEND crisis gripping one local council and spoke to families affected too.

What are EHCPs?

EHCPs were introduced as part of the 2014 Children and Families Act. They place a duty on local authorities and schools that are legally enforceable by the Ministry of Justice’s SEND tribunal.

They are only provided if relevant professionals identify that the needs and provisions needed by the child can’t be met without an EHCP. Once an EHCP is created, the child’s local council and school must stick to the plan outlined.

In recent years, the number of plans has been increasing because in an unreliable and under-resourced school system, they are often the only chance families have of getting the support their kids need. Just under 640,000 children have EHCPs, according to latest figures.

The vast majority of requests for EHCPs are made by schools and colleges, rather than “pushy parents.”

Despite being legally enforceable, there are children and young people who don’t get what is set out in their plans due to lack of accountability, according to campaigners.

The Government’s strategic advisor on SEND, Dame Christine Lenehan, said the Government is considering restricting EHCPs to children in specialist schools, or to those who need support from the NHS and social care.

Instead of relying on and funding EHCPs for children with SEND in mainstream schools, Ministers have said they want to build greater inclusion in mainstream settings for SEND children.

While SEND campaigners welcome better support for SEND students in mainstream settings, they worry that until that materialises, EHCPs are still necessary.

“Increased funding for special needs education and fresh approaches could mean SEND provision in schools eventually improves. In the future, hopefully, some families will feel they can get what their child needs without an EHCP. But any such improvements will take a long time to materialise, so the prospect of kids’ rights being taken away on the vague promise of upgrades to the SEND system is unthinkable.”

What the left is saying

“We won’t shy away from what’s difficult and long term in favour of what’s quick and easy.” Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education.

“We won’t be removing any existing effective support.” Catherine McKinnell, Minister for School Standards.

“I think parents would agree that if we had a well-functioning system, if we had that good early support, then you wouldn’t need a complex legal process to access an education. Even when families secure an EHCP, it doesn’t necessarily deliver the education that’s been identified. We’re listening to parents. We’re working on a new system. It’s not fixed yet.” Catherine McKinnell, School Standards Minister.

"This is the same issue as with winter fuel and welfare - there's too much of a focus on making the numbers work on a spreadsheet without thinking about the impact on people." Labour backbencher speaking to ITV.

"We cannot afford a repeat of welfare reform. The current SEND system is not working for children and parents and is completely unaffordable. So Labour is doing the right thing, to reform it. The Tories left us between a rock and a hard place with their SEND reforms.” Labour MP for PoliticsHome

“We inherited a system which was failing families and vulnerable children so we are listening carefully to what experts, parents, and others have to tell us. We know it’s broken and that’s why we are working hard to make sure the system is fixed for the future. In my brief, it’s important that early identification and intervention on SEND will make a big difference. The system isn’t working at the moment. Our priority is to get it right at the right place for every child. We are listening carefully to what parents say to make sure we do everything we possibly can to deliver the right support at the right place.” Stephen Morgan, Minister for Early Education

What the right is saying

“I think we are massively over diagnosing those with mental illness problems, those with other general behavioural disabilities, and I think we are creating a class of victims in Britain who will struggle ever to get out of it. That’s not good for them and it’s not good for us.” Nigel Farage.

“I hold my hand up as a Conservative member of Parliament saying my government didn't do enough on this. Yes, we were fighting a global pandemic, and a cost-of-living crisis, and all the rest of it, but actually, the inability for politicians to step in when those most in need needed our support, I think is something we should hang our heads in shame and apologise for. “I don’t think money is a wasted solution.” Shadow Education Minister Gagan Mohindra

“I didn't hear anything in your opening introduction that gave me the slightest clue as to how you're going to fundamentally address what we all agree is currently an unsustainable situation.” Sir James Cleverly

“When it comes to Send in particular, we’ve raised the funding by about 60% overall over this Parliament. What we’ve talked about in the manifesto is to open many more Send free schools, which is in the manifesto and funded, because we know that provision needs to increase, and the manifesto makes specific provision for that." Rishi Sunak

What happens next?

Save Our Children’s Rights are calling for a commitment that reform of the system won’t include any dilution of the law, that their plans for inclusive mainstream education will exist within the current legal framework, and that their won’t be a rollback of the current legal rights of children and young people with SEND.

Any plans for SEND won’t be published until the autumn as part of a new Schools White Paper.

In the meantime, we know that Bridget Phillipson is meeting with Labour MPs about SEND to avoid a repeat rebellion.

About The Lead Untangles: In an era where misinformation is actively and deliberately used by elected politicians and where advocates and opposers of beliefs state their point of view as fact, sometimes the most useful tool reporters have is to help readers make sense of the world.

The Lead Untangles is delivered each Friday by The Lead and focuses on a different complex, divisive issue with each edition. Is there something you’d like us to untangle, email ed@thelead.uk

About the author: Lauren Crosby Medlicott is a freelance journalist who focuses on features about social justice and human rights.