Government SEND Reform Response Published: What It Means for Families

For parents, carers, children and young people across England, this matters because it talks about the future of SEND support, EHCPs, mainstream inclusion, specialist places, school accountability, health involvement, and how families are meant to get help without having to fight every step of the way. At Bright Steps, we welcome any serious attempt to improve SEND support, but we also believe families need more than promises, phrases and future plans. They need real help, real accountability and real change in schools, local authorities and health services. The Government admits the SEND system is failing One of the most important parts of the response is that the Government openly recognises that the current SEND system is not working. Families have been saying this for years. Parents are exhausted from chasing schools, waiting months or years for assessments, fighting for EHCPs, being ignored by local authorities, and watching their children struggle, mask, regress, become anxious, miss school or lose confidence. The response says families have told the Government they often do not feel listened to and want to be recognised as experts on their own children. That point matters. Parents are not being difficult when they raise concerns. They are usually the people holding the whole thing together. What reforms are being proposed? The Government’s response focuses on five main principles: Early support Local support Fair support Effective support Shared responsibility between education, health, care, families and services On paper, this sounds positive. The idea is that children should get support earlier, closer to home, without needing families to fight through endless bureaucracy. The response talks about making mainstream schools more inclusive, improving access to specialist advice, increasing staff training, strengthening accountability, and creating clearer national expectations around what SEND support should look like. But the key question for families is simple: Will this actually change what happens to children in classrooms, meetings, referrals and EHCP processes? That is where the real test will be. National Inclusion Standards A major part of the response is the plan for National Inclusion Standards. These are meant to set out what good SEND support should look like across early years, schools, colleges and post-16 settings. The idea is that schools should have clearer expectations around how they identify needs, what support they should provide, and what reasonable adjustments should look like. This could help families if it creates a proper national baseline, because at the moment SEND support can feel like a postcode lottery. One school may offer strong support, while another may say they “cannot meet need” or do very little until a child reaches crisis point. However, standards only matter if they are enforceable. Parents do not just need schools to “have regard to” guidance. They need schools and local authorities to actually deliver support, and there must be consequences when they do not. Individual Support Plans The Government response also talks about Individual Support Plans, sometimes called ISPs. These would be used for children and young people receiving targeted or specialist support. They are meant to set out the child’s needs and the support they should receive, with parents and young people involved in creating them. This could be helpful if done properly. A clear plan can help parents know what support is meant to be in place, what school has agreed to do, and whether things are actually happening. But families will understandably be worried about whether ISPs could become a weaker replacement for EHCPs. An EHCP is a legal document. It gives families rights. It can name provision. It can be appealed. It can be enforced. Any new plan must not become a way to reduce children’s legal protections or push families away from EHCPs when an EHCP is still needed. What about EHCPs? This is one of the areas parents will be watching most closely. The Government response says children already in special school placements will keep those placements until they finish education. It also says transition for children with EHCPs in mainstream will only begin from 2030, once the new inclusive mainstream system has been built. Children with existing EHCPs may be reassessed under the new system as they move through transition points. Some may receive a new EHCP linked to specialist provision, while others may move to an Individual Support Plan. This is likely to worry many families. Parents need clear reassurance that children will not lose support simply because the system is changing. They need to know that any reassessment will be fair, transparent, evidence-based and centred on the child’s actual needs, not budgets. For many children, an EHCP is not a luxury. It is the reason they have support, protection, specialist provision, transport, therapy, adjustments or a suitable placement. Families should not be made to feel that wanting an EHCP means they are being demanding. Sometimes an EHCP is exactly what a child needs. More funding and specialist support The Government response includes several major funding commitments. These include money for inclusive mainstream support, specialist advice, family hubs, SEND training, local authority transformation and more specialist school places. The response also talks about “Experts at Hand”, which is meant to give mainstream schools access to professionals such as educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, specialist teachers and other professionals earlier, without always needing a child to go through a statutory assessment first. This could be very positive if it works. Many children are currently waiting far too long for professional input. Schools often say they cannot provide support because they are waiting for reports, assessments or outside professionals. Families are left in limbo while children struggle. If expert advice becomes easier to access in schools, that could prevent needs from escalating. But again, the detail matters. Will there be enough professionals? Will schools actually use the advice? Will children get direct support, or will it just become another layer of paperwork? Will parents be included? Will health services be properly accountable? These are the questions families will be asking. Staff training must be more than a tick-box The response talks about SEND training for teachers, teaching assistants, leaders, SENCOs and education staff. This is desperately needed. Too many families still hear outdated comments like: “They seem fine in school.” “They are choosing not to engage.” “They just need firmer boundaries.” “They make eye contact so they cannot be autistic.” “They are too bright to need support.” “We do not see those behaviours here.” SEND training needs to cover real lived experience. That means autism, ADHD, PDA, sensory processing, speech and language needs, anxiety, masking, trauma, demand avoidance, emotional regulation, learning difficulties, communication differences, medical needs, disability rights and reasonable adjustments. Training also needs to challenge the idea that behaviour is the problem, instead of asking what the behaviour is communicating. If staff are trained properly, children are more likely to be understood earlier, supported better and protected from unnecessary exclusion, punishment or school-based trauma. Accountability is still the biggest issue One of the most important parts of the response is accountability. The Government says the SEND Tribunal will remain as a legal backstop for key decisions around EHC needs assessments, specialist provision and placements. It also proposes publishing SEND Tribunal outcomes by local authority and requiring local authorities to explain what action they will take after tribunal judgments. That could help expose patterns where local authorities repeatedly make poor decisions or force families into unnecessary appeals. However, there are still concerns. The Government has not taken forward some recommendations around stronger powers over health services and wider complaint routes. This matters because SEND is not just education. Many children need speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, mental health support, physiotherapy, continence support, feeding support, nursing care or other health provision. If health provision is written into a plan but not delivered, families need clear and enforceable routes to challenge that. Parents should not have to become legal experts just to get their child what they need. What should parents do now? For now, families should not stop using the current system. If your child needs support, keep asking for it. If your child may need an EHCP, do not wait because reforms may happen in the future. If school support is not enough, gather evidence. Keep records of: Emails Meeting notes Reports School concerns Reduced timetables Exclusions Attendance issues Anxiety Meltdowns Shutdowns Masking Sensory needs Academic struggles Social difficulties Medical needs Behaviour logs Professional advice What support has been tried What has worked What has not worked Parents should also keep asking schools clear questions: What support is currently in place? Is it written down? Who is responsible for delivering it? How often is it reviewed? What evidence shows it is working? What reasonable adjustments are being made? Has the SENCO been involved? Has outside advice been requested? Is an EHCP needs assessment needed? Do not let future reform be used as a reason to delay support now. Children need help today. How Bright Steps can help Bright Steps is here to help families understand SEND without feeling lost, judged or overwhelmed. On www.brightstepsfamily.co.uk families can find free support including: EHCP guidance SEND school support Reasonable adjustment help Parent templates Diary and planner tools DLA guidance Autism information ADHD support PDA information Masking and anxiety guides Meltdown and shutdown support SEND Journey Guide Parent and Carer Dashboard Professional Dashboard Free SEND resources and tools The aim is simple: to give families free information in one place, without paywalls, pressure or confusion. SEND families should not have to pay just to understand their rights or find basic support. Bright Steps view The Government’s response contains some positive ideas. Earlier support is needed. Better training is needed. Clearer standards are needed. More specialist support is needed. Families must be listened to. Schools must become more inclusive. Local authorities must be held accountable. But families have heard promises before. The SEND system will not be fixed by new names, new documents or new frameworks alone. It will only improve when children actually receive the support they need, when schools stop blaming parents, when local authorities stop delaying lawful decisions, when health services are properly involved, and when families no longer have to fight like solicitors just to get their child through education safely. SEND reform must not become a way to reduce rights. It must become a way to strengthen support. Children with SEND deserve more than survival in education. They deserve to feel safe, understood, included and able to thrive.