Minister says children in England will get support more quickly under Send overhaul
Bridget Phillipson says government is ‘not taking away support’ as she prepares to announce changes
Bridget Phillipson has pledged that under the government’s overhaul of the special educational needs system it will take weeks for children to get access to support, not months or years – as she prepares to announce the controversial changes.
Speaking before publication of the white paper on the overhaul, the education secretary said children with special needs would be treated as “integral to the school system” rather than as a carved-out issue. She said the changes would be brought in as part of a “decade-long shift” to give schools and families time to adjust.
Campaigners have raised concerns that children with a legal right to special needs support will face a review when they move to secondary school.
The changes will raise the bar at which children in England qualify for an education, health and care plan (EHCP), which legally entitles children with Send to get support.
Speaking on the BBC, Phillipson said the government was “not going to be taking away effective support from children, and what I’ll be setting out tomorrow is a decade-long, very careful transition from the system that we have, which everyone recognises isn’t working”.
Asked if that could genuinely be said to mean no child would lose support, Phillipson said: “Children will be reviewed in terms of their needs assessed. That should be happening at the moment. We’re meant to have a system where every year an EHCP [education, health and care plan] is reviewed. That doesn’t always happen, and where it does, it doesn’t always work well.
“But what parents will see when we set out our vision tomorrow is a system where if, for example, your child needs speech and language support, the school will be better able to provide that than is the case right now.”
Phillipson said the overhaul of the system would mean children would “get support much, much more quickly than is the case right now. “And the commitment that I give to parents is that when they see all of the documents published tomorrow what they will see is a government that is focused on delivering better outcomes for their children. I am fiercely ambitious for every child in our country.”
She said it would be “a question of weeks, not a question of months and years” compared with the current system where many EHCPs are issued by local authorities beyond the 20-week deadline.
“Part of what we’ve seen is that support for children with Send has been treated almost as an entirely separate issue, rather than it being integral to our school system. Lots of children at some point during their school lives will experience some form of challenge, will need extra support.
“In order to get the support that children need, parents have to fight really hard to get that education, health and care plan. I’ve heard from so many parents just how difficult, how devastating that has been. It can take years. It’s really adversarial.”
The radical overhaul of the Send system will give every child with Send an individual support plan, government sources have confirmed, but the changes will raise the bar at which children in England qualify for an EHCP, which legally entitles children with Send to get support. EHCPs will be reserved for children with the most severe and complex needs, but new plans for children on lower tiers will still confer additional support and legal rights.
Government sources have said those who have EHCPs will not lose them, but there is a fear that children reaching 11 who have educational support plans will be reassessed under new, stricter criteria. Parents would retain legal avenues for appeals under existing equalities legislation and through a tribunal, according to government sources.
The white paper was due to be published last autumn, but was delayed to allow for further consideration of the Send proposals.
Phillipson said the changes were not about saving money. “We’re spending more money and we’ll continue to spend more money both around schools and Send, both together. We are going to spend more money delivering better outcomes for children. What we will be doing, however, is taking action where that money is not being well spent.”