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Thousands fewer students could be eligible for the full package of special educational support in England under sweeping changes being considered by Sir Keir Starmer, as Labor seeks to improve the “neglected” system.
Senior government officials have said ministers are considering legislation to change the system by which children with special educational needs (SEN) get the support plans needed to access a full range of state support.
Education, Health and Support Plans (EHCP) were introduced in 2014 as part of the Children and Families Act, which sets out the support local authorities have a legal duty to provide to children with the highest needs.
EHCPs unlock additional support for those who qualify, including individual support, transport services and, in some cases, access to expensive private education.
The proposals under consideration involve changes to the system that underpins the provision of support, which would be likely to affect children on the “milder” spectrum of conditions such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorders, according to a senior official.
“This would mean thousands fewer students would receive returns,” an official said.
The move would be just one part of a wider package of reforms introduced by Starmer to the SEN system.
The government is seeking to significantly increase support for special education in mainstream schools, including £740 million announced this month to enable local authorities to create new SEN places.
He also pledged to improve the early intervention services offered to schools to prevent students' situations from deteriorating over time.
Starmer said this week that his “SEN legacy was a system neglected to the point of complete crisis”.
“We need to reform, put in place a much earlier intervention system and ensure that it is mostly generalized,” he told Parliament's liaison committee on Thursday.
“If we don't change the way special education is delivered, we will never be able to bridge the gap and solve the problem,” he added.
Experts say the SEN system is breaking down with growing demand for EHCPs putting huge pressure on strained municipal budgets.
At the same time, they say, very limited support is offered to people with SEN who do not obtain a declaration, which pushes families and schools to seek EHCPs for certain less serious conditions.
Local authorities have run up deficits in their high-needs budgets of around £3.3bn this year, according to the IFS, which has warned this deficit could exceed £8bn over the next three years .
The Outcomes First Group, England's largest provider of special education for children with SEN, this week published a report calling on the government to rethink the EHCP process with a tiered assessment model.
The proposed model would limit reporting to “more serious cases of SEN requiring comprehensive and specialized intervention”, while providing simpler, more targeted interventions for people with less complex needs.
Luke Sibieta, a researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said that given the growing number of students on EHCPs, “it is no surprise that the government is starting to think about gradations”.
Sibieta added that a “missing part of the existing system” is state support for those whose needs do not qualify for a full EHCP entitlement.
The number of children and young people needing support for special educational needs in England has more than doubled in the last decade, from 240,000 in January 2015 to 576,000 in January 2024, according to the National Audit Office.
Nearly five percent of all students now have a special needs plan, compared to a steady rate of 2.9 percent between 2000 and 2018, according to the IFS.
The increase in demand has outpaced funding, despite a real-terms increase in the government budget of more than 50% over the past decade – from £6.8 billion in 2015 to more than £10 billion in 2024.
The government said there were “too many children whose needs are unmet and parents forced to fight for support”, adding that it was determined to “restore family confidence” through the country.
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