16 January 2026 

The Government plans to introduce major reforms to the system for supporting children and young people with SEND. That much we know. What we don’t yet know with any certainty is what those reforms will look like, and exactly how children and young people will be affected. 

As we wait for a Schools White Paper that will make the Government’s intentions clear, ministers occupied themselves in the run-up to Christmas and into the new year with a “national conversation” on SEND. Numerous events were held for parents and professionals, in person and online, at which the Schools Minister outlined the “five principles” on which reform will be based. While we support these principles as far as they go, we are concerned about what they leave out, and we wrote to the Education Secretary about this. 

IPSEA submitted a response to the Government’s “conversation questions”, answering in good faith to the best of our ability. However, we were taken aback at how many of the questions asked about issues that are already covered by existing SEND law. For example: “How can we ensure children and young people get support quickly without needing a diagnosis?”, “How should we record and review a child or young person’s needs and the support they need?” and “How could we make sure this works in every education setting around the country?” 

The answer to all of these questions and others is: do what it says in the Children and Families Act 2014, The SEND Regulations 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice. 

The main thing we want to tell politicians – and have told them many times! – is that children and young people’s existing rights to an education that meets their needs should be protected and strengthened, not undermined. Below is the text of an article by IPSEA’s senior solicitors, Alex Stafford and Kate Cox, that was published this week by TES, that explains exactly why. 

Protecting legal rights 

Recent commentary on special educational needs and disabilities reform has increasingly framed children’s and young people’s legal rights as a driver of rising costs and systemic strain. 

As a charity providing free legal advice to families of children and young people with SEND, IPSEA is deeply concerned about this misleading and harmful narrative. 

It misrepresents both the law and the reality that is faced daily by children and young people, their families and schools. 

England’s SEND framework, set out in the Children and Families Act 2014, is fundamentally needs-focused. It ensures that children and young people receive an education that meets their individual needs. 

No more, but certainly no less. It does not exist to inflate “demand” or encourage an over-identification of needs. 

Any reform that weakens this legal foundation risks undermining not only children’s and young people’s rights but also the effectiveness and integrity of the framework itself. 

Given that legal rights are at stake, let’s look at three crucial sections of the Children and Families Act 2014 and why they must be retained. 

Who has SEND? 

Only those who meet the legal definition of SEN in section 20 of the Act have special educational needs, and this provides the foundation for rights and support. 

A child or young person only has SEN if they: a) have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age and/or have a disability that prevents or hinders them from accessing mainstream education in some way; and b) this calls for educational or training provision to be made for them that’s additional to or different from that made for the majority of others their age. 

The focus is on what needs they have, and what support is required to meet them, with a recognition that this can occur across a range of ability and doesn’t depend on diagnostic labels. 

Some commentators have speculated that only those with “severe needs” will retain legal rights. So who, under the current definition, shouldn’t be entitled to enforceable support? 

Section 20 rightly focuses on individual needs and how they impact the child or young person. It resists grouping categories of needs together or making assumptions on needs based on diagnoses or presentation. In any event, any change to the definition of SEN won’t mean that those needs disappear; instead, they will remain unidentified, unacknowledged and unmet. 

EHC needs assessments 

Section 36(8) of the Act sets the legal threshold for a local authority to secure an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment. 

The two-part test is provisional and predictive: where a child or young person has or may have special educational needs, and it may be necessary for provision to be made via an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, the local authority must assess. 

This is not a loophole; it is a safeguard. It ensures that needs are properly understood before decisions are made about support through a plan. 

Raising this threshold would mean delaying or denying assessments until difficulties have escalated or become entrenched, and, given that these assessments are the first step to obtaining an EHC plan, fewer children and young people accessing the rights provided by an EHC plan. 

We already see the consequences of late identification and intervention every day: escalating needs, children unable to attend school, higher costs and poorer outcomes. 

Duty to secure provision 

Section 42(2) of the Act places a clear, absolute legal duty on local authorities to secure the special educational provision specified in an EHC plan. This duty is one of the strongest protections in SEND law, and for good reason. 

Without it, plans risk becoming aspirational documents rather than enforceable guarantees. 

Families already face significant challenges in enforcing provision. Removing or weakening section 42(2) would make this harder still, increasing conflict and litigation rather than reducing it. 

Effective reform should strengthen confidence that provision will be delivered, not erode it. 

The facts are clear: too few children and young people are receiving an education that meets their needs, and too many parents are forced into unnecessarily adversarial processes to secure required support due to unlawful decisions. 

When the legal framework is complied with, children and young people with SEND can thrive - and the impact can be life-changing. 

Meaningful SEND reform must build on what works, not by making assumptions about needs or treating children’s and young people’s rights as cost centres that must be contained. 

That means protecting the core legal rights in the Children and Families Act 2014, investing in inclusive education and strengthening, not weakening, the legal framework that exists to support all those with SEND.

 

About the author

Catriona is responsible for IPSEA’s work in bringing about change by influencing the development of SEND policy nationally. Her background is in public policy and communications, and she has worked for a number of charities and public sector organisations, as well as in Parliament. In the past she has served as an elected councillor in a London borough, a special school governor and a charity trustee. She has personal experience of having a disabled child. In her spare time, she enjoys walking, reading, going to the theatre and being by the sea.

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