The aim of our policy-influencing work is to ensure that children and young people’s rights to an education that meets their needs are maintained, and that these rights are fully applied in practice.

Protecting children and young people’s rights and entitlements 

While we waited for the Government’s Schools White Paper to be published, with details of how ministers want to reform the system for supporting children and young people with SEND, we continued to make the case for maintaining children and young people’s existing legal protections.

Letter to the Secretary of State: We wrote to the Secretary of State for Education about the principles for SEND reform. Our letter emphasised that the SEND legal framework – if it were to be fully and consistently implemented – encompasses all the elements that policy-makers want to see in a reformed system, including earlier intervention and more inclusive mainstream schools.

Meetings with Schools Minister: We met on two occasions with the Schools Minister, who has responsibility for SEND policy, to discuss implementing the Children and Families Act 2014, strengthening accountability and improving decision-making so that the system becomes less adversarial.

Briefings for MPs: We sent a briefing on SEND reform to all MPs in England, summarising the key decisions facing policy-makers and outlining the rights that may be at risk. We met regularly with backbench MPs to discuss what’s at stake and how they can help protect the legal rights and entitlements of children and young people in their constituencies.

National conversation on SEND: We responded to the Government’s ‘national conversation’ on SEND, which began in December 2025, attending various engagement events to hear what parents and professionals were being told. We got in touch with the director for SEND at the Department for Education to pass on parents’ concerns that they had insufficient opportunities to be involved in discussions.

We submitted a response to the relevant national conversation questions, reiterating points we have made previously in correspondence with ministers and in our submission to the House of Commons education select committee. Our main focus in this response was to highlight key parts of the existing legal framework, which is routinely not implemented.

‘Save Our Children’s Rights’ petition: Along with other members of the Save Our Children’s Rights campaign, we delivered a petition to 10 Downing Street to protect children and young people’s legal rights to assessment and support that was signed by more than 132,000 people. We were joined at Downing Street by supportive MPs from the three main political parties in England.

There is further information on our Schools White Paper page about the Government’s proposals for SEND reform, and also on the Save Our Children’s Rights campaign page, including a template letter to MPs.

Implementing the existing SEND legal framework 

Parliamentary inquiry on home-to-school transport: We made a written submission to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, which carried out an inquiry on home-to-school transport for children with SEND. Our submission addressed the law on eligibility for transport for children and young people with SEND and the availability of SEND provision in local areas.

Meeting the needs of children and young people from under-served communities

Parliamentary inquiry on children and young adults in custody: We made a written submission to the House of Commons Justice Committee, which is carrying out an inquiry on “children and young adults in the secure estate”. Our submission focused on how effectively the specific needs of children with SEND are being identified, assessed and met in penal detention. We will share this submission once it has been published by the committee.