Schools White Paper: how you can respond to the Government’s proposals for reforming the SEND system

The Government has published a set of proposals for reforming the system for supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England. These proposals are set out in a document called 'SEND reform: putting children and young people first’.  

This is described as a ‘consultation document’. It explains the changes the Government is proposing to make and asks for comments from anyone with an interest in support for children and young people with SEND. The consultation is open until 11.59pm on 18 May 2026, and anyone can submit their views.  

Tell the Department for Education what you think 

You can share your views and experiences in one of the following ways:  

  • Complete the consultation form on the Department for Education (DfE) website and answer as many of the questions as you wish. 

  • Write to: SENDAP Reform, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BT 

Answering the consultation questions  

The consultation includes 39 questions. You can answer as many or as few as you wish. 

You may feel that the questions don’t provide the opportunity to say everything you want to say. If so, the final question provides some space to add “anything further you would like to contribute” on the proposals “that are still under consideration”.  

The Special Needs Jungle website also has a detailed article explaining the things you might want to think about when deciding how to answer the consultation questions.  

How IPSEA is responding  

We will be submitting a comprehensive response to the consultation, giving an honest assessment of how we think the proposed reforms will affect the special educational provision and support children and young people receive.   

Our view and concerns

We would really like to believe that what’s proposed will make the system work better for children and young people and families. The aspirations for earlier support and more inclusive schools are welcome. 

But we are concerned about what the proposed changes mean for children and young people’s existing legal protections. 

At present, the law gives children and young people clear rights to support that meets their individual needs – and parents and young people can enforce those rights if necessary. The Government’s proposals move away from this. Instead of support being based on a child’s individual needs, there is a shift towards standardised packages of support. 

Specifically, the proposals risk weakening the following legal rights of children and young people with SEND:  

  • The right to provision based on a child’s particular needs, through a shift to standardised Specialist Provision Packages (SPPs) into which individual children may not easily fit.  

  • The right to enforceable provision, as children potentially move from legally binding Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans to Individual Support Plans (ISPs) that appear to have no way of being enforced. 

  • The right to an EHC needs assessment and EHC plan, with unclear thresholds and restricted to children and young people with ‘complex needs’ that haven’t been defined. 

  • The right for parents to request and secure a specific school or college that can provide the support their child needs, with more emphasis on containing costs than meeting children and young people’s needs.   

If you share any of these concerns, we encourage you to let the Department for Education know before 18 May by responding to the consultation.  

We also encourage you to contact your MP, whether or not you respond to the consultation. We have produced a template letter you can use as a starting point. It outlines our key concerns and includes space for you to share your own experience.   

We are in regular contact with MPs, but it’s vital that they hear directly from their constituents too. You can find out who your MP is and use our template letter to write to them here: 

 

Related information 

If you would like to understand the Government’s proposals in more detail, you can also read:  

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