Write to your MP: protect the legal rights of children and young people with SEND

The Government has now published its Schools White Paper, setting out proposals for reform to the SEND system in England. These proposals risk significantly weakening existing SEND legal rights. 

That’s why we, alongside other organisations in the sector, are working together on the Save Our Children’s Rights campaign: to make sure people understand what’s at stake if changes dilute children and young people's legal rights or restrict access to EHC plans.

We urge everyone who wants to protect children and young people’s right to special educational provision and support that meets their needs to write to your MP explaining why it matters to you.

How to use this template

We have produced a template email that may be a helpful starting point – but please do adapt this to reflect your own thoughts and experience. You can find out here who your MP is and how to contact them. You may also wish to visit your MP in person at one of their advice surgeries to explain your concerns further.

Dear [Name of your MP]

 

I am writing to you as a constituent [and parent of a child or young person with special educational needs – if applicable] to let you know how concerned I am about key aspects of the Government’s proposed SEND reforms.

 

From the headlines, it sounds positive. But if you analyse the detail in the consultation document, it’s clear that what’s proposed is not “a radical expansion of rights” as ministers have suggested, but may be the opposite.

 

The proposed reforms risk weakening:

 

  • 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 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. I am concerned that this will create gaps in the system through which children may fall.
  • 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. I am afraid that the number of children without a suitable school place may actually increase under these proposals, resulting in more children and young people ending up without an education.

 

The system for supporting children and young people with SEND is clearly not working as it should.  But I am concerned that the direction of SEND reform risks children and young people having to fit into whatever provision is available, or else missing out on education entirely. I’m really worried that these new proposals will leave parents having to battle directly with schools to get help for their child.

 

Legally enforceable protections for children and young people can’t be replaced by reassurances that schools will provide what they need. If provision for every child in a mainstream setting improves – as everyone hopes that it will – then these protections will simply remain as a backstop, and the number of EHC plans, requests for special school places and appeals to the Tribunal is likely to fall naturally.

 

[Add your own example of how your child has been supported because they had a legal right to provision that met their needs]

 

Like other parents of children and young people with SEND, I will be responding to the public consultation on these proposals, which ends on 18 May.

 

I would be grateful for your support in asking the Government to avoid weakening or removing children and young people’s current right to support that meets their individual needs.

 

Yours sincerely 

 

[YOUR NAME AND FULL POSTAL ADDRESS]

Let us know what your MP says

It’s really helpful for us to understand how MPs are responding. If you receive a reply, please email us a copy or let us know what they said on [email protected].

Published:

Updated:

Author: Emma Brock

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