A father has said he fears his son with special needs would be “lost through the cracks” if he is stripped of support at school under Labour’s sweeping reforms.
The i Paper understands that students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will be allocated “digital passports” and designated into a four-tiered support system under the changes.
The documents will aim to ease transition periods for SEND pupils, allowing support to be put in place across educational settings more quickly.
Sources said children with additional needs would start by receiving “universal” support. If that is not sufficient, they would move through the tiers until their needs are met.
Under the reforms, Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) – legal documents that entitle children with special needs to get support – are set to be reserved for pupils whose needs cannot be met via the four tiers.
An exception is expected to be made for children born with complex needs, such as cerebral palsy, who will get an EHCP from birth.
Alan Courtney, 46, a father of two children with special needs, raised concerns over the delay pupils might face as they go through the four-tier system before receiving the support they need.
Courtney’s son, Nate, 12, has been diagnosed with autism, while his daughter, Milly, 10, suffers from a form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) – a recessive neurological disorder causing progressive muscle weakness, atrophy, and sensory loss.
Courtney, who is from North Sheen, south-west London, said that parents often wait up to two years to secure EHCP plans for their children. “And that’s then provided that they can actually give you a plan,” he said.
“Having a four-tiered system means that it could just lead to a longer delay.”
He added: “The fear amongst a lot of parents would be the additional time it might take to get the provision that your kid needs. I mean, there’s already a significant wait time for everything.”
Courtney told The i Paper that his son’s initial EHCP offer was “about half of what he needed”, forcing him to appeal it before a tribunal. He said it “took about eight months before he actually got a plan which fulfilled his needs”.
Nate, 12, has been diagnosed with autism, while Milly, 10, suffers from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4J, a rare form of CMT.Nate was offered a spot in a specialised unit integrated into mainstream schools which offers tailored education, small group learning, and therapeutic support for pupils with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
“Since he’s gone there, he’s effectively [been able to] read and write, whereas before he wouldn’t be able to sit still for more than about 15 minutes,” Courtney said. “He could independently work on something, particularly something which is of an interest.”
The Government has said that “effective” existing support would be protected under its SEND overhaul, but it remains unclear whether pupils with EHCPs will be able to keep them after the reforms come into force.
Commenting on the prospect of pupils losing their existing EHCPs, Courtney emphasised that parents have “fought hard” to secure them, adding: “The threat of having plans – particularly if they are working – withdrawn is going to make parents very fearful and it will add to the mistrust that’s already there.”
Turning to the case of his son, Courtney said Nate would likely “be lost through the cracks” without support in the mainstream system.
He said that Nate would “need to have an EHCP” to receive his current level of support, adding: “I don’t know whether or not that would change.
“But [the question] would be whether or not the tiered system would fulfill any of his needs.
“[If] he’d go into a secondary school environment … I think he’d be lost through the cracks and end up being one of these kids who could end up not wanting to go to school, not getting exams, results, and things.”
Questioning whether his daughter, who uses a wheelchair full-time, would receive the support she needs after the reforms, he asked: “Would she have progressed straight away to any EHCP, would they make her go through these tiered steps before you get to that point? That’s the thing that’s not clear within any of these plans.”
No 10 will reportedly have oversight of the SEND overhaul due to fears of a backlash against plans to reserve EHCPs for children with the most severe and complex needs.
Courtney added that he had concerns about how a severe disability would be defined by the Government and whether it would rely on subjective judgements.
Any reforms are likely to come in by the 2029-30 academic year at the earliest.
While details on the plans are sparse, it is possible there could be a double system running during the transition period. For example, children could retain existing EHCPs, but the legal documents could become harder to obtain in the future.
Courtney also raised concerns about whether pupils will have a legal right to support – which EHCPs endow – under the four-tier system.
“Are local authorities and professionals going to be held accountable for what they’re delivering, and will the provision in those tiers be legally enforceable before you get your EHCP?” he said.
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“I think that’s going to definitely be a big worry for people, especially anyone who’s already been through the system, because we know there’s virtually no accountability at all.”
But turning to the positive aspects of the reforms, Courtney said children with mental health issues, or those whose special needs are less severe, may be provided with support earlier than they otherwise would.
He said: “The plus side to all of this stuff is that kids who have got slightly less needs, perhaps, than my son may get some of this help a little bit more quickly. And it might be just that little bit of extra help which they need.
“Let’s say every academy had its own speech and language therapists, educational psychologists and occupational therapists. You could provide a universal sort of support … within those tiers with those kids.
“The caveat with that is where are you going to get those members of staff from, and how are they going to be trained? There’s already a shortage of speech and language therapy and occupational therapists.
“But in those sorts of schools and academies, if you had all of those staff wrapped within that sort of environment, that would be a really, really good improvement on where things currently are.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “We do not comment on speculation.
“Our reforms will fix what isn’t working in the system, strengthen support for those who need it and protect parents’ rights – shaped directly by the views and experiences of parents, the sector and experts who know the system best.”
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