Specialist education support and disability benefits for children should be scaled back and offered only to those with the highest need under reforms backed by ex-health secretary Sir Jeremy Hunt.
According to a report from right-wing think-tank Policy Exchange, ministers have been told that councils should not be obliged to fund support for children in mainstream schools with special needs, and the bar must be raised for youths claiming disability benefits.
Hunt has argued that young people are being overdiagnosed with mental health conditions and said the special educational needs (SEND) system must be overhauled.
The report, which is backed by the former minister, argues definitions of mental ill health and neurodivergence have been expanded to the point of overwhelming the state system.
One in five children in England have special educational needs and disabilities, the report states, placing huge pressure on support services.
Hunt, who was health secretary between 2012 and 2018 and later Chancellor, made the comments in the forward to the report, saying society has “lost sight of the fundamental reality that child development is a messy and uneven process”.
An education, health and care plan is created by the local authority for residents aged up to 25 who require support to access the curriculum.
It offer specific funding, specialist educational support, or give parents more choice over a child’s schooling.
Jeremy Hunt was quoted in the forward to the report, which was from a think-tank co-founded by former minister Michael Gove (Photo: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)But Policy Exchange recommends EHCPs should be limited only to students in special schools and that mental health support be targeted at those who “most need it, rather than blanket offers”.
The report argues EHCPs should be non-statutory and the obligation for local authorities to meet the associated costs should be removed.
Instead, schools should receive expanded, ring-fenced Send budgets from the national government and have discretionary powers over how this is spent.
The report also proposes that the length of time a person must have a condition to be eligible for Personal Independence Payment disability benefits should be doubled from nine to 18 months.
Since 2015, Send spending has increased by £4.5bn, with requests for support rising annually.
Government data shows there were 638,745 in place in January 2025, up 10.8 per cent on the same point last year.
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The most common type of need among pupils with an EHCP is autistic spectrum disorder, followed by “speech, language and communication” and then “social, emotional and mental health”.
The Government is expected to publish a White Paper detailing how it will reform support for SEND in the autumn.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has previously said there will “always be a legal right … to the additional support … that children with Send need”.
The report, titled Out of Control, focuses on addressing the rise in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders among young people.
“Mental ill-health and neurodiversity now accounts for more than half of the post-Pandemic increase we have seen in claimants of disability benefit. Spending on Send provision has sky-rocketed and risks the financial sustainability of local government,” Hunt wrote.
Rather than simply pumping more money into the system, questions must be asked around the role of “good work, physical activity, social connection,” he said.
Hunt added: “Across the political spectrum, and amongst a growing range of practitioners, it is now recognised that there is a level of ‘over-diagnosis’ in our system. We need to cut through the complexity to better understand the drivers of demand we are seeing.”
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