The schools minister has refused to rule out cutting council-funded support plans for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) as part of the Government’s reform of the system.
Speaking to the Schools and Academies Show – a gathering of school and education leaders – on Wednesday, Georgia Gould insisted there will “always be a legal right to provision”, but did not confirm whether or not pupils who currently have education, health and care plans (EHCPs) would lose them.
Families are facing an anxious wait for a long-promised Government overhaul of the system to support SEND children, which has been delayed until 2026.
The reforms, which are expected to move more children with additional needs into mainstream schools and reserve specialist provision for the most complex cases, had been due this autumn but was pushed back at the eleventh hour.
The Government initially promised to “protect provision currently in place”, but ministers quietly backtracked over the summer, introducing a huge caveat that only “effective” provision would be protected – without clarifying what that means.
Several reports understood to be influencing Government thinking on SEND have deemed EHCPs – which are legal documents that describe a child’s individual needs and unlock council funding to meet them via transport, extra teaching assistance, or equipment – to be “ineffective”.
A recent report by the Children’s Commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, said that “for children with EHCPs, too often they are not effective”, and a January report by the Public Accounts Committee stated that “outcomes for children have not improved” despite the surge in EHCPs being granted.
Last month, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told The i Paper that the Government has made “no decisions” on what effective provision looks like.
Then, on Wednesday, the minister for school standards was also unable to clarify what “effective” support means, and whether pupils with existing EHCPs are at risk of losing them.
Schools minister Georgia Gould addressed the Schools and Academies Show on WednesdayAsked by The i Paper to confirm what “effective” support means, and whether pupils who currently have EHCPs will lose them, Gould said: “We’re in a process of co-creation with parents and young people and will set out our plans in the white paper in the new year.
“We have been very clear that there will always be a legal right to provision. This is about adding in for children and intervening earlier and learning from the best that’s happening already.”
During her ministerial address at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, the minister promised to deliver a system that “provides upfront support without a fight and has clear legal requirements and safeguards for children and parents”.
She added that she “completely rejects” comments by Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, that there is a “crisis of overdiagnosis” of special educational needs.
Tice had blamed overdiagnosis for “bankrupting many councils up and down the country” and said he thought children wearing ear defenders in classrooms was “insane”.
Gould described this as an attempt to “politicise” the issue. But, with the Government pushing back the Schools White Paper until “early in the new year” to allow more time for consultation, questions remain over whether or not children with hard-won EHCPs will keep them during the transition process.
Last month, Phillipson said she recognised that parents who have fought hard for EHCPs “worry about the future”, but added that she is taking time to listen to parents before setting out a way forward.
Asked what effective provision means, she told The i Paper: “We’ve made no decisions on any of this. We’re looking at how we deliver a better system of support overall for children on SEND.”
She recognised that change can be “unsettling” for parents, but said she wants to see earlier identification of need and diagnosis confirming support that is already in place.
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