Ministers will stop short of completely abolishing care plans for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) under forthcoming reforms, despite wider concerns in Whitehall over the cost.
Bridget Phillipson is expected to rule out scrapping Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) entirely when she sets out her reforms in the New Year, but with the intention that they will eventually only apply to those with most complex needs.
Officials believe that once the Government’s reforms bed into the system, the need for EHCPs will be dramatically reduced as children with additional needs will be picked up far earlier and given the necessary support.
It comes after ministers announced last week that councils will have a dedicated SEND practitioner in new Best Start Family hubs to help parents and early years providers to identify and support children with special needs at the outset.
Under the changes, SEND units will be expanded in mainstream schools, with the aim of providing greater training and support to staff and pupils within the school sector, and reducing the need to use expensive private school provision.
EHCPs are a legal document that entitles children to receive additional support from their local authority, and parents are often forced to fight for months if not years to secure them.
The future of the certificates has become one of the most closely scrutinised areas of the reforms, with parents concerned that their children could lose access to the additional support and funding if they are scrapped.
It is part of the reason why Education Secretary Phillipson chose to delay publishing her Schools White Paper as she seeks to build a greater consensus for the overhaul.
And in a sign of the nervousness over how the changes will be received by the public, ministers last week launched a “national conversation” on SEND to make sure “parents play a central role in helping shape the future” of how the system will function.
But news that the EHCPs will not be scrapped completely has sparked concerns elsewhere in Whitehall, as their removal is viewed as one of the main methods of reducing the overall cost of the system.
It remains unclear what will happen to care plans that are already in place for children.
Phillipson and Sir Keir Starmer held a meeting on the reforms last week to “surface some of the trade-offs” in the proposals.
A Whitehall source raised concerns, warning that by not abolishing EHCPs “we’re basically capped on how much money we can save”.
The insider added that it meant the entire Department for Education (DfE) was “doing an exercise without one of the big levers to bring the cost down”.
Phillipson and the DfE have repeatedly insisted that the reforms are about fixing a broken system and not about saving money.
But council leaders and economists have pointed out that the ballooning costs of special needs provision will have to be accounted for sooner rather than later. The Office for Budget of Responsibility pointed out at the Budget last month that the Government will have to absorb £6bn in SEND costs unless savings are identified.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies last week warned spending on SEND in England has been rising fast in recent years, with a 13 per cent real-terms rise expected this financial year alone, adding in reference to the £6bn cost: “The Government will need to introduce reforms that help to slow the growth in spending, and/or work out how to cover the difference.”
Councils have warned that they will go bankrupt due to the current rate of increase in the number of children receiving EHCPs.
The National Audit Office (NAO) previously said the system was “financially unsustainable” and faced “soaring demand” with a 140 per cent rise in the care plans since 2015.
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But MPs are concerned that the issue could blow up into another political backlash, similar to that seen over welfare in the spring, if the reforms are not handled carefully by the Government as parents have often fought hard to secure the documents.
However, one MP insisted that would not be the case. “Bridget has been engaging MPs on SEND for some time, the system is in dire need of reform, so this should not be like welfare,” one MP said.
The Department for Education has been approached for comment.
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