The new four-tier SEND system risks forcing children with additional needs to “wait for failure” before receiving appropriate support, special schools have warned.
The National Association of Special Schools (NASS) – a membership association of nearly 500 private and state special schools across England and Wales – said a tiered system “risks delaying support rather than improving inclusion”.
It comes as ministers are preparing to unveil sweeping reforms to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) on Monday, with the long-awaited Schools White Paper.
The i Paper was the first to reveal that the reforms are set to include a four-tier system of SEND support in mainstream schools.
How the four-tier system will work
The first tier of “universal support” will be the base level of support in mainstream schools for all pupils, it is understood.
If this does not meet a child’s needs, they can progress to the second and third tiers, expected to be called “targeted” and “targeted plus”, and will be given digital passports known as “individual support plans”.
It is understood that every child with identified special educational needs, including those who do not currently have statutory support via an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), will have an individual support plan (ISP). EHCPs are legal documents that describe a child’s needs and unlock council funding for extra support such as special school places, teaching assistants and speech and language therapy.
ISPs will have a statutory duty attached, potentially extending the promise of extra support to 1.28 million more children, but the exact nature of the legal rights are not yet clear.
The final tier, understood to be labelled “specialist”, will offer several different “specialist provision pathways” to children whose needs cannot be met by the other tiers, a source close to the reforms said.
It is understood that EHCPs will be reserved for these children with “specialist provision packages”, with the level of need justifying the highest tier of support to be developed nationally by a panel of experts.
Children with existing EHCPs are expected to hold onto them until 2030. But between 2030 and 2035, EHCPs will be reviewed as children hit key transition phases, such as from primary to secondary school.
SEND children face ‘multiple failures’
NASS, the UK’s leading special schools association – with more than 475 members across England and Wales – warned against a system that offers statutory protection that “only arrives after multiple failures”.
It said it “strongly believes that an inclusive system should identify and intervene early, not require children and families to prove that lower levels of support have failed before accessing their legal rights”.
The Government has insisted its reforms are based around early intervention, with plans to identify toddlers with SEND at new family hubs before they start school.
But NASS has raised fears that the tiered system is about “ring-fencing help and gatekeeping support in order to save money” because it places “barriers” in front of timely provision.
‘I had no SEND support in school – it was a struggle’
A 23-year-old university student with autism and ADHD said he was left to “survive not thrive” in school as he was unable to access SEND support until college.
Jacob Lewis, currently studying at the University of Sheffield, said that going through primary and secondary school without a diagnosis or any statutory support damaged his mental health.
He said: “I struggled with homework, I struggled to focus in lessons, I struggled with the bright lights, making friends, understanding social cues and jokes and the whole barrage of the neurotypical environment.
Jacob Lewis, 23, struggled in school without any SEND support“If I had a SEND support plan, I might have been able to leave school a bit early or leave lessons and go and sit in a quiet room.
“Without that plan, I had no way to justify my position. I had no diagnosis, I had no plan, no nothing. So I just had to struggle. I had to survive, not thrive.”
Since college, Lewis has received tailored SEND support via a learning support plan. He was finally diagnosed with autism and ADHD while at university.
He told The i Paper that children with SEND must retain statutory rights via EHCPs to avoid more pupils suffering “mental breakdowns” like he did due to insufficient support.
Lewis said the education system “isn’t at a point where we can substitute targeted intervention for holistic intervention” as mainstream schools are often “not accessible for neurodivergent students”.
“At the moment, we still need to retain a statutory right to EHCPs because kids need that guarantee that their accessibility requirements will be heard and acted upon,” he added.
A NASS spokesperson said: “A requirement to move sequentially through tiers before accessing an EHCP risks delaying appropriate assessment and provision.
“There is a real danger that support will only be secured once a child has demonstrably struggled, experienced placement breakdown or fallen out of meaningful education altogether.”
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has repeatedly said the reforms are not about saving money, but about improving a system that is “not working” for families.
But the overhaul has been designed to address the surge in demand for services after the number of children with EHCPs – costing an average of £17,500 per person – has soared in recent years, putting a huge financial burden on local authorities.
Pressure on the system has intensified as the number of children with EHCPs rose to 638,700 as of January 2025 – an 80 per cent increase from 353,995 in 2018/19. The rise is largely down to an increase in autism, speech and language needs and social and mental health needs, including ADHD.
It comes as the Government revealed today that the Schools White Paper will set a target to halve the disadvantage gap by the time children born under this Government finish secondary school.
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The document will outline plans to reform how schools get targeted disadvantage funding, using household income rather than whether a child receives free school meals or not.
It will also set out two new programmes to tackle the performance of disadvantaged pupils locally in the North East and on the coast.
Special schools face a profit cap under the reforms, with the white paper expected to “legislate to ensure that a reasonable price is paid for a placement”.
Private-school placements cost an average of £62,000 per head, which is more than twice the cost of a state-sector place at £24,000, according to the IFS. Some currently charge local authorities annual fees topping £120,000 per pupil.
NASS said the plans could trigger a “catastrophic loss” of specialist places across the sector.
The Department for Education accused the special schools sector of “blatant, shameful scaremongering, clearly driven by vested interests”.
A spokesperson said: “It is plainly wrong to suggest this government will do anything but deliver a better system for children and families, where support is needs-led, readily available in every community and wrapped around children at the earliest stage, so that issues don’t escalate to crisis point.
“We’ll set out our full plans shortly – building on the work already underway to secure a truly inclusive system, including investing billions in tens of thousands of new places that meet the needs of children with SEND and training up every teacher and teaching assistant in line with the best practice across the country.”
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