Keir Starmer focuses on comprehensive reforms around special educational needs

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Thousands of disadvantaged students could be entitled to the full package of special education support in England under major changes being considered by Sir Keir Starmer, as Labor seeks to overhaul the “neglect” system. .

Senior government officials say ministers are looking at legislation to change the system by which children with special educational needs (SEN) receive the support schemes needed to receive full state aid.

Education, health and support plans (EHCPs) were introduced in 2014 as part of the Children and Families Act, which introduced the support that local authorities have a legal obligation to provide for children with and the highest demands.

EHCPs open up additional help for those who qualify, including one-on-one support, transportation services and, in some cases, access to more expensive private tuition.

The proposals being considered include changes to the system that supports the provision of support, which may affect children at the “milder” end of conditions such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, according to a senior official.

One official said: “It would mean that thousands of students were cut short.

The move will be just one part of wider changes being introduced to the SEN system by Starmer.

The Government wants to significantly increase special education support provision in mainstream schools, including £740mn announced this month for local authorities to create new SEN places.

It also vowed to improve early intervention services offered to schools to prevent students’ conditions from worsening over time.

Starmer said this week that his “legacy at SEN is a system that has been neglected to the point of complete failure”.

“We have to change, create an earlier intervention system, and make sure this is more widespread,” he told the parliament’s Coordination Committee on Thursday.

“If we don’t change the way special education is delivered, we won’t be able to close the gap and fix the problem,” he added.

Experts say the SEN system is broken with ballooning demand for EHCPs and putting too much pressure on stretched council funds.

Meanwhile, they argue, too little support is given to people with SEN who don’t get the word out, driving families and schools to seek EHCPs for other, more limited circumstances.

Local authorities have accumulated shortfalls in their high needs funding of around £3.3bn this year, according to the IFS, which warned this could rise to £8bn over the next three years.

The Outcomes First Group, England’s largest provider of special education for children with SEN, released a report this week calling on the government to restructure the EHCP process through a review model of conditions.

The proposed model will limit claims to “severe SEN cases that require comprehensive and specialist intervention”, while providing simpler and more targeted interventions for people with less severe needs.

Luke Sibieta, a research fellow at the Center for Financial Studies, said that given the increasing number of students with EHCPs, “it is not surprising that the government is starting to think about getting degrees”.

Sibieta added that “the missing part of the existing system” is the support of the country for those whose needs do not qualify for the full right of EHCP.

The number of children and young people in need of special educational needs support in England has more than doubled in the past decade, from 240,000 in January 2015 to 576,000 in January 2024, according to the National Office. of Books.

Around five per cent of all students now have a special needs plan, up from a steady rate of 2.9 per cent between 2000 and 2018, according to the IFS.

Growth in demand has outstripped revenue, despite an increase in real levels of the government’s higher needs budget of more than 50 per cent over the past decade – from £6.8bn in 2015 to £10bn in 2024.

The government said there are “far too many children whose needs are not being met and parents are forced to fight for support”, and said it was committed to “rebuilding the confidence of families” across the country.