What is the government proposing?
The February 2026 Schools White Paper includes sweeping changes to SEND that families, campaigners and experts believe will cause serious harm.
EHCPs under threat
The government plans to reassess children currently holding Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), limiting future plans to only those with the most complex needs. For many families, the EHCP is the only legally enforceable guarantee their child receives support.
Tribunal rights removed
Families would lose the right to appeal to the independent SEND Tribunal over Individual Support Plans (ISPs). Instead, complaints go through a school-run process — the very institution families are often fighting. The tribunal currently upholds 99% of appeals parents bring.
Mainstream inclusion without support
The push for all schools to become "fully inclusive" sounds positive, but without the specialist staff and funding to deliver it, children with complex needs could be placed in environments unequipped to support them.
Underfunded promises
The £1.6 billion Inclusive Mainstream Fund, spread across every school in England, amounts to less than the cost of a full-time teaching assistant for most schools. Critics argue the headline figures simply do not add up to the scale of change promised.
Postcode lottery continues
Research by the Sutton Trust shows disadvantaged families are already less likely to secure specialist school places. The reforms risk entrenching these inequalities further as more decisions are made locally, without consistent national standards.
Families left with no voice
Parents are described as "fighting a system" — now the reforms risk removing the tools they fight with. Teaching unions have warned that teachers' voices have been "conspicuously absent," and over 132,000 people have signed a petition calling for SEND rights to be protected.
"Every SEND parent becomes, by necessity, a campaigner for their child, because adequate support and provision is hard won against, in many cases, sharp practice adopted by local authorities."
— Law Gazette, February 2026"She's very intelligent but she's also got some quite complex needs — I'm not sure her needs will be recognised under the new tiered system. Bo will be worse off."
— Parent of an 11-year-old with complex SEND needs, speaking to ITV News, February 2026Find your MP
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Email is most effective. You can also write by post to: [MP name], House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA — postage is free. Some MPs also hold local surgeries. Be sure to include your full name and address so they can verify you are a constituent.
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