The Schools White Paper and SEND Reforms

SEND Reforms

The government has (on 23rd February 2026) proposed a raft of wide-ranging reforms to the existing system for supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England, including:

By 2028, provide National Inclusion Standards setting out what support should be available in every mainstream setting, refresh the definitions of ‘areas of need’ and revise the SEND Code of Practice.

Investment of £1.6 billion over three years to fund SEND provision in schools – this equates to approximately £22,000 per school per year.

Investment of £1.8 billion over three years to create ‘Experts at Hand’ – banks of local professionals (including speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, educational psychologists etc.) and experts from specialist settings to support mainstream settings.

Investment of £3.7 billion over the next four years to improve accessibility of school buildings, create new special school places and new Inclusion Bases (Support Bases and Specialist Bases) in mainstream settings.

Introduce a duty on schools to produce an Inclusion Strategy showing how they will deliver evidence-based support to children with SEND.

Ofsted’s new inspection framework will inspect schools for inclusion and school performance measures will be updated to recognize inclusive mainstream schools.

The new framework for supporting children with SEND will have three levels:

Targeted Support – structured interventions within mainstream settings, including classroom support and use of the school’s Support Base (the Support Base will be funded by the setting or academy trust).

Targeted Plus Support – brings in support from ‘Experts at Hand’, such as occupational therapists, and may include accessing Specialist Bases within mainstream settings (Specialist Bases will be funded by the LA to provide specialist support).

Specialist Support – Specialist Provision Packages for children with the most complex needs. Only those who need a Specialist Provision Package will have an EHCP in future.

Children with SEND will have digital Individual Support Plans (ISPs). It will be a statutory duty for all settings to produce ISPs for any child with SEND and to review them at least once per year.

Children identified as needing Specialist Support will be supported through a Specialist Provision Package. These are intended to improve consistency of support and will be nationally defined – it is suggested that there will be approximately seven packages and children will receive the one most closely suited to their needs. Day-to-day provision will still be set out in ISPs. The intention is that eventually only children receiving support through a Specialist Provision Package will have an EHCP.

Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)

Local authorities will continue to co-ordinate the EHC assessment process and EHCPs will be developed with the setting and in consultation with parents, with provision based on the Specialist Provision Package that has been identified as most relevant to the child’s needs. Local authorities will retain overall ownership of EHCPs and have a duty to secure access to support and sufficient funding, while settings will have a legal duty to deliver the support outlined in the EHCP.

Annual reviews will continue for early years and post-16 EHCPs but for children of compulsory school age, the proposal is that ISPs will be reviewed at least termly by the setting and EHCPs will be reviewed by the local authority at the end of each key stage.

The legal principle of ‘presumption to mainstream’ will be continued so that there are legal duties on local authorities to offer mainstream settings if parents or young people prefer it. Local authorities will provide a list of settings that are able to provide the relevant Specialist Provision Package and parents and young people will have the right to choose any of these settings or suggest an alternative setting which can deliver the Package. Parents will still be able to appeal to Tribunal if they disagree with a local authority’s decision about placement.

Independent Special Schools

The government recognizes that there are some children with very complex but relatively rare support needs who benefit from placements in independent special schools (ISSs). The intention is to legislate to ensure greater oversight of ISSs, requiring them to offer placements based on Special Provision Packages in line with national funding bands and aligning their admissions duties with those of other specialist settings.

Timescales

New legislation is not expected to come into effect until September 2029. In the meantime, the current system will remain in place.

Once legislation is enacted, the review of EHCPs at transition points (as opposed to annual reviews) will begin and, following their review, children will move onto Specialist Provision Packages, or to Targeted Plus with and ISP and support from Experts at Hand.

This first cohort of children to be affected will be those starting years 6, 11 and 13 in 2029. They will be assessed during that year and will move onto the new system from September 2030. Children with EHCPs who are being moved to Targeted Plus will keep their EHCP until the end of the 2029/30 academic year. Children who are attending special schools in September 2029 will be able to stay in special school until the end of their education unless they choose to move to a mainstream setting, and will retain their EHCP.

Other highlights from the White Paper

Provision of an enrichment entitlement for every child (details to be published later this year).

Changes to the Progress 8 measure to recognize achievement in a broader range of subjects, including the Arts.

Launching two new ‘mission’ areas for targeted development – Mission North East and Mission Coastal.

Establishing a new pupil engagement framework and establishing minimum expectations for home-to-school partnerships, including a new complaints process.

Improving maternity pay for teachers and school leaders.

A new Teacher Training Entitlement and £200 million over three years for SEND training for teaching staff.

All schools to become parts of school trusts, including trusts established by local authorities.

A consultation on the SEND reforms is currently underway and will remain open until 18th May 2026. Over the coming weeks, Adoption UK will be examining the proposals in more detail to better understand the potential impact on adopted and other care-experienced children. We will publish our guide to the consultation as soon as possible and we strongly encourage all adoptive families to share their views.