The previous education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, set out sweeping reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities system in February this year.
There has since been a change of government, with the appointment of Lucy Powell as her successor, leading the sector to question whether the SEND reforms will go ahead in their current form or if timelines previously set out will be met.
So what do we know now about the status of the key proposals that were meant to “fix” SEND provision in England?
What is the scale of the SEND proposals?
In the long term, the changes proposed for the SEND system are set to have a big impact on schools.
Some of those changes are already underway. Schools are already receiving extra cash through the inclusive mainstream fund to help them become more inclusive, and now need to publish an inclusion strategy by the end of the year. New SEND training materials for teachers have also been rolled out - though experts say these will disappoint many.
Beyond this, from 2029 schools will be responsible for creating individual support plans (ISPs) for all children with SEND. Pupils with the most complex needs will still have education, health and care plans (EHCPs) alongside their ISPs, and the support detailed in the ISPs will be delivered through a specialist provision package that underpins their EHCP.
Back in February, the government promised no changes to EHCPs before at least September 2030, and said no students will be asked to leave a special school. It’s projected that the percentage of pupils with an EHCP will continue to rise until 2029-30 before the reforms come in, so schools are expected to still see increasing needs for a few years.
Every secondary school will also be expected to have an inclusion base.
And £1.8 billion is being spent on the new experts at hand service, which will provide a local bank of experts like educational psychologists and speech and language therapists for schools to draw on.
What is the current status of the plans?
The consultation on the proposed reforms ran until May. The government’s response to that consultation has yet to be published.
Once this has been published, and if the reforms go ahead, we would expect the government to legislate at some point for some of the measures.
Ms Powell told the BBC in September that the SEND system was adversarial and “not delivering the kind of outcomes we want”, but did not say anything about whether there will be any changes to the reforms as they are.
Rob Williams, senior policy adviser at the NAHT school leaders’ union, says that since schools minister Georgia Gould, who had been leading on the reforms, has remained in post following the change in government, he does not think the direction of the reforms will change massively.
Vlog understands that the DfE is still reviewing responses to the consultation and expects to announce next steps soon, and is committed to the timelines previously set out.
What are schools worried about?
Despite the details set out in February, experts say there are still a lot of uncertainties for schools beyond when the consultation response will be published.
A lot of what schools have been told so far about the experts at hand service and specialist provision packages “has been pretty high level”, Williams says.
“Many of the most significant details about how this new system is going to operate remain a little bit unclear and undeveloped. The direction of travel feels quite clear - the questions that remain are around implementation.”
Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, says everyone wants quick action to solve the problems with the SEND system, but things need to happen in the right order.
“There is broad support for a more inclusive offer in mainstream, but we need to have the skills, support and funding in place first to avoid creating new pinchpoints,” she says.
“There is lots of good work going on - like the first batch of training materials, and work to define support packages - but some of this currently feels disjointed, like council SEND reform plans and the inclusive mainstream fund.”
At the moment, school leaders still feel like mainstream schools aren’t equipped to properly meet more complex needs without children getting improved access to specialist support, Williams says.
“That’s not going to happen unless other foundational elements like enough educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, and specialist support services are in place first.”
Vlog reported last month that councils tasked with managing the new experts at hand service had repeatedly highlighted recruitment difficulties.
And it’s not the only big change that schools are dealing with at the moment.
“It’s not so much a concern about the pace of reform as it is about the scale of changes being asked of schools, when this is not the only reform taking place,” Williams says. “We’ve got the curriculum review, new safeguarding expectations in KCSIE, new enrichment benchmarks.”
And with the consultation on the national curriculum already delayed until later this year, omens for timelines being hit aren’t as strong as everyone would like.
What do schools need next?
If there are going to be delays to the SEND reforms, schools must be informed about the length of these and the rationale behind them, says Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders.
This is particularly the case for specialist provision packages, considering they will underpin EHCPs and provide a legal entitlement to support, she adds.
“This is a long process and nobody is pretending it is simple. Where we think there is room for improvement is the way in which the reforms are communicated and how the basis for decisions taken is explained.”
Leaders need to know what accountability will look like in the reformed system, especially given schools will be in charge of ISPs, Williams says, and also what funding will look like long term.
The government needs to be able to describe the sequencing of reform better and how things will be put in place and when, he adds.
Schools and trusts need a clear vision from the government about how all the parts fit together, Cruddas agrees - and the legislation would be a good opportunity for this.
“We also need clear communications to children and parents about how things will change, so they understand how the changes can improve the education they receive,” she adds.
