Last week, the Secretary of State for Education made the long-awaited Statement about the Schools White Paper. While the principles of more support in schools, evidence-led packages, early intervention, and more speech and language therapists are welcome, for the Spelthorne parents of children with SEND, it would appear to have raised more questions than answers.
The most significant takeaway was the phasing out of EHCPs in favour of Individual Support Plans (ISPs). EHCPs will only be available to those with ‘the most complex needs’ but there has been no clear explanation of the criteria. It is also not clear from the document what will trigger an ISP, nor the funding that will be associated with it.
While £4 billion over three years to “make every school an inclusive school” sounds impressive it does require further clarification particularly about the £1.6 billion pot for inclusive mainstream provision over three years. While £1.6 billion looks good on paper, it equates to £24,000 per year per school if divided evenly across every school in England. That is nowhere near enough for the extra work that schools will have to cover to write individually tailored ISPs for every SEND child. This is a massive burden to place on schools and £24,000 a year is not enough to help them manage it.
The Secretary of State has also failed to rule out whether any child who currently has an EHCP will have it removed following the review that will take place before the child enters secondary school. Even with excellent support in primary school, secondary school with larger pupil numbers, bigger buildings and less individual attention presents significant challenges for students with SEN and the Government needs to keep this in mind.
The Government has opened a consultation to which parents, schools and other interested parties can contribute down below.
It closes on 18 May 2026.
Special Needs Jungle and IPSEA have published their responses to the White Paper and you may wish to access it at:
https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/
https://www.ipsea.org.uk/.../Cat.../schools-white-paper-faqs
I would also be interested in hearing directly from parents and schools at [email protected]
