The government has reported that in the last academic year, 1.7 million children in England were deemed to have special educational needs, with 482,640 having Educational Health Care Plans (EHCPs), amounting to 5.3% of the school population. A further 1,284,284 were deemed to have special educational needs, without having an EHCP.
As the number of EHCPs has risen by over 10% in a year, the new Labour government has been looking to overhaul the whole Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, which it sees as essentially broken. This has caused a great deal of concern among parents of children with special educational needs, particularly those whose children have EHCPs. Indeed it was reported in mid-September that parents who were deeply worried about the government’s plans to change special needs education in England had taken their struggle to parliament on 15 September, where the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey was said to have warned the prime minister: “Get this wrong and you are out.”
Concerned parents
It was further reported that:
“Up to 700 parents, many carrying colourful, homemade banners, took part in the Westminster day of protest. ‘Failed,’ said one poster in blood-red paint, dripping over a list of children’s names. ‘Stop cuts, start caring,’ said another.”
The reason for the day of action was that there is growing concern that the changes the Labour government bring in will “restrict or abolish education, health and care plans (EHCPs) – legally binding documents that more than 600,000 children and young people rely on for individual support.”
This concern was further fuelled by the news that Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson had told education leaders that she wouldn’t “shy away from [doing] what’s difficult and long term” after a row reopened over planned SEND reforms. It was also noted that the government had been heavily criticised over plans being considered to overhaul EHCPs including “potentially rationing them for pupils in special schools only. The row was reopened after Phillipson had refused to rule out scrapping EHCPs when asked.” Since then, a new campaign group has been launched to campaign against the changes which they claim to be the “greatest threat to children and schools in over a decade.”
How easy is it to get an EHCP?
Many parents are refused EHCPs for their children when they first apply for them. Following this a lot of parents give up. But however difficult an appeal process is, many keep trying and find their child’s case going to a SEND tribunal. The SEND tribunal is described as:
“An independent national tribunal which decides appeals against local authority (LA) decisions about the special educational needs (SEN) of children and young people. It also hears claims of disability discrimination against any type of school, and maintained nursery schools. Its full name is The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability).”
The process of getting an EHCP is often very difficult and has been described by the journalist John Harris, who has gone down the appeals road with regards to his son, as “usually a grinding struggle.” However, as he has also pointed out, the numbers of children having EHCPs has gone up in recent years because, “in an endlessly squeezed school system, they are often the only way of securing dependable help.”
It was reported ministers were looking at bringing in laws to change the system by which Special Needs children can get support plans which they need to access a full range of state assistance. In 2024-2025 the House of Commons Education Committee published a report ‘Solving the SEND crisis,’ in which they said:
“Throughout our inquiry, we heard from exhausted parents fighting for basic support, teachers stretched beyond capacity and committed professionals working within services buckling under pressure. Their voices were clear and consistent: the current system is not working.”
Parents protests
It is little wonder then that 700 parents staged a protest outside Westminster parliament on 15 September. These parents are genuinely worried that the support their children need is going to be withdrawn.
The protests are continuing to build. The next day, 16th September it was reported that a petition aimed at highlighting parents’ concerns about the prospect of moving to a largely non-statutory system of support, with the scrapping of legally binding EHCPs had been debated in parliament as it had easily passed the 100,000 mark.
Another campaign group, Save Our Children’s Rights (SOCR) have also noted that:
“There are worrying indications that the government plans to weaken or remove these rights in order to save money. This could leave some children and young people with no legally enforceable right to an accessible education that meets their needs.”
SOCR are demanding that:
“Any plans to scrap EHCPs are halted, and that instead any education reforms introduced must work in the interests of children and families, particularly those who are most vulnerable.”
The petition resulted in a three-hour debate in Westminster Hall which it is reported was attended by 90 MPs, and shows the level of concern that the issue is gradually starting to reach among MPs. It has been noted that Members, from Greens, Liberal Democrats and Tories all spoke against the changes, as did a number of Labour MPs who were present.
SEND report
On 18th September a report published by the House of Commons Education Select Committee, which said that the committee was calling for “a root and branch transformation of the way mainstream education caters to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)”. However, as John Harris pointed out, while the report states that the current demand and need for EHCPs is “unsustainable,” it also “insists – entirely correctly – that the solution to that problem lies in doggedly improving ordinary, everyday support, not taking rights away and leaving children stranded.”
The threat from Reform UK
As if the threat of potential reforms and the scrapping of EHCPs wasn’t enough for parents to worry about, there is another even larger threat on the horizon for hundreds of thousands of parents.
The one party which it was reported had no MPs present at the debate in Westminster Hall on 18th September was Reform UK. This would come as no surprise to anybody who has been following their hardline and wholly destructive stance towards the provision of special education.
It was reported in August that parents in Derbyshire had accused the leader of the local county council of “ignorance” after he had claimed that children were being “over-diagnosed” with special educational needs. It was noted that:
“Alan Graves, who began leading the council when Reform UK took control in the local elections in May, also suggested some schools encouraged parents to apply for things their children did not need.”
Then it was reported in early September that Reform UK’s deputy leader had claimed that a number of parents are ‘using and abusing’ free taxis to school for children with special educational needs or disabilities.
No evidence was provided by either Reform UK politician in either of these cases. In response to the allegations made by Alan Graves in Derbyshire, Mel Merritt, the head of policy and campaigns at the National Autistic Society, was reported to have commented that Graves was “spreading misinformation”, going to say that “children with special educational needs and disabilities, including autistic children, are not being over-diagnosed, they face huge delays and long fights to get the most basic support.”
Comment
The rise on the number of EHCPs is for one reason only; as schools have become ever more strapped for cash the only way that hundreds of thousands of parents can guarantee getting the support that their child needs is by going down the often exhausting and frustrating EHCP road. Consequently, the only way to reduce the number of EHCPs, without harming children’s life chances in the process, is to start funding education properly and start to redress the savage cuts that there have been to education since 2010. Anything else would seriously harm many thousands of children’s lives, and as Carrie Grant has rightly pointed out will only cost more in the long run. Education should not be seen as a financial burden, but as a thoroughly worthwhile investment in the future of the Country, the way it used to be before the curse of neo-liberalism began to do so much damage to the fabric of our society.
Meanwhile the threat of Reform UK winning more councils and ultimately national power in Westminster should concern not only the 1.7 million parents who have children with special needs, but all of us who rightly believe in giving all children a fair chance if life to help them to fulfil their potential. And, as with other aspects of Reform UK’s policies it is important that the electorate are made fully aware of the potential consequences of their policies in the field of education.
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