Keir Starmer discusses radical reforms to special education needs

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Thousands fewer students could be entitled to the full package of special educational support in England thanks to radical changes being considered by Sir Keir Starmer, as the Labor Party seeks to improve the “neglected” system.

Senior government officials said ministers were considering legislation to change the system by which children with special education needs (SEN) get the support plans needed to access a full suite of state assistance.

Education, Health and Support Plans (EHCP) were introduced in 2014 as part of the Children and Families Act, which sets out the support that local authorities are legally required to provide to children with the greatest needs.

EHCPs unlock additional help for those who are eligible, including personalized support, transport services and, in some cases, access to expensive private education.

The proposals under consideration involve changes to the system underpinning the provision of support, which would likely affect children at the “milder” end of the spectrum of conditions such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, according to a senior official.

“It would mean thousands fewer students would receive statements,” one official said.

The move would be just one part of a wider set of reforms Starmer is introducing to the SEN system.

The government is seeking to significantly increase the provision of special education support within mainstream schools, including £740m announced this month for local authorities to create new SEN places.

He has also promised to improve early intervention services offered to schools to prevent students’ conditions from worsening over time.

Starmer said this week that his “heritage at SEN was a system neglected to the point of total crisis”.

“We have to reform, implement a much earlier intervention system and make sure it is predominantly general,” he told parliament’s Liaison Committee on Thursday.

“If we don’t change the way special education is provided, we will never be able to close the gap and solve the problem,” he added.

Experts say the SEN system is broken and demand for EHCP is skyrocketing, putting enormous pressure on council budgets.

Meanwhile, they argue, very limited support is offered to people with SEN who do not obtain a declaration, leading families and schools to seek EHCP for some less serious conditions.

Local authorities have racked up deficits in their high-needs budgets of around £3.3bn this year, according to the IFS, which warned this figure could rise to more than £8bn in the next three years.

Outcomes First Group, England’s largest provider of specialist education for children with SEN, published a report this week calling on the government to redesign the EHCP process with a tiered assessment model.

The proposed model would limit statements to the “most serious SEN cases requiring comprehensive and specialized intervention”, while offering simpler and more specific interventions to people with less complex needs.

Luke Sibieta, a researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said that given the growing number of students with EHCP, “it’s not a surprise that the government is starting to think about grading.”

Sibieta added that a “missing part of the existing system” is state support for those whose needs do not qualify for a full entitlement to the EHCP.

The number of children and young people needing support for special education needs in England has more than doubled in the last decade, from 240,000 in January 2015 to 576,000 in January 2024, according to the National Audit Office.

Nearly five per cent of all students now have a special needs plan, up from a steady rate of 2.9 per cent between 2000 and 2018, according to the IFS.

Rising demand has outstripped funding, despite a real-terms increase in the government’s high needs budget of more than 50 per cent over the last decade: from £6.8bn in 2015 to more than £10bn in 2024.

The government said there were “too many children who were not seeing their needs met and parents were forced to fight for support”, adding that it was determined to “restore the confidence of families” across the country.