Sense ‘deeply concerned’ by new proposals to reassess children’s entitlement to SEND support

19 February 2026 – Government leaks to the media reveal details of the upcoming Schools White Paper, which will reform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.

Responding to these reports, Kate Lawson, Head of Policy at Sense, said:

“For many families, an EHCP is the only enforceable guarantee that their child will receive the specialist education, health and social care support they need to learn and thrive in school. Limiting EHCPs to those deemed to have the ‘most complex needs’ raises urgent questions about who decides that threshold and how families are expected to prove it – particularly when NHS waiting lists for assessment continue to grow. We are also deeply concerned by proposals to reassess children’s entitlement to support at major transition points, such as the move to secondary school, when stability is critical.

“We recognise the introduction of new Individual Support Plans and Specialist Provision Packages, which would place support for all children with SEND on a statutory footing, and that is a positive step. However, it is not yet clear whether these new plans will include the same enforceable rights to coordinated health and social care support that many disabled children with complex needs currently rely on through an EHCP. Families are exhausted from battling a system that is under-resourced and too often adversarial. Any new system must protect that joined-up entitlement and ensure it remains legally enforceable.

“It is deeply disappointing that families are learning about the potential future of their children’s rights through media leaks rather than directly from government. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix what is broken, but it must be driven by disabled children’s needs, backed by proper funding and workforce investment, and designed to work with families rather than against them.”