{"id":82176,"date":"2026-02-20T14:36:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?page_id=82176"},"modified":"2026-04-02T10:53:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:53:50","slug":"sense-deeply-concerned-by-new-proposals-to-reassess-childrens-entitlement-to-send-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/press-releases\/send\/sense-deeply-concerned-by-new-proposals-to-reassess-childrens-entitlement-to-send-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Sense ‘deeply concerned’ by new proposals to reassess children\u2019s entitlement to SEND support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

19 February 2026 \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>Government leaks to the media reveal details of the upcoming Schools White Paper, which will reform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to these reports, Kate Lawson, Head of Policy at Sense, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor 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 \u2018most complex needs\u2019 raises urgent questions about who decides that threshold and how families are expected to prove it \u2013 particularly when NHS waiting lists for assessment continue to grow. We are also deeply concerned by proposals to reassess children\u2019s entitlement to support at major transition points, such as the move to secondary school, when stability is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is deeply disappointing that families are learning about the potential future of their children\u2019s 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\u2019s needs, backed by proper funding and workforce investment, and designed to work with families rather than against them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n

Contact Sense’s media team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For more information, please get in touch with the Sense media team on mediaenquiries@sense.org.uk<\/a> or call 0203 833 0611.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

19 February 2026 \u2013\u00a0Government leaks to the media reveal details of the upcoming Schools White Paper, which will reform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":51898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1399],"tags":[],"display_author":[],"class_list":["post-82176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-send"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82176"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=82176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}