The Government should introduce a new statutory category of support delivered in schools for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), a report has said.
A Send taskforce set up by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has recommended creating a new system of additional learning support in schools for pupils with Send, and revamping education and health and care plans (EHCPs) into schemes coordinated by local authorities for the most complex needs.
Existing EHCPs, which are legal documents setting out support required for young people with Send should be retained, the taskforce added, so no child will lose one until there is “significantly better support for families through substantial reform”.
This comes after the Government announced on Wednesday it would delay publishing its Schools White Paper containing Send reforms until early next year.
Geoff Barton, former general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and chairman of the IPPR’s inclusion taskforce, told the PA news agency it is an “important reassurance for parents” that a new category of support would be statutory.
There have been concerns that EHCPs may be cut under the Government reforms, but education minister Georgia Gould has previously said there “will always be a legal right to additional support” for young people with Send.
Asked if successful reforms could lead to a reduction in the number of EHCPs issued, Mr Barton said ultimately they could.
“We’re quite explicit that if a child has been granted an EHCP, then you don’t suddenly start taking that away,” he said.
“Instead, you start thinking about, what are the alternative routes?”
The taskforce’s recommendation of statutory additional learning support would be focused around as early as possible in a child’s life identifying potential barriers to learning and how they could be resolved in their local area.
“We know that for 50% of Send children it’s speech and language issues” that are barriers to learning, Mr Barton said.
“So could we more locally, harnessing expertise from speech and language therapies, do the support as early as possible so parents don’t feel that they’ve got to wait, in some cases, a year or more for an EHCP?”
Reforms should be accompanied by Government investing in earlier intervention, including more funding for schools for Send professionals and teacher training, the taskforce said.
Margaret Mulholland, Send and inclusion specialist at ASCL, said addressing “insufficient core funding” in schools will be critical to the success of any new Send system.
“The question of what role education, health, and care plans play in this new landscape is fraught with jeopardy as families see these plans as a legal guarantee of support for their child,” she added.
“Any new approach will need to have their confidence.”
IPPR set up an inclusion taskforce in the summer to make recommendations to solve the Send system crisis.
One in 14 young people waited longer than a year to be issued an EHCP in 2024, researchers found, while the number of EHCP assessments conducted by local authorities increased by 250% between 2013 and 2024.
Last year, fewer than half (46.4%) of EHCPs were issued within the statutory time limit of 20 weeks.
In Leeds for example, more than half (57.2%) of young people waited more than a year for an EHCP in 2024.
A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said it continues to invest in work to reduce the time taken to complete assessment, which has already seen a 117% increase in EHCPs completed in the first three months of 2025, compared with the same period last year.
In Kirklees and Leicestershire, 46.2% and 44.6% of plans respectively were issued after more than a year.
A Leicestershire County Council spokesperson said extra resource and work has reduced timescales to an average of 24 weeks over the past year, and work is ongoing to reduce this even further.
Similarly, a spokesperson for Kirklees Council said it has since doubled the number of EHCPs issued within a 20-week timeframe, putting it above the national average, and a recent Send inspection said it now has “effective oversight” of new plans.
Beyond those three, at least one in five young people had to wait over a year to be issued their EHCP last year in 14 other councils.
However, in 86 out of 150 local authorities, 1% or fewer young people waited more than a year.
Researchers found poverty and the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as cuts to support services, are possible drivers of the huge increase in need.
Mr Barton added reforms will need careful thought to work out the details, work to build cross-party consensus, and it will be important for the Government to set out a timeline for reforms.
IPPR inclusion taskforce member and former education secretary Baroness Morgan said: “Tinkering around the edges of the system will not be enough to give all children, especially those with additional needs, an excellent education.”
A DfE spokesperson said it’s unacceptable parents are “forced to fight for every scrap of support”.
“Work is already underway to make sure support is available as routine and at the earliest stage – including through improved training for teachers, £740 million to create more specialist school places, earlier intervention for speech and language needs and embedding Send leads in our Best Start Family Hubs in every local area,” the spokesperson added.
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