Sources in the special needs sector have told The i Paper that legal changes to the criteria for education, health and care plans (EHCPs) – which guarantee pupils a certain level of support in schools – are being considered by ministers.
The Government has said that “no decisions on SEND reform have been taken, and any plans would look to improve support for children to thrive in education”.
EHCPs could become ‘harder to get’
Sources say the Government is looking at ways of revising legislation from 2014 to clarify and be more specific about which children should qualify for an EHCP.
The end result could mean a reduction in the number of children with plans that entitle them to expensive state-funded places in private special schools, and an increase in the number of pupils with SEND in mainstream schools.
This can be used to adapt classrooms for children with SEND, and to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to pupils’ needs.
This increase is the main reason local authorities have accumulated a combined £3.3bn deficit in their “high needs” education budgets, according to a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in December.
However, some campaigners are alarmed by the idea of any change that could cut the number of EHCPs.
How changing EHCP thresholds could work
Under the 2014 Children and Families Act, children are granted an EHCP following a two-step legal test. Firstly, a school parent can request an EHCP assessment if the child has or may have special educational needs and if these needs can only be met via special educational provision.
After the assessment, if the local authority judges that the child’s needs cannot be met within a mainstream school, they will issue an EHCP.
A revision of the thresholds set by the 2014 Act could mean less support for SEND children, with a push to educate more within mainstream schools.
A union source specialising in SEND said changing EHCP thresholds is an “obvious solution to the present situation which is out of control”. They said this could be via changing the assessment criteria or by becoming “stricter about producing plans”.
“Reducing the legal rights of disabled children, aside from being morally bankrupt, will do nothing to avert bankruptcies in local authorities and pressure on government spending.
Catriona Moore from SEND legal advice charity IPSEA, said: “No one has produced any evidence that any child or young person has an EHC plan that they don’t need. The current legal threshold is for a needs assessment, which may or may not result in an EHC plan being issued.
Anna Bird, chair of the Disabled Children’s Partnership, a coalition of more than 120 charities and parent groups, said: “We share the Government’s ambition that more children with special educational needs can get an education without going through a legal process.
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“The current reality for hundreds of thousands of children is that securing an Education, Health and Care Plan is the only way to get the support they need. Reducing the number of children eligible for plans would leave more and more disabled children without the education every other child and family takes for granted.”
He said: “If you get the right intervention for a child, many of them never go on to need an education healthcare plan – we see that time and time again…
Unions call for more resources to support SEND
Education unions say they agree the Government needs to address the rise in EHCPs, but say mainstream schools need more funding and resources to support more SEND children.
He said he was concerned that “simply tightening the regulations will result in more children being denied appropriate support”.
“However, we need to be mindful that simply reducing the number of EHCPs being granted or changing the processes involved in granting them won’t change the underlying needs that children and young people have.”
“This would entail ensuring that mainstream schools have the funding necessary to provide more support in their settings – something which is not currently the case. It would also necessitate having ready access to specialists such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists, where there are often shortages.
“It is vital that this is done in the right order – the system needs to be sorted out before changing EHCP thresholds.”
“The system we inherited has been failing to meet the needs of children and families for far too long, which is why we are engaging with experts, schools, parents and families on plans for reform.
“Through our Plan for Change, we are determined to improve inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, relieve the unsustainable strain on local government finances, and restore parents’ trust that their child will get the right support.”
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