The Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care are reforming the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system to improve outcomes for children and young people, including those with autism. The reform addresses concerns about postcode lottery in specialist provision access, the scope of enforceable rights through Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), and specialist provision packages. The Education and Training (Young People with Autism) Bill is currently active, with recent parliamentary scrutiny focusing on impact assessments and alignment with select committee recommendations.
Direction: from_committee
Direction: from_committee
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her department is taking to consider the recommendations in the Law Commission's 2025 report on disabled children's social care; and what assessment she has made of the potential for legislative …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Law Commission's report on social care law, what steps her department is taking to help ensure that disabled children have access to social care support; and what assessment …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her department is taking to support autistic students with Pathological Demand Avoidance in mainstream school settings.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help children with special educational needs and disabilities from mobile military families access continuous specialised support at school.
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 30 March (HL15056), why specialist places for pupils with special educational needs are not provided on the basis of specific distinct needs; and whether …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what national dataset her Department is using for proposed reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities system.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to maximise the portability of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities provision for children of Armed Forces families when they move between (a) local authority areas wit
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 30 March (HL14338), what is the expected timescale for (1) the consultation of the proposals for special educational needs and disabilities reform, and (2) …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will have discussions with Diabetes UK on (a) the open consultation on SEND reform, and (b) reforms to the SEND support system more broadly.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to help ensure Staffordshire County Council is able to effectively support children and young people with additional needs in a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and b) Staffordshire.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities system in England take account of the needs of children from armed forces families with additional …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether children with Developmental Language Disorder were considered when writing the policy paper entitled SEND reform: putting children and young people first.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she will take to ensure children with Developmental Language Disorder are adequately supported following upcoming reforms to the SEND system.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of local authority data on special educational needs and disabilities provision when costing proposed reforms to that system.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the specialist provision packages mentioned in the SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First consultation on children with complex needs relian
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the projected costs per child of pupils in Targeted, Targeted Plus and Specialist layers of support are, respectively.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether in areas with middle schools, a pupil transitioning to Middle school or from Middle school will count as a change in phase of education for the purposes of the EHCP reforms …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether there are any changes of circumstances or residency, other than moving to secondary school or college, which could trigger the ‘change of educational phase’ provisions in the EHCP reforms she outlined …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has undertaken an impact assessment of the potential reduction in enforceable rights for families arising from restricting EHCPs to only the most complex needs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact on school attendance and educational outcomes for children whose ADHD or autism assessments have been delayed due to the pause of Right …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of the number of children who are left without appropriate support plans or adjustments as a result of delays in diagnostic …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help schools in the Newbury constituency to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using the specialist sector to complement the inclusive mainstream sector; and what steps she is taking to (a) support and (b) invest …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether proposed SEND reforms include provision for education other than in school.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many SEND pupils will have left school entirely before single ECHP reform takes place.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to SEND reforms, what provisions will be made for home-educated children with SEND and children with Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA).
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consideration her Department has given to the findings and recommendations of relevant select committee inquiries on SEND provision when developing recent reform proposals.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to SEND reforms, what assessment she has made of the potential administrative burden on teachers under the new system.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how far the proposed SEND reforms will address the postcode lottery in access to specialist education support.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support schools in meeting the needs of children awaiting neurodevelopmental assessments who are experiencing escalating difficulties.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support neurodivergent and SEND pupils with their studies in (a) Leicester, (b) the East Midlands and (c) England.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department's proposed SEND reforms will support children who receive education otherwise than at school packages.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make a statement on parental rights upon the implementation of SEND reforms outlined in the Schools White Paper.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will include Pathological Demand Avoidance in the proposed reforms to SEND provision.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that individual needs are assessed and met through Specialist Provision Packages.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what metrics will be used to assess whether the next national Autism Strategy improves outcomes for autistic people across a) education b) health and c) employment.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the development of the next national Autism Strategy is aligned with (a) the Department for Education’s Special Educational Needs and …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of proposed SEND reforms on care-experienced children whose needs arise from early trauma and attachment disruption, particularly where those needs span educ
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of developing a joint workforce plan with the Department for Health and Social Care to support sustainability of Experts at Hand service.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to ensure that children and young people will have a right to be educated in a specialist placement if their complex needs cannot be met in a mainstream …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of consultation undertaken in the development of proposed reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities system, particularly in relation to proposals on
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to SEND tribunal arrangements on the ability of families to challenge local authority decisions.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department have taken to help support research into the causes of autism.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure children with autism receive adequate support in Ashfield constituency.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to publish the number and proportion of responses to the consultation entitled SEND reform: putting children and young people first, published on 23 February 2026, …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish all (a) analysis, (b) impact assessments and (c) internal summaries of stakeholder responses used to inform decisions on SEND reform proposals.
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to establish joint commissioning arrangements between the Department for Education and the Department for Health and Social Care to ensure that there are a sufficient number of occupational therap
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of adequacy of the Law Commission's findings regarding regional variations in support for disabled children; and what steps her Department is taking to help ensure consistent entitl
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to consider the recommendations in the Law Commission's 2025 report on disabled children's social care; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of …
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that disabled children have access to social care support following the Law Commission's report on social care law; and what assessment she has …
Direction: to_committee
Following our evidence session in December 2025, on 23 February 2026 the Government announced the reforms intended “to transform outcomes for children with SEND and end one size fits all approach”, and published its schools white paper detailing reforms to …
Following the introduction of the Children and Families Act (CFA), local authority spending on school transport for children and young people with SEND increased by 106% in real terms over the period 2015–16 to 2023–24— from £0.85 billion to £1.76 …
The Department told us that the biggest driver of cost was SEND provision and described successful SEND reform as the single thing that would make the biggest difference. It told us that children and young people with education, health and …
Given its reliance on SEND reform to deliver significant change, we asked the Department if it had sufficient data on the current situation to enable it to evaluate the impact of the new reforms. The Department told us that it …
Contact explained that the changes in entitlement to transport after age 16 could feel like a “cliff edge” for those that would no longer receive it and that it had huge impacts on the whole family.34 The charity told us …
In written evidence, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) raised its concerns about the unsustainable pressure that the costs of SEND transport were placing on local authority general budgets, noting that these transport costs are not covered by …
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We welcome the Department’s focus on inclusive education; however, we are concerned about the absence of a Departmental definition of this and the subsequent lack of clarity about what ‘inclusive mainstream’ education looks like and means in practice for educators, …
The Department must urgently assess the funding required to implement meaningful reforms to SEND provision. There must be a clear plan for how the Department will work towards this level of investment in the short and medium term, which aligns …
The SEND system is not delivering for children and young people or their families, with poor experiences and outcomes becoming the norm in many places across England. Rising need coupled with limited school resourcing, stretched local authority budgets and a …
It is essential that the Department addresses these challenges if it is going to succeed in making mainstream education inclusive and fixing the broken SEND system. The Department must involve stakeholders in reforms and begin to consult with parent-led organisations …
The current inconsistency in SEN support and ordinarily available provision across England is unacceptable and results in deeply inequitable experiences for children and young people with SEND. The lack of consistent good practice in SEN support, driven by insufficiently clear …
Current levels of EHC plans are unsustainable; however, the solution to this cannot be to remove the statutory entitlements from a system which lacks accountability in many other areas and in which parents already have so little trust and confidence. …
Support should be provided as soon as a need is identified, rather than only once an EHC plan is in place. This would bring England in line with good practice found internationally, for example in in Ontario, Canada, where entitlement …
Parents and carers of children and young people with SEND often feel excluded from the processes that affect their children’s education and support. However, meaningful and collaborative parental involvement is essential to the success of the SEND system. When parents …
Many children with SEND and their families continue to have unsatisfactory experiences when navigating the SEND system, particularly in their interactions with local authority staff. These challenges are often rooted in a failure to work empathetically in partnership with parents …
Local authority staff require improved training on child development, SEND law, parent engagement and mediation, alongside changes in practice that strengthen accountability and foster more constructive relationships with parents and carers. This should include meaningful parental involvement at eve
The DfE and DHSC should urgently develop a joint SEND workforce plan to address shortages and build capacity across education, health, and care services. This should include explicit measures to deliver a shift in the deployment of educational psychologists, speech …
We have seen and heard evidence that delivering inclusive practice in education improves long term outcomes for children and young people with SEND which has wider benefits to the economy as well as costing less to deliver than expensive specialist …
Funding must be strategically deployed to deliver the best outcomes for children and young people with SEND. This should include prioritised investment in early intervention. Timely and targeted support is essential 170 and can prevent some needs such as speech …
The current failure to embed Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) as a shared priority across government departments is not just a policy oversight, it is a profound injustice to some of the most vulnerable children in our society. It …
SEND should be identified as a priority across the health system and ongoing NHS restructuring must be used as an opportunity to strengthen the role and accountability of health services in supporting children and young people with SEND. This includes …
Bringing education and health more closely together should be supported by an evidence led approach, drawing on the role of NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) to produce new SEND guidelines and intervention pathways. (Recommendation, Paragraph 277) Type: …
Crucially, this must be backed by appropriate financial investment from the health sector to meet statutory duties, provide timely access to therapies and assessments, and contribute equitably to joint commissioning arrangements. All areas should have a robust and fully operational …
The Department of Health and Social Care must urgently appoint a dedicated national SEND lead to drive accountability and coordination across the health system. This role must be empowered and mandated to provide coherent strategic leadership on the delivery of …
The Government should place a clear statutory duty on health services, including ICBs and NHS providers, to ensure their full and accountable participation in the planning, commissioning, and delivery of SEND provision. This duty must align with the Children and …
As part of its ongoing service reform for the SEND sector, the Ministry must consider options for reforming or improving the efficiency of home-to-school transport services. Potential options include wider use of sharing transport, and capital investment to enable councils …
Without fully understanding why demand for support has increased, the Department’s ability to provide value for money is undermined. Over the last decade, demand for EHC plans has soared. In January 2024, there were 3 576,000 children with EHC plans, …
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Education (the Department), and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) on support for children and young people with special …
The Department acknowledged that the SEN system is not working well enough and said it wanted to change the system.10 There has been no consistent improvement in outcomes for children and young people since Type: conclusion | Number: 8 | …
The Department described how parental confidence provided a core indicator of an effective SEN system but that, with a third of parents having children with SEN in the state system feeling their child did not get necessary support, the system …
Parents are also increasingly appealing EHC plan decisions with the proportion being taken to a tribunal, parents’ final recourse for complaints, increasing from 1.6% in 2018 to 2.5% in 2023. The number of decisions appealed increased from 6,000 in 2018 …
Direction: to_committee
Too many people are waiting far too long to get their autism assessment and the backlog is getting worse. It is clear that current efforts to address the waiting list backlog are inadequate and that the additional funding that has …
The Department should commission a cross-government independent review of Education, Health and Care Plans and consider fundamental reform of this system, to put SEND provision on a financially sustainable footing for local authorities whilst ensuring that all children and young …
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The Government’s SEND reforms must move towards a less adversarial system that places less strain on children and families. Type: conclusion | Number: 41 | Paragraph: 100 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: The Government’s SEND reforms must move towards …
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While we wait for the much-delayed SEND review, the support system continues to fail many children and remains financially unsustainable. In May 2020, we reported that many children with SEND were being failed by the support system and recommended that …
In May 2020, we reported on the support in place for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We concluded that many children with SEND were being failed by the support system and recommended that the Department should, as …
The Department acknowledged that the SEND review had been far too long delayed and said that the Secretary of State had now committed to publishing the results of the review in the first quarter of 2022, alongside the Schools White …
In our report in May 2020, we found that there were not enough state special school places in some parts of the country, meaning that local authorities had to cover the high cost of places in independent schools and spend …
In September 2019, the Department announced a review of the support system for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The review aimed to improve services for families who needed support, equip staff to respond effectively to children’s additional …
In July 2021, the Department wrote to tell us that it had decided it should take more time to ensure its reform plans could deliver the systemic change needed, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic had materially altered the context for …
The Department highlighted three key things that it was doing while it worked on the SEND review. First, it had increased high-needs funding by about £1.5 billion in two years and made available £300 million of capital funding in 2021 …
In March 2021, the Department told us that it planned to publish a Green Paper towards the end of June 2021 with its proposals for improving SEND support.36 Consulting on proposals for change will be only the first step towards …
In light of the evidence we heard on children with SEND, the Department must reconsider the potential for creating an independent, neutral role, allocated to every parent or carer with a child when a request is made for a needs …
We urge the Government to publish its SEND Review without further delay, and will look forward to scrutinising any proposals it makes. Type: recommendation | Number: 14 | Paragraph: 59 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: 21. The SEND Review …
We recommend that the Government analyses the speed at which autism is diagnosed especially in children and young people, and puts in place a strategy to increase early diagnosis with measurable outcomes by the end of the financial year 2021–22. …
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At the time of writing, the Special Educational Needs and Disability (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, which temporarily modify the time limits in relation to EHC assessment and Plans, were due to expire on 25 September. This will add further pressure …