On 23 February 2026 the government announced an open consultation on SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First. The consultation closes on 18 May 2026.
The consultation sets out the government’s proposed changes to improve outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including the provision of early, fair support, with shared accountabilities across local partners. The government also proposes to revise the SEND Code of Practice.
The proposals include the following:
Based upon the government’s vision of one education system for all children and young people, including those with SEND, there will be a Universal Offer of high-quality teaching and support for all from early years to age 25.
Three levels of support are proposed for children and young people who need additional support beyond the Universal Offer.
A new Targeted Offer in mainstream settings that gives access to expertise like speech and language therapists, small group provision or adaptations to the curriculum, without the need for lengthy assessments.
Targeted support will cover commonly occurring needs that every mainstream setting should be familiar with and able to respond to.
Targeted Plus Support provides help through the offer of support from ‘Experts at Hand’, and is intended to improve access to professionals like speech and language therapists. It may also include access to Inclusion Bases within mainstream settings. Targeted Plus Support will cover less commonly occurring needs, that require mainstream settings to work together with local government and health partners to draw on the expertise of education and health professionals.
Children and young people receiving the Targeted and Targeted Plus layers of support will have Individual Support Plans, but not Education, Health and Care Plans.
Individual Support Plans will be provided by the child’s school, college or early years setting and developed in partnership with parents. ISPs will be digital, accessible and evolve with the child.
Specialist Support will be provided to those with complex needs. These children and young people will have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
For those with the most complex needs, highly specialised provision is required, beyond that which can be delivered in the Universal and Targeted layers. The Specialist layer will provide this support, in both specialist and mainstream settings, based on nationally defined Specialist Provision Packages. These Packages will form the basis of an EHCP, which will outline the evidence-based educational support required by the child or young person.
Inclusion Bases offering greater levels of specialist expertise will become a core part of the local education offer, delivering high-quality teaching and support to children with more complex needs who would benefit from provision that bridges the current gap between mainstream and specialist.
Bringing more expert advice and services from education and health professionals (such as education psychologists or speech and language therapists) into mainstream education settings.
A new duty on schools to produce an Inclusion Strategy, setting out what they will provide across the Universal offer, and Targeted, and including Targeted Plus layers of support, and how they will deliver evidence-based support to children and young people with SEND. There will be a requirement to use evidence-based resources and interventions to identify and meet need.
This will be a decade-long reform programme and new legislation is not expected to come into effect until September 2029. Until then the current system – with its existing duties, rights, and funding routes – will remain in place.
Following new legislation, children and young people who have an EHCP will have their needs assessed at transition points and either move onto a Specialist Provision Package or be supported through Individual Support Plans and the Experts at Hand service.
No child or young person will leave a special school or college placement as a result of these changes, unless they choose to do so.
Any child with an EHCP (or any who has been assessed as needing one) in a mainstream setting as of the legislation’s commencement date will retain their EHCP and associated provision until they finish their current phase of education (primary, secondary, post-16) or until they choose to move to the new system. Children with an EHCP in the early years will retain their EHCP and associated provision until they finish the primary phase, when it will be reviewed.
The first cohort of children and young people to transition will be those at the end of primary, secondary and Post-16 in 2029/30. They will be assessed from September 2029 and will move to the new system in September 2030. If, after they have been assessed, a child or young person is due to move to an ISP rather than a Specialist Provision Package and a new EHCP, they will still keep their current EHCP until the end of the 2029/30 academic year. In addition, all children and young people who move from an EHCP to an ISP will retain the ability to request a placement at a mainstream setting of their choice. All children and young people who have a special school place in September 2029 will be able to stay in special school until the end of their education, unless they choose to move to a mainstream setting. Their EHCP and support will continue to be reviewed annually.
