Government publishes White Paper on SEND reform and invites people’s views

What are these documents?

Every Child Achieving and Thriving White Paper outlines a number of changes that government are hoping to make. This is across the broader scope of education and includes their vision for all children in the UK, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First details the proposed changes, and the government will be gathering more views before any changes are made.

You can now provide your views via the Department for Education consultation website, or you can email SENDreform.CONSULTATION@education.gov.uk.

What does this mean for me?

At the moment, the SEND Reform document is open for consultation. Nothing will change immediately. We appreciate there is a lot of new information to process, and this may be a worrying time for some families.

The Department for Education (DfE) have published a number of documents to give you a summary of their proposed changes, including:

• What parents of children and young people with SEND need to know [PDF 210KB] - Outlines their key proposals and addresses some frequently asked questions.
• Information on SEND reform for parents and carers who have children with EHCPs [PDF 246KB] - Includes more information about the new proposals for a tiered support system, including education, health and care plans (EHCPs), and the new Individual Support Plans and Specialist Provision Packages. It also includes a proposed timeline of the transition to their new system.
• Information on SEND reform for parents and carers of children and young people in special schools [PDF 179KB] - Includes more information about your child's school placement, and if your child currently attends a special school. 
• Information on SEND Reform for parents and carers of children receiving SEND support in mainstream schools and colleges [PDF 226KB] - Includes more information about what families can expect at SEND support level under the new proposals. 

There are further documents available for those who work in early years, mainstream, post-16 and specialist settings: Every child achieving and thriving and SEND consultation supporting information - GOV.UK. 

What about at a local level?

These documents are still very new, and all local authorities will currently be reading and reviewing them. Our next steps as the Cumberland SEND and Alternative Provision Partnership will be to wait for the results of the national consultation, before beginning to consider our local plan of implementation based on the outcomes. 

Throughout this process we will work very closely with the statutory parent-carer forum for Cumberland, SENDAC, to ensure we hear the voices and views of Cumberland families. We will keep all families up to date of our progress. SENDAC are currently reviewing the White Paper, SEND Reform Consultation Paper and the proposed changes, and intend to publish a response soon. You can follow SENDAC on Facebook. Any parent/carer is also welcome to become a member of SENDAC. They are a key partner in the Cumberland SEND Partnership and are always looking for new members to ensure the voices of parents and carers are heard in Cumberland. 

We have already begun to review how we work as a Local Partnership following a letter from the DfE in January. This is not strictly related to the proposed reforms, but looking at how we can work more effectively as a Partnership across health, education, and social care.