Act now! Sign and Share the Parliamentary Petition to PROTECT SEND RIGHTS!

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** Read the updates to this post**

If you’re a SEND parent or a teacher, certain headlines last week likely made your blood run cold – headlines like “250,000 SEND pupils could lose their legal guarantees of extra support”. Behind those headlines were comments from Dame Christine Lenehan, former head of the Council for Disabled Children and now strategic government advisor on SEND. We discussed her comments here (in less click-baity terms) last week.

Dame Christine confirmed consideration was being given to statutory plans no longer being available to children in mainstream schools. She is quotes as stating (inaccurately) that EHCPs were only ever meant for children who needed support from health and social care as well as education.

No time to read all the article now? Click for the petition link

Shock and Flaw…

The government has been insistent that “inclusive mainstream” is the way forward for the SEND system, so Lenehan’s comments came as a shock even to us. The thought of shoehorning almost all disabled children into mainstream schools, without any promise of the provision they need, is chilling.

The only way to achieve this would be a change to the current law. Once that particular Pandora’s Box is opened, all bets are off—and this is the main reason we have steadfastly opposed any reform of the Children and Families Act.

Despite Dame Christine saying we shouldn’t be worried, parents and teachers will be terrified by these suggestions. If needs outstrip resources now, imagine what that will be like with even more children who should be in specialist provision but can’t get an EHCP, crammed into mainstream with inadequate staffing. We can foresee increased exclusions, an even bigger increase in applications for statutory assessments, and far more children than now out of school without any kind of provision. Is this what the government wants? Dame Christine has written about her comments in The Independent, but when she says “I have every reassurance that for the hundreds of thousands of children with EHCPs, there will continue to be high-quality support,” is neither reassuring or explanatory.

This is NOT the way to solve the SEND crisis

If the government wants to build a fantastic system where EHCPs are rarely ever needed, bring it on. In an ideal world, our schools would be sufficiently resourced and trained to offer immediate and effective support to every child who needs it, and we’d watch as the need for EHCPs gradually fell. This would be a long, careful program of change with both High Needs debt written off and a massive increase in school funding, ringfenced for SEND. Given that all of this is predicated on the need to save money, that seems beyond unlikely.

Back in December, we wrote about the Institute for Fiscal Studies report into SEND spending. They asked “What would need to change for parents to trust the system to meet their children’s needs without statutory obligations?”. It seems the government have taken that question to heart, but hasn’t bothered to seek an answer they don’t want to hear. Unless we see dramatic change, where needs are being met effectively at a non-statutory level, there is nothing that will reassure us that needs will be met unless the law requires it. If they’re not going to ask, we need to tell them this – right now.

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The thin end of the wedge?

While we need to remember that these are NOT YET published proposals, forewarned is forearmed. And this Government has form in targeting the elderly and disabled adults and children, instead of the wealthy to bear the brunt of the financial “black hole”.

Let’s not forget, anyone’s child, grandchild or close relative can be born disabled or become disabled, so if your family is not affected now, you could be in the near future.

How can anyone stand by as the government visits the pain of the previous government’s failures on those least able to bear it? This is the thin end of the wedge—if disabled children’s inconvenient rights are stripped away, whose rights will be next?

Send a message to parliamentarians—SIGN the petition.

Without a strong response to these proposals, the back room discussions about the future of our children’s rights will continue unimpeded. We need to be loud, and it needs to be now – before decisions are made. Signing a petition may not seem much—but it sends a message abotu what people want and don’t want

Over the last few months, I’ve worked to get a parliamentary petition in place, which asks the government to commit to maintaining disabled children’s existing legal rights to assessment and support in education. There has been a fantastic response, with the petition receiving over 8,000 signatures on Sunday alone. This is a testament to the number of families and professionals who would be affected by a change in law.

We’ve passed the 10,000 signature target, which will ensure a response from the government, but these are often minimal. We’ve passed 20,000 after sharing the petition on our socials yesterday—but we need 100,000 signatures to ensure this petition is debated in the House of Commons, and your support will help us to achieve that.

Please sign the petition and share this information with your families, friends, schools and SEND groups. There will be more to come, and I know we are all exhausted from the fight. Let’s focus on the actions we can take now and make our voices heard. You can hear me talking more about this here

CLICK TO SIGN THE SAVE SEND RIGHTS PETITION!

IPSEA has today created a template for you to write to your MP about this too. You can find and download it here

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Also read:

What kind of government is “bold” enough to scrap statutory EHCPs from vulnerable children?May 16, 2025Special Needs Jungle

EOTAS: Education Otherwise Than At School. What is it, and can I get it?November 2, 2021Nicole Lee

Schools White Paper: What do we know so far about funding for SEND?February 23, 2026Matt Keer

The SEND reforms in the Schools White Paper reveal rights given, and rights stripped awayFebruary 24, 2026Special Needs Jungle

ADHD and Autism Right To Choose referrals paused as at least nine NHS areas tell providers to stop booking assessmentsNovember 28, 2025Rachel Filmer

Nancy's tips for writing an EHCP parental statementJanuary 22, 2018Nancy Gedge

EHCPs 2025 show a 22.5% rise in pupils “educated elsewhere” than in schools. Plus, check out our annual LA Hall of ShameJune 27, 2025Matt Keer

Act now! Sign and Share the Parliamentary Petition to PROTECT SEND RIGHTS!May 20, 2025Rachel Filmer

The DfE’s URGENT survey for data on its new obsession: Mainstream SEND unitsJuly 23, 2025Gillian Doherty

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About
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Rachel Filmer

Parent Carer and Campaigner at Stop Safety Valve

Rachel Filmer is a SEND campaigner and parent of disabled twins boys, who are thriving in a specialist school following an arduous tribunal process in 2020.

Since then, Rachel has volunteered supporting local families through the EHCP and appeal process. She is passionate about the legal rights of disabled children and empowering parents to challenge unlawful decision making.

Rachel previously worked in publishing and international events before setting up her own business as an artist and tutor. For the last six years she has worked in co-production, predominantly within maternity and reproductive health, and strongly believes that SEND services should be designed alongside those accessing them.

Rachel founded local campaign group BCP Alliance for Children & Schools (www.BCPACS.uk) bringing together parents, education staff and unions to campaign against funding and service cuts within education. She also started the national Stop Safety Valve campaign