It’s over three years since the Department for Education (DfE) announced it planned to introduce a standardised and digitised process and template for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).
Under the previous government’s plans, this work was supposed to be completed by the end of this year. Once finished, it was supposed to “improve consistency and best practice” and “reduce the burden of administrative process in the system, improve the experience and satisfaction of parents, carers and professionals and improve [government’s] ability to monitor the health of the SEND system.”
But now, it looks like the Labour government has quietly ditched this work. It’s a decision that makes no sense at all—unless it plans to abolish EHCPs completely.
An FOI request
In the summer, an SNJ volunteer put in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the DfE. They requested information on the status of the proposed EHCP template, as well as a copy of the finished template and guidance.
The DfE responded to this FOI request as follows:
“The EHCP standardised template and supporting guidance were due to be revised last summer, based on findings from the Change Programme Partnership Local Authorities (CPP LAs). This work was never completed due to the change in government. We are no longer commissioning LAs on the EHCP standardised template, although some of them may have chosen to continue its use within their local areas. Due to this, I can confirm that the information you have requested is not held [by the DfE].”
DfE response to FOI request
Uh-huh.
In parallel, the DfE IT project team that was working on the digital harmonisation of EHCP processes announced in July 2025 that it had “paused” its work, “while we collate a significant amount of information to support the changes Bridget Phillipson outlines in her speech to the Confederation of School Trusts.”
The speech they’re referring to was delivered in November 2024. It outlines a basis for deep SEND reform. In Whitehall-speak, this means that the original purpose of the DfE’s IT project has now changed beyond recognition—that there is currently no point in proceeding with a standardised digital platform for EHCPs.
So what’s going on here?
A good idea to improve EHCPs—ditched
The basic structure and functions of EHCPs are set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 and supporting regulations. However, each LA tends to use its own EHCP template, and they each use a wide range of coherent and incoherent processes and IT platforms.
The variation makes it hard for families, and for education and health professionals, to contribute. It makes it difficult for schools to administer plans if they have pupils from multiple local authorities, all with different layouts. It can make it hard for families moving areas to ensure their child’s EHCP is replicated in the new school. And it makes it near-impossible for system leaders to aggregate data from the content of EHCPs to get a sharper picture of what works well. So it made a lot of sense to create a standardised template.
The EHCP standardisation and digitalisation process was being run by the SEND and Alternative Programme Change Programme, set up by the previous government to road test ideas for SEND reform at a local level.
Late last year, we looked at what this £70m programme was getting up to. We know that local work to develop a standardised EHCP template and process continued well past the change of government in July 2024. We know that funding had been allocated to support it for the 2024-25 financial year.
The consultant-led SEND and AP Change Programme continues. It’s been extended into March 2026 and “refocused”, with a couple of new things it’ll be exploring. But EHCP process reform will not be one of those things.
The EHCP standardisation project was the lowest-hanging fruit of SEND improvement, with strong support for it across all parts of the SEND system. It was the easiest and least controversial part of the Change Programme. It’s the nearest thing to a no-brainer that it’s possible to get.
But according to the DfE, the government has decided to can it.
Why?
The EHCP standardisation project was the lowest-hanging fruit of SEND improvement, with strong support for it across all parts of the SEND system. It was the easiest and least controversial part of the Change Programme. It’s the nearest thing to a no-brainer that it’s possible to get.
Is the government planning to scrap EHCPs completely?
The simplest—and most obvious—explanation is that the government has already decided to abolish EHCPs entirely. Why waste time and money on standardising and digitalising EHCPs if their death warrant has already been signed?
Journalists and parliamentarians have repeatedly asked government ministers to confirm that EHCPs will not be scrapped. Every single time, government ministers have refused to make that confirmation.
The decision to stop EHCP standardisation in its tracks is a rare example where we can see what the government is doing, rather than what it is saying or not saying. And what it’s doing is clear: It’s scrapped a small-scale change project that was well-advanced, generally popular in the sector, and capable of delivering some quick efficiencies. Decent project management doesn’t work that way, unless the strategic objective—to make EHCPs better—no longer exists. And if you were keeping them, you’d actively want to make them better.
But decent project management and the Civil Service aren’t always close bedfellows, particularly when it comes to IT projects. It’s not entirely impossible that what we’re seeing here is just that: the public policy equivalent of a hacked Roomba repeatedly compacting an incontinent canine’s droppings into the carpet. Because even if the government does plan to scrap EHCPs, it still makes no sense whatsoever to stop this project in its tracks…
Key Content
Does anyone know what they’re doing?
In July, Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell stated in her evidence to the Education Select Committee that there would be a “phased transition process” from the old SEND system to the next. That’s what happened with the 2014 SEND reforms, and it took years to complete.
Right now, there’s no White Paper, and SEND reform has yet to be tabled as primary legislation. If there is to be a “phased transition process,” then it’s likely EHCPs will exist for several years to come, even if they end up being phased out entirely. And some of the rumours that have swirled out of the senior SEND policy sweat lodge suggest EHCPs might be retained, but for a narrower group of children and young people.
But all that, of course, assumes that the Roomba has accidentally gone rogue. It assumes someone isn’t deliberately running it through the dog poop.
The worst-case scenario here is that “someone” has decided there won’t be a phased transition for EHCPs; that statutory provision relied on by around 650,000 children and young people will be scrapped on an industrial scale. Which means there’ll be nothing left to standardise or digitise anyway.
Either way, one of the most sobering things about the fate of the EHCP standardisation project is this: as change management tasks go, this was about as easy as it gets.
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
With this project, the DfE tasked itself and its pay-per-play consultants to gently harmonise a set of document creation and digital management processes, working within a well-established legal construct. Every single one of their stakeholders wanted them to do this, and every single one of them wanted them to succeed. Everyone could see the benefits. There were no major downsides, no unintended consequences that couldn’t be foreseen and handled. And despite all that, the Department has still managed to bungle it.
In the next few weeks, we anticipate finding out what kind of (unwanted) SEND “reform” is in store for our kids. But everything we’ve been told so far tells us that reform will be deep-seated, seismic, and controversial. We are ready to make our case for preserving rights; however, so far, this government seems to be running scared of hearing voices outside its funded clique—and it is all the poorer for that. Yesterday’s announcement of who’ll be heading its behaviour and attendance drive is a clear indication of this lack of imagination.
To succeed at a change that benefits, rather than destroys, the lives and futures of children and young people with SEND, the government and its civil servants will need to demonstrate incredible change management skills. It’ll require humane and highly-skilled genius, in personal touch on a daily basis with the impact of what they’re trying to do. It simply cannot be achieved with an unreliable, sensor-impaired, excrement-encrusted Roomba.
Disabled Children’s Rights are Under Attack.
We’re fighting, but we can’t do it alone: we need your help more than ever.
We’re volunteer-run, but costs are rising. To help us keep going, please consider a one-off or, if it’s possible, a regular donation.
Read more about being a regular donor here.
We use Zeffy to fundraise, which doesn’t charge us a fee, so 100% of your donation reaches us.
Also read:
- The DfE’s URGENT survey for data on its new obsession: Mainstream SEND units
- By almost any metric, SEND Safety Valve has failed, but you’d never guess from this entirely unbiased report
- EHCPs 2025 show a 22.5% rise in pupils “educated elsewhere” than in schools. Plus, check out our annual LA Hall of Shame
- 19.5% pupils with SEND, but don’t believe the hype: Most are still educated in mainstream schools
- Plans for SEND delayed to Autumn, but Spending Review doesn’t include enough for widescale change
- Education Secretary: Disabled children’s “current” rights won’t be removed. But council proxies keep pushing to trash entitlements
- Government responds to our Save SEND Legal Rights Petition—but misses the point entirely
- Now you see them, now you don’t: The curious case of the vanishing resource bases and SEN units
- What kind of government is “bold” enough to scrap statutory EHCPs from vulnerable children?
- What are powerful council lobbying voices telling the Education Committee they really really want?
- Disabled children are not widgets. Removing rights isn’t the answer to the SEND crisis
- What makes an autism assessment report genuinely useful to a school?
- Big ideas belong to everyone: Education, rights and lifelong learning for people with learning disabilities
- As The Guardian prints our joint campaign’s open letter, it’s clear people with lived experience don’t want to lose SEND rights
- How do you ensure pathways to education, health, and social care support, meet both diagnosis and needs?
- Researching flexi-schooling: How beneficial is it for children with SEND?
- Oops, we did it again… The Government must now listen to more than 100,000 people who do not want to lose SEND rights
- Experts at Hand: When is an occupational therapist also a SEND expert?
- Could using AI to filter Government consultation responses lead to “algorithmic silencing” of neurodivergent voices?
- A council’s “improvement journey”? How determined SEND parents catalogued the trail of their LA’s unlawful behaviour
- Research: Social networks in special schools. Friendships, bullying and play
- CrowdJustice SEND accountability: When the law says “must”, local authorities cannot treat it as “maybe”
- DfE must give its SEND reform Child Rights Impact Assessment a do-over; this time, without marking its own homework
What kind of government is “bold” enough to scrap statutory EHCPs from vulnerable children?May 16, 2025EHCP
The SEND reforms in the Schools White Paper reveal rights given, and rights stripped awayFebruary 24, 2026Schools White Paper
Don’t miss a thing!
Don’t miss any posts from SNJ – simply add your email address below. You must click the link in the confirmation email you’ll receive to activate your free subscription.
You can also keep up with us by following our
Want more? Be an SNJ regular donor!
SNJ is a non-profit and everyone who writes here does so voluntarily. We need your support to help us with costs by donating once or as a regular patron. Find out more here
- What makes an autism assessment report genuinely useful to a school? - October 14, 2026
- Big ideas belong to everyone: Education, rights and lifelong learning for people with learning disabilities - October 12, 2026
- As The Guardian prints our joint campaign’s open letter, it’s clear people with lived experience don’t want to lose SEND rights - October 9, 2026
Please share this article!
Discover more from Special Needs Jungle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
