National Education Union announces support for the #SaveOurChildrensRights campaign to protect SEND legal rights

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The Save Our Children’s Rights campaign has had a boost today with the news that the National Education Union (NEU), the UK’s largest education union representing teachers, teaching assistants and support staff, is supporting our efforts to protect children and young people’s legal rights to an education that meets their needs.

If the Government plans to have more children with a wider range of needs educated in mainstream schools, teachers, TAs, and support staff will face a lot more responsibility. Will the resources be available to make this happen, and have all the details really been thought through? This article from SOCR supporterand SEN expert, Claire Walley, raises important questions about a potential exodus of teachers if schools are overwhelmed by children with SEND without adequate support. It echoes SNJ’s own articles yesterday and the day before.

The Save Our Children’s Rights Campaign and the NEU are united in our determination to resist any “reforms” that would reduce or remove children and young people’s existing rights, and look forward to working together on this. Here is the statement that’s been published today:

Joint statement from the National Education Union and the Save Our Children’s Rights campaign

The National Education Union (NEU) has announced its support for the Save Our Children’s Rights (SOCR) campaign, with both organisations united in their commitment to defend and strengthen the legal rights of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
With the Schools White Paper due to be published early this year, SOCR and NEU are jointly calling on the Government to ensure that proposals:
Protect existing children’s SEND rights
Legal rights, underpinned by clear accountability, are essential to ensure children and young people with SEND receive the support to which they are entitled.
Retain access to Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans for all children with SEND
While early and effective intervention in schools may reduce the number of children who require an EHC plan, the existing legal thresholds for statutory assessment and for issuing an EHC plan must be retained to ensure that children and young people have access to enforceable provision.
Create a sustainable system
The current crisis is the result of expanded statutory duties without sufficient funding, and cuts to mainstream schools and their support services. This has contributed to a shortage of appropriate provision and serious difficulties in recruiting and retaining both school-based and specialist staff.
Build SEND capacity in schools and invest in specialist services
SEND funding in schools must be significantly increased and ring-fenced. Teachers and SENCOs need protected time to work with families, plan support, and lead inclusive practice, with access to specialist services before statutory assessment becomes necessary.
A spokesperson for Save Our Children’s Rights said:
“The current legal framework set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 has been endorsed as robust and fit for purpose by two House of Commons Education Committee inquiries in 2019 and 2025. We are calling on the Government to ensure the Schools White Paper commits to protecting the existing SEND legal framework and delivers the funding needed for a sustainable, inclusive SEND system, regardless of a child’s category of need or the setting they attend. This is essential to support children and young people with SEND now and in the future.”
A spokesperson for the National Education Union said:
“Educators see first-hand the impact of an underfunded SEND system on children, families and school staff. The legal framework is not the problem; the lack of investment and capacity is. The Government must listen to those working in education and commit to a properly funded, inclusive system that enables every child to thrive.”

Comment from the National Education Union

“The NEU is looking forward to working with the Save Our Children’s Rights Campaign, bringing together the power of educator, family, and student voices to ensure the White Paper SEND reforms deliver a well-funded inclusive system that works for students and schools without diluting children’s rights”.
NEU

SOCR reaction:

“The Save Our Children’s Rights campaign welcomes the commitment from the NEU to campaign alongside us on retaining the rights of children and young people with SEND and their families. We look forward to working together to prevent and oppose any proposals in the Government’s upcoming Schools White Paper, which target existing legal protections, or set a higher threshold for support than has been in force since the 1990s, and conceptually, since the 1981 Education Act. There is no need for it to change now.”
Save Our Children’s Rights campaign

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We’ll keep spelling out the facts on SEND

While we wait for the Government to publish the much-trailed Schools White Paper that we’re told will spell out ministers’ plans for SEND reform, we’ll continue to make the case for a fully accountable, sustainable, rights-based system for supporting children and young people with all types of special educational needs and disabilities. Our door is always open, and ministers know where we are.

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If you want to volunteer to amplify, help, or otherwise support the campaign, please fill in our form below—or just sign up to the SOCR mailing list here

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