SEND has been in the spotlight in Parliament once again this week. The Education Select Committee spent Tuesday morning having a look at the Government’s proposed SEND reforms in order to inform its own response to the consultation, with help from witnesses from education unions, local government and the voluntary sector.
But before that, MPs from all parties stayed in the House of Commons late on Monday night for a two-hour backbench debate on SEND provision introduced by the Conservative MP, Greg Stafford. Mr Stafford has spoken frequently about support for children and young people with SEND since coming into Parliament at the last election, and he was one of the MPs to accompany members of the Save Our Children’s Rights campaign when we handed our petition in at 10 Downing Street in January.
Taking the temperature on SEND reform
The purpose of the debate was, in Greg Stafford’s words, to “hold a spotlight on the challenges faced by children, parents, schools and local authorities”. There was nothing for MPs to vote on. But from the point of view of parents and policy influencers, it was useful to take the temperature of parliamentarians on how they perceive the Government’s plans for reforming the SEND system, and what their concerns are at this stage.
“Any credible reform of SEND, including the Government’s white paper, must meet three tests. It must strengthen legal protections; it must improve delivery on the ground; and it must address the underlying pressures in the system.”
Greg Stafford MP (Con, Farnham & Borden)
The tone was set from the start on the importance of maintaining existing legal protections. Around 40 MPs made speeches or interventions, many of which focused on making the system more accountable, making provision for children and young people enforceable and retaining routes of redress when things go wrong.
Many MPs made clear that they were there because their constituents had told them how important this debate was to them.
MPs listened to their constituents’ desperation about lack of SEND support
There were insights into the lives of parents who turn to their MP when everything else has failed:
“One of the things that shocked me most when I was elected was how much we are failing children with special educational needs. We all get those emails in our inbox, and they are heart-rending.
Charlotte Cane MP (Lib Dem, Ely & East Cambridgeshire)
When we meet those parents, we can see the stress and the strain etched in their faces, and we can only imagine what it is like for the child to be in a school where they feel that they are not understood and they are not supported.”
And there was a challenge from an MP who lives the SEND system as a parent, and who expresses what every parent hopes for:
“Imagine if we addressed the education system as a whole like we address SEND education—as a problem to be solved and not an opportunity that exists to create young people who are willing, equipped and able to go out into the world and shape our future society and our world.
Jen Craft MP (Lab, Thurrock)
Why do we not see that opportunity for SEND children, as we do for the wider school population?”
The session ended late, after an, at times, emotional debate. You can watch the session here
Late night SEND sitting, mid-morning SEND hearing
Several of the same MPs who’d spoken in the debate were in their places at the Education Select Committee 12 hours later, for a two-and-a-half-hour session looking at the Government’s proposals for SEND reform. It’s to be expected that not all committee members will be able to attend every evidence session, but it was notable that there wasn’t a single Tory MP in the room for this important one-off hearing.
This is a brief and partial summary. You can watch the full session here on Parliament TV.
Do the proposed reforms address the crisis?
The chair, Helen Hayes MP, began the session by asking representatives from education unions, the Local Government Association and Speech and Language UK how well the Government’s proposed reforms address the SEND crisis. She asked the same question later to the second set of witnesses from disabled children’s charities, including my colleague at IPSEA, Senior Solicitor, Kate Cox.
It was fascinating to observe how most witnesses began by saying how much they support the Government’s proposals, before proceeding to cast doubt on many of them as the evidence session progressed. It’s like a little ritual that must be observed before the real business begins of dissecting what it all might mean in practice and pointing out where the gaps are.
The weight of expectations on schools
No one disagrees—of course—with making mainstream schools more inclusive and providing support to children as soon as they need it. But it soon became clear that there are genuine concerns about the huge expectations that will be placed on mainstream schools, and whether schools will in practice have the resources they need to fulfil their new duties.
Speaking about what the proposed complaints arrangements might do to relationships between parents and schools, SEND expert, Margaret Mulholland expressed concern that, “This could fundamentally damage the relationship between schools and parents.”
Drilling down into the SEND reform proposals
MPs wanted to get into the detail of the various key features of the proposed new SEND framework.
On individual support plans (ISPs), they wanted to know how they will be enforced, what will happen when the support a child needs isn’t provided, and whether they will really work in terms of identifying a child’s needs.
On specialist provision packages (SPPs): will they really be a good way of meeting children’s needs more effectively? What will their status be: will they act as a source of guidance to help with local commissioning, or a rigid way of limiting provision? Witnesses pointed out that there is no mention in this context of support in school for children with medical needs in school, or children who currently have EOTAS (education other than at school) packages.
On inclusion bases: Will they be genuinely specialist? And is it even possible to make mainstream schools inclusive? Will they be, as Daniel Kebede from the National Education Union put it, “a path to full inclusion in school life [or] a permanent withdrawal from it”?
On the question of resolving disputes, the Local Government Association’s witness, Councillor Amanda Serjeant, was keen on making greater use of “impartial mediation”. But the committee chair, Helen Hayes MP, was determined to have some clarity on what mediation is and isn’t. She interjected that local authorities should be applying the law, not asking parents to come to an agreement that falls short of it.
In a similar vein, Helen Hayes spelled out clearly and accurately the role of the SEND Tribunal. She asked Amanda Serjeant what is likely to happen if and when the Tribunal’s power to name a school or college is reduced (as ministers have apparently already decided) and local authorities are told by the Tribunal to “reconsider” their decision on a child or young person’s placement. But beyond ambitions for “more capacity” in the system, the LGA seems to have no idea what will happen.
Crisis of compliance with the law
The issue of children and young people’s legal rights was addressed in some detail in the second half of the session. IPSEA’s Kate Cox talked about the ongoing “crisis of compliance” with the law on providing children and young people with support that meets their needs.
Anna Bird from Contact and the Disabled Children’s Partnership expressed concern about the erosion of rights and said legal protections must be strengthened not weakened. Contact has held a series of focus groups with parents on the proposed reforms and found high levels of anxiety on what will happen to existing legal protections.
A culture war on SEND
To end, an interesting point on the wider culture in which all this is taking place—and culture is something SNJ has talked about many times over the last 18 years. Jane Harris, CEO of Speech and Language UK, said, “SEND has been dragged into a culture war”, meaning that children with SEND and their families are increasingly stigmatised by a wider culture and society that too often doesn’t accept they need support at all.
This rings true, and is the battleground on which the coming policy battles will be fought.
- Find all our articles on the SEND reform proposals and all the links you need for the consultation here
- Find our new page on the Save our Children’s Rights upcoming May 9th protest here
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Key Content
Also read:
- 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
- Research: SEND case officers are LAs’ “human shield” gatekeepers. But parents shouldn’t have to be their own key workers
- Research finds the Government’s SEND National Conversation “performative”, lacking pathways for young people’s inclusion
- EOTAS: Why the Government must listen to those with lived experience
- The relentless march of SEND reform only hears views that fit the narrative
- Philippa Stobbs OBE: Reform plans must have a clear line of sight from children and young people with SEND to better outcomes.
- Where will all the teaching assistants come from? The research exposing the reality gap in the government SEND plans
- National Education Union’s Daniel Kebede: “Reforming SEND cannot be done on the cheap”
- “We are living on a knife-edge” SENDCo research sounds the alarm about the high cost of mainstream inclusion
- What schools and parents need to understand about supporting autistic and neurodivergent children
- SEND changes will be “co-created”. Which means what, exactly? asks the Education Select Committee
- What’s in the Curriculum and Assessment Review for children with SEND?
- Living with PoTS: Understanding Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia syndrome and how schools can help
- Teachers fear education policy reforms will make things worse, not better, for children with SEND
- SEND Inquiry report 3: How does the Education Committee want to fix SEND funding?
- SEND Inquiry Report 2: Force the NHS to pay its fair share, plus fixing early years and post-16 education
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When her younger daughter was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome in 2009 shortly before her second birthday, Catriona found herself dealing in practice with things she’d previously thought she understood in principle.
She juggles her work as policy manager for a national charity with caring and advocating for her daughter. She's passionate about improving the lives of disabled children and their families, and making the systems that should support them work more transparently and equitably.
Catriona writes for Special Needs Jungle in a personal capacity, and all views expressed are her own.
- “Why would anyone in government think that was an okay idea?” #SaveSENDLegalRights - May 12, 2026
- The SEND reform reality check: Why experts’ and policymakers’ concerns are growing under scrutiny - April 15, 2026
- MPs warn “unsustainable” SEND transport system fails families with disabled young people - March 6, 2026
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