The government has been urged to retain education, health and care plans (EHCPs) for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Ministers have so far refused to rule out scrapping the education plans, but campaigners argue they provide children with special educational needs with “vital provision,” and “precious legal protections.”
When questioned on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Education Secretary Bridget Philipson simply said it was a “complex and sensitive area” when asked if she could rule out cutting EHCPs.
Children with special educational needs could lose access to education
EHCPs are legally binding documents that ensure children or young people with special or educational needs or disabilities in England receive the support they need from their local authority.
Campaigners say that scrapping the plans could result in thousands of children lacking appropriate support or “losing access to education altogether.”
In an open letter to the Guardian newspaper, campaign groups have added:
“Whatever the SEND system’s problems, the answer is not to remove the rights of children and young people. Families cannot afford to lose these precious legal protections.”
The letter was signed by heads of charities, professors, SEND parents including actor Sally Phillips and campaigners such as broadcaster Chris Packham.
Government will ‘strengthen’ support for special educational needs
The government is reviewing the system, with full details of their proposed changes due in October. They insist that no decisions have been made, but have not ruled out abolishing EHCPs.
The Education Secretary has pledged, however, to “strengthen and put in place better support for children,” and insists she has been “listening to parents” and campaign groups to get the changes right.
Department for Education (DfE) data from January 2025 showed that there was a total of 638,745 EHCPs in place for children in England. This is a 10.8% increase on January 2024.
Requests for children to be assessed for EHCPs had risen by 11.8% to 154,489 in 2023, and 97,747 new plans started during 2024, representing an increase of 15.8% on the previous year.
The DfE says there are “no plans to abolish SEND tribunals, or to remove funding or support from children, families and schools.”
But the Shadow Education Minister, Neil O’Brien, said the government had been defined by “broken promises and U-turns,” and had “no credibility left.”
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats’ education spokesperson, Munira Wilson, said “no child, or their family, should face uncertainty over receiving the support they need.”
Children with special educational needs are falling behind
Calls to protect provision for SEND pupils comes as a recent report revealed that five-year-olds with special educational needs in England are currently falling 20 months behind their peers, as the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic continue to be felt.
The 2025 annual report from the Education Policy Institute, published this week, warns that the country’s youngest learners face a “deepening crisis”, with disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and disabilities trailing significantly behind their peers.
Five years after the pandemic led to long-term school closures and triggered lasting dips in pupil attendance, the attainment gap is growing and the EPI report says there are “precious few signs of recovery.”
The ‘disadvantage gap’ did narrow marginally in primary and secondary schools in England between 2023 and 2024, but it remains up to a month wider than before the pandemic.
The EPI’s Chief Executive, Natalie Perera, says that the “youngest and most vulnerable learners are still paying the price,” of the pandemic.
She warned:
“Without swift action, we are baking lifelong disadvantage into the system. Higher levels of funding for disadvantage, addressing student absence, and fixing the SEND system, which is at crisis point, are urgent priorities.”
Urgent action needed to close widening disadvantage gap
The annual report compares pupil attainment during 2024 with the previous year and then with 2019, based on economic disadvantage, SEND, gender, ethnicity, English as an additional language (EAL) and geography.
Among the findings outlined in the report, is the fact that fewer disadvantaged young people are participating in education post-16 than at any point since 2019, meaning that a fifth of disadvantaged 16-year-olds are currently not in education or training.
The General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Pepe Di’lasio, said the report’s findings were “alarming” and highlight “how important it is for the government to get right its planned reform of a system that is under unsustainable pressure and is not working well for anyone.”
The DfE said the government was “working flat out to solve” the widening disadvantage gap.
They say they are investing £9 billion per year in early education from 2026, to create a “revitalised early-education system that helps get children ready for school,”, provide more funded childcare for working parents, more early years disadvantage funding and a “strong new focus on improving the quality of reception-year education.”
Calls for mandatory learning disability and autism training for education
One thing that could help ensure better understanding, support and appropriate provision for many children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities is tailored training on learning disabilities and autism.
The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training Framework on Learning Disability and Autism is having a significant, valuable impact in healthcare, with senior doctors describing the training programme as potentially life-saving.
The co-delivery approach adopted by Oliver’s Training, which sees an experienced Facilitating Trainer co-delivering the programme with two Expert Co-Trainers – one with lived experience of a learning disability, and another with lived experience of autism – could also be beneficial in education.
Oliver’s mother, Paula McGowan, has been campaigning for this training to be made mandatory for the education sector for some time.
Paula’s hard-fought campaign for better training in learning disabilities and autism for healthcare staff culminated in the passing of the Health and Care Act 2022. This piece of legislation created the statutory requirement for all healthcare staff to undergo training in learning disabilities and autism, with the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training framework being identified as the government’s preferred and recommended training route.
In 2023, she launched a petition calling for all staff in education settings to also be trained on learning disabilities and autism.
Children with special educational needs and teachers ‘deserve better’
Writing for Schools Week back in July 2023, Paula explained:
“Too many neurodivergent students have negative experiences of school. Too many are excluded or unable to attend due to traumas suffered at school. These can lead to mental health issues, self-harm, suicidal ideation and PTSD.
“Students who have a learning disability or who are autistic deserve to be taught by staff who understand and can fully support their needs and who accept and value them for who they are rather than expecting them to conform to neurotypical standards.
“And teachers deserve better too, especially in a system that is so short of special school places and is placing more and more children with higher needs in mainstream schools. They deserve to be given skills to do the job that is required of them: to make reasonable adjustments, to adapt their communication and their environments, to understand sensory crisis, overload, anxiety, and masking, and to recognise and neutralise their own unconscious biases.
“The numbers speak for themselves. A report by the National Autistic Society (NAS) shows that just 14% of teachers have received autism training. This is a shocking statistic considering that 73% of the 180,000 autistic pupils in England are educated in mainstream schools. According to NAS, autistic children are twice as likely to be excluded from school when teachers do not receive appropriate training.”
“Indeed, 54% of autistic students said having teachers who don’t understand them is the worst thing about school, and seven in 10 said school would be better if more teachers understood autism.
“The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training for health and care – designed, evaluated and delivered by autistic people and those who have a learning disability – could easily be adapted for educational settings.
“It is crucial that we learn directly from these communities if we are to avoid unnecessary exclusions and improve the mental wellbeing of autistic and learning-disabled pupils.”
She also acknowledged that many school leaders and teachers also “want to provide an education that fully embraces and enriches the learning of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities and make their environments more accepting and inclusive.”
Successful delivery of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training
First Response Training (FRT) was one of the first training providers in the country to be approved to offer essential training in line with the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism.
The national training provider aims to empower and educate staff to transform their practice by embracing the lived experiences of autistic individuals and those with learning disabilities. Through the collaborative strength of their trios—facilitating trainers and experts with lived experience — FRT aims to inspire lasting change in how individuals are understood, supported, and valued.
Leon Williams, Lead Director at FRT, says:
“We must acknowledge the incredible work of Paula McGowan, whose tireless campaigning has led to this training becoming a statutory requirement for all health and social care staff. Through the tragic loss of her son, Oliver, meaningful change is being made to improve the quality and standards within health and social care.”
One of FRT’s valued Expert with Lived Experience Co-Trainers, Laura Amy Williams, adds:
“It gives me a lot of reassurance to know there are so many people who want to understand autism and autistic people. As an expert with lived experience, I feel I can simply be myself and share my story.”
Since March 2023, FRT have delivered over 1000 Tier 1 webinars and over 700 Tier 2 courses. They have reached over 30,000 learners already, and will train many more in the coming months.
FRT are hosting a series of open, public Tier 2 courses in London, Manchester and Birmingham in the coming months. You can book a space on any of these courses online now.
FRT have also developed a free-to-download quick guide to the new Oliver McGowan draft code of practice.
This guide explains what the new code of practice means for health and social care providers, how to stay current, and how to meet new legal duties.
You can also download FRT’s free Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training brochure.
For further information on other types of neurodiversity training, visit FRT’s webpage or download the brochure.
You can contact FRT via freephone 0800 310 2300, send an e-mail to info@firstresponsetraining.com or submit an online enquiry.