What the SEND reforms mean for you

The short version

Your EHCP is safe. The government's February 2026 White Paper proposed major SEND reforms — but EHCPs are being retained, your child's current rights are protected by a "triple lock", and no changes will affect EHCPs before September 2030. If you have an EHCP now, nothing about your legal rights has changed.

This page explains the three things that have actually happened since November 2025, so you can ignore the noise and focus on what matters.

1. The February 2026 White Paper — what's been proposed

On 23 February 2026 the government published "Every Child Achieving and Thriving" — a White Paper setting out its long-term plan for SEND.

What it proposes:

• A new four-tier model: Universal → Targeted → Targeted Plus → Specialist
• Statutory Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for every child identified with SEND in mainstream school
• EHCPs retained but reformed into "Specialist Provision Packages" for higher-need children
• A new "Experts at Hand" service so schools can call in specialists
• £1.6 billion Inclusive Mainstream Fund
• £200 million for teacher SEND training
• £3.7 billion for 60,000 new specialist places

What it does NOT change for you NOW:

• Your existing EHCP remains in force
• All statutory timescales (20-week assessment, annual review, etc.) remain unchanged
• Your right to appeal to the SEND Tribunal remains unchanged
• The Children and Families Act 2014 and SEND Regulations 2014 remain unchanged

2. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 — now law

This Act received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. It contains a lot of changes to schools, attendance, safeguarding, breakfast clubs and uniform costs — but importantly:

What it does for SEND:

• Strengthens Local Authorities' strategic role in special-school place planning
• Requires Secretary of State consent for material changes to special institutions
• Tighter LA oversight of independent schools admitting SEND children

What it does NOT do for SEND:

• It does NOT change EHCP rights
• It does NOT change tribunal appeal rights
• It does NOT change statutory timescales
• The headline SEND reforms above are reserved for a future Education for All Bill

Read the Act on legislation.gov.uk: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026

3. Ofsted's new Inclusion judgement — live since November 2025

This is the change most likely to be useful to you right now.

What changed:

Since 10 November 2025, every school inspection report has a standalone "Inclusion" judgement covering SEND identification, support and outcomes. Single-word grades (Good / Outstanding) have been replaced with report cards giving granular evaluations across multiple areas — including Inclusion.

How this helps you as a parent:

• Choosing a school — you can now read a school's specific Inclusion grade rather than guessing from a single overall rating
• Challenging weak SEND support — Ofsted's published Inclusion findings can be cited in complaints, tribunal appeals, and council partnership conversations
• Comparing schools — concrete, comparable data across schools for the first time

Read about the new framework on gov.uk: Education Inspection Framework

What you should do now

Nothing different. Keep doing what you're doing.

• If your child has an EHCP, your statutory rights are unchanged
• If you're applying for an EHCP, the process is unchanged
• If you're appealing to the SEND Tribunal, your appeal rights are unchanged
• If your annual review is due, the same statutory timescales apply

EHCP Compass will publish updates as the government's response to the consultation lands later in 2026. For now: focus on the system you know. It's still the system that protects your child.

Need help?

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