Although Education Otherwise is the home education charity we also understand the very strong link that Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) has with home education.
Many of you will have read about the 2026 SEND white paper, which is intended to reform SEND in schools and to tighten the criteria for Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP). Whilst the potential reforms focus on schools, it is also something for home educators to be aware of as many home educators removed their SEND children from school due to lack of support and understanding around their needs, and many have siblings still in school.
What is the white paper proposing? Many things in essence, but the main thing for home educators is EHCP reform.
EHCPs
An EHCP is ‘a legal document issued by the local authority, and available for those aged 0–25 with complex and long-term needs. The local authority coordinates services set out in the plan, with input from professionals, the school, the family, and the child or young person.’[1] The Government maintains that the current level of ECHPs is unsustainable.
For home educators with an EHCP, it spells out their child’s difficulties, needs and the outcomes which are being worked toward. It means that families can potentially access support such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and access to mental health services, depending upon their child’s needs. The onus for making sure that the support detailed in the EHCP is delivered lies with the Local Authority.
With the government wanting fewer EHCPs and more children having their needs met in mainstream education, it begs the question, what about home educators? The White Paper lays out this Government’s expectation that EHCPs should only be offered to those with the ‘most severe and complex needs’, whilst providing no definition as to what severe and complex is. Who will decide whether a child’s needs are severe enough? For children with moderate needs (such as many with ADHD or those on the higher-functioning end of the Autism spectrum), the government intends for support to be delivered via the new Individual Support Plan (ISP) instead.
A further concern is the potential that EHCPs will be forced to be reassessed after primary school. Kate Lawson, head of policy at disability charity Sense, said she was “deeply concerned” by the proposed plans to reassess children at the point of moving between primary and secondary school, “when stability is critical“[2].Again, whilst school transition in itself is not of direct concern to home educating parents, the possibility of re assessment at the end of primary school is, in addition to the possibility of EHCPs being taken away at that point.
All of this leads to the conclusion that we could potentially see hundreds of children having their legally binding EHCPs removed in 2030 to be left with what? The new ISP which is school based and has none of the legal rights behind it. There is nothing to suggest that there is an alternative for those home educating with an EHCP, although this is hardly surprising given the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. It feels very much like the removal of the right to home educate SEND children at home given the removal of rights to support them in school.
It also seems very much like an attack on neurodiversity; singling out certain neurodiversities as not being severe enough to warrant an EHCP. It shows a fundamental, and disturbing, lack of understanding from the government of neurodiverse children’s lived experienced both inside and outside of school. Neurodiversity is a spectrum and cannot be shoe horned into two categories of ‘severe’ and ‘not’. All of this is understandably worrying for many home educators.
SEND Tribunals
A concerning issue detailed in the white paper is the change to SEND tribunals. Currently if a parent is dissatisfied with their Local Authority decision about SEND support they can take the matter to a tribunal. ‘Around a third of cases before the SEND Tribunal (a forum in which families win 98%+ of the time) are for failure to assess.’[3] However, the Government is understood to be considering narrowing the criteria by which a parent can access tribunal. It is suggested that parents may only be able to go to tribunal if the correct processes have not been followed, rather than if they are dissatisfied with the support which is being offered. New rules may limit the ability of tribunals to mandate private placements and instead use local school ‘Inclusion Bases’ as a short term or long term solution.
‘Inclusion’ bases
Personally, I am concerned by one proposal in the white paper, that is, the provision of ‘Inclusion bases’ in schools. People may know these as pupil support units. Their intention is to provide ‘a dedicated safe space away from busy classrooms where pupils can access targeted support that bridges the gap between mainstream and specialist provision…Inclusion bases could be additional spaces within the school building or refurbishment or repurposing of existing space, for example a spare classroom, and the government will provide new guidance for schools on converting existing space into effective areas for children with SEND.’[4]
For me, personally, this rings alarm bells. Anything designed to remove SEND children from classes with their peers is exclusion, not inclusion. It is reminiscent of the 1980s, when ‘special needs’ children were taken out of classes, and there is a reason why we stopped doing that. It also fails to fully take into account the difficulties which children with Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) suffer. If a child can only manage school on the days that he does art, because he enjoys art and looks forward to it, only to find that instead of art with his peers he now has to go to the ‘inclusion’ unit, is that really inclusion?
There is also the issue of what exactly ‘access targeted support’ means. If children are sent to the inclusion unit for targeted support what is that support going to be? Will it be emotional and behavioural support, or simply extra maths and English?[5] For those of us who have seen (and worked in) behavioural units, often attached to schools, this sounds very much like a behavioural unit. Will children be sent there in order to not disrupt classes; will that be a ‘safe space’? There is much to be concerned about in this, particularly, whether this is the offering for SEND children who return to school voluntarily or under a School Attendance Order (SAO).
Combined with the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, this White paper demonstrates that our children are very much the focus of this government, and not in a good way. I would encourage everyone to feed back about the proposed changes which is very much a lot of the same thing we’ve seen before just wrapped in false positivity and buzz words.
You can put across your views on the Online Portal: The primary way to respond is through the Department for Education’s Consultation Hub. There is a dedicated page for ‘SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First’ with an online survey, albeit the title fits nothing in the proposal
By Email: You can send more detailed written thoughts or evidence directly to the Department for Education at:
Deadline: You must submit your response by Monday, 18 May 2026 at 23:59.
[1] Parliament Committee Newsletter
[3] Law Gazette – SEND Families Brace for Government White Paper
[4] Parliament Committee Publication 277769
[5] All students who do not achieve a Grade 4 or above in their GCSE at 16 should be supported to study English and maths under the condition of funding. This requires providers to support students on 16–19 study programmes and T Levels without Level 2 English and maths to improve their grade and, wherever possible, attain Level 2 before they leave education, given the benefits this brings. To allow more students with EHC plans to continue to receive support for maths and English under the condition of funding, there is a flexibility for institutions to deliver the minimum hours of teaching to them in an alternative format whilst remaining compliant with the condition of funding. In addition, students who have a GCSE grade 2 or below may study toward a GCSE grade 4 – 9, or a level 2 FSQ. There is a small number of SEND students with EHC plans who may not be able to study toward a qualification
