On the eve of a long-anticipated overhaul of England’s education system, the government is stepping forward with a bold promise: children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will not lose the support they depend on, and disadvantaged pupils will see renewed efforts to close the stubborn attainment gap. The White Paper, titled Every Child Achieving and Thriving, is set to be published on Monday, February 23, 2026, and aims to deliver what Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson calls a “blueprint for opportunity for the next generation.”
According to the BBC, Phillipson has assured parents and educators alike that “effective support” for SEND children will not be withdrawn under the proposed reforms. “We are not going to be taking away effective support from children,” she told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, emphasizing that the government intends to spend more money—not less—on supporting children with SEND as part of its efforts to overhaul a system widely seen as being in crisis.
The reforms come against a backdrop of rising costs and growing demand for SEND services. The number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)—the legal documents outlining extra support entitlements—has surged, but quality and consistency remain patchy. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) recently described the situation as “the worst of all worlds,” with increasing costs but no clear improvement in outcomes for children. “Unfortunately, we still have a system that is characterised by conflict, by fight, but also by really patchy levels of quality,” said Luke Sibieta from the IFS, as reported by the BBC.
One of the headline changes in the White Paper is the introduction of school-led Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for every child with identified SEND, including those who do not currently have an EHCP. These ISPs will carry some form of legal status, with Phillipson explaining that “there are clear routes and clear principles set out in statute that will guide all of this.” The government has promised that ISPs will help more children receive support more quickly, reducing the need for parents to engage in protracted battles for help.
However, the reforms also introduce a new process: starting in 2029, children with EHCPs will be reassessed as they move from primary to secondary school. Phillipson has acknowledged that “children will be reviewed in terms of their needs assessed,” but insisted that this should already be happening annually under the current system. The aim, she says, is to ensure that support is genuinely tailored to each child’s evolving needs, not to take away existing help.
Despite these assurances, the prospect of reassessment has sparked anxiety among parents and advocacy groups. Hannah Luxford, whose teenage son has anxiety and only received an EHCP after 18 months of fighting, told the BBC, “It’s an unhelpful, adversarial, complex system that is designed to make you give up.” Luxford now worries about her son’s legal rights under the new reforms: “I want to hear that for those of us already with EHCPs that we are protected. If that’s taken away, it will take us back to where we were five years ago.”
Political reactions have been mixed. Shadow education secretary Laura Trott voiced concern over the reassessment plan, saying, “Too many parents had to fight for the support and the idea that they’re going to be reassessed will be genuinely frightening.” Labour MPs’ support will be needed for the proposals to pass through Parliament, and there are hints of a potential backlash if parents’ fears are not adequately addressed.
Financially, the government’s decision to cover SEND costs currently paid by local councils from 2028 is expected to create a £6 billion pressure on the national budget. The IFS has outlined three options for managing this: increasing overall education funding, implementing reforms to slow the growth of SEND spending, or making cuts elsewhere. The government’s stated preference is for increased investment, with Phillipson promising a “decade-long, very careful transition from the system that we have—which everyone recognises isn’t working.”
Alongside SEND reform, the White Paper sets out an ambitious target: halving the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers by the time children born in this Parliament finish secondary school. The disadvantage gap, as measured by the Department for Education’s index, now stands at 3.92 for year 11 students—the highest in a decade. Only 44% of poorer children achieved a pass at grade 4 or above in their maths and English GCSEs last year, compared to over 70% of their better-off classmates, according to FE News.
To tackle this, the government plans to radically reform how disadvantage funding is allocated to schools. The new model will be based on household income, rather than the binary test of whether a child receives free school meals. This could mean a stepped approach, with greater investment flowing to schools supporting the poorest children. The White Paper also launches two area-based “challenge” programs—Mission North East and Mission Coastal—aimed at driving up outcomes in regions with entrenched educational inequalities. These initiatives will bring together schools, parents, and communities to experiment with innovative strategies that, if successful, could serve as blueprints for national change.
Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the focus on disadvantage and the recognition that schools cannot close the gap alone. “Its rollout of family hubs, expansion of early years funding, and measures to reduce child poverty are also important steps,” he said, but cautioned that “further action will be needed to address generational disadvantage and restore a sense of hope to many of our communities.”
Jon Andrews of the Education Policy Institute agreed that a sharper focus on persistent poverty is overdue. “By the time they sit their GCSEs, pupils in persistent poverty are the equivalent of nearly two years of learning behind their peers,” he noted, arguing for funding systems that better target those most in need.
Yet, not all reactions have been positive. Matt Wrack, General Secretary of NASUWT, the teachers’ union, criticized the scale of investment, saying, “The investment suggested in their proposals is barely enough to replace a plug socket. After fifteen years of austerity, which damaged the life chances of millions of young people… it will take ambitious and sustained investment to dig schools out of this mess.”
The White Paper also outlines a raft of other measures: a new attendance target to recover 20 million school days per year by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24, piloting retention incentives of up to £15,000 for head teachers in hard-to-staff areas, boosting maternity pay for school staff for the first time in over 25 years, and developing new “School Profiles” to give parents better information about their child’s school. There is also a commitment to set minimum expectations for school engagement with parents and to explore new progress measures for students who start secondary school significantly behind their peers.
Significant investment is already flowing into SEND, with the government citing £3.7 billion spent on 60,000 new places for SEND children and £200 million on teacher training. The aim, according to the White Paper, is to ensure that “more children can and will receive better support, earlier, closer and without a fight.”
As the government prepares to unveil its White Paper, the stakes could hardly be higher. The reforms promise a generational shift in how England supports its most vulnerable learners and tackles entrenched disadvantage. Yet, as parents, teachers, and experts wait for the full details, the challenge will be turning bold ambitions into real, lasting change for every child.