For many, Kellie Bright is a familiar face on British television, best known for her role as Linda Carter in the long-running soap EastEnders. But off-screen, Bright has been fighting a different kind of battle—one that resonates with thousands of families across England. Her journey to secure an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for her autistic, dyslexic, and ADHD-diagnosed son, Freddie, has now become the centerpiece of a new BBC Panorama documentary, Autism, School and Families on the Edge, which aired on October 6, 2025.
Bright’s story is more than a personal narrative; it’s a window into a system many describe as broken, underfunded, and adversarial. As she wrote for BBC.com, “It took months of perseverance and hard work from my husband and I to try to get the right education for him. At times, it felt like a battle.” The process, she explained, required eight months of paperwork and the submission of 21 pieces of evidence—only for Freddie’s initial assessment to be denied. It was only after she and her husband threatened legal action that the support he needed for his transition to mainstream secondary school was finally granted.
EHCPs, the focus of both Bright’s struggle and the documentary, are legally binding documents that guarantee tailored support and funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). For families like Bright’s, they are more than just paperwork—they are lifelines. But now, the future of EHCPs is under threat as the UK government weighs reforms to the SEND system, citing financial sustainability and a dramatic rise in demand.
According to the National Audit Office, the EHCP system is “financially unsustainable.” The number of pupils with EHCPs in England has nearly doubled over the past decade, rising from 353,995 in 2019 to 638,745 as of January 2025, based on Department for Education figures. Local authorities, who have a statutory obligation to deliver the support set out in these plans, are now facing combined high needs deficits estimated at at least £3.3 billion by 2024. The Institute for Fiscal Studies projects that, if current trends persist, the annual cost of SEND support could soar from £17 billion to £22 billion by 2029.
Bright’s Panorama documentary, filmed over six months, delves into these systemic issues by following the journeys of families applying for EHCPs. One particularly poignant story is that of Tunde and her 15-year-old son Buddy. After moving to London in October 2024, Tunde applied to at least 11 schools, only to find that either they didn’t respond, were full, or couldn’t offer the necessary support without an EHCP. When Buddy’s first application was denied before assessment, Tunde had to reapply, eventually securing 19 hours of lessons for him in a library. The process was so time-consuming that Tunde, who had worked as a midwife and health visitor, had to leave her job. “I can’t do the parenting. I can’t get him to these appointments, and work at the same time… I couldn’t get my son seen in the right amount of time and see other people’s babies in the right amount of time. And it was a toss up – and my son won,” Tunde told Bright, as reported by The Independent.
Even with an EHCP in place as of September 2025, Buddy is still being taught in a library rather than a school. Southwark Council, which oversees his case, stated that it takes Tunde’s concerns “very seriously” and will continue to support her family to ensure they receive the provision they need without further delay.
Bright’s documentary is not just about individual struggles—it exposes a national crisis. Councils across England are grappling with spiraling deficits as demand for EHCPs grows. As Jacqui Russell, Conservative councillor and cabinet member for children, young people, and learning at West Sussex County Council, told Bright in the documentary, “The current system is actually very adversarial. Our parents are increasingly tired and anxious and fed up of fighting… Staff sickness levels are really, really high at the moment. The current system doesn’t work. It is broken. It’s not delivering the best outcomes for children.”
The government acknowledges the pressure, promising reform in a forthcoming Schools White Paper. Education Minister Georgia Gould emphasized to Bright that the reforms would not take support away from families. “We’re wanting to put more support in earlier. Where people have fought for support, and that’s in place, we want to make sure that that support continues.” Gould also reassured that “there will always be a legal right to additional support” for young people with SEND.
Yet, for families who have spent years fighting for EHCPs, such assurances are met with anxiety. The prospect of losing a hard-won safety net is deeply unsettling. Bright, echoing the concerns of many, wrote, “Families are exhausted, they are absolutely on their knees. The last thing they need is to think any tiny bit of power they had is lost by ending EHCPs.” She warns that removing the legal guarantee of support would “pull the rug from under families who have fought hard for these provisions.”
The government has pledged £740 million to create more specialist school places and embed SEND leads in family hubs across the country. It also insists that more SEND units should be embedded in mainstream schools, led by specialist teachers. However, critics—including parents, educators, and some backbench MPs—argue that simply shifting the responsibility to mainstream schools, without increasing resources or specialist skills, will only worsen outcomes. For children with the most complex needs, mainstream settings often cannot provide the necessary support, making EHCPs essential for securing places in specialist environments.
“Everyone I spoke to for the Panorama—teachers, parents, politicians, local authorities—agrees the system is broken and needs reform,” Bright acknowledged in her reporting for iNews. “But in my opinion it would be a disaster to just load the burden on teachers without giving them the specialist skills and resources they need.”
With one in twenty pupils in England now holding an EHCP, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The outcome of this policy debate will shape not just educational opportunities, but the life trajectories of thousands of children. As Bright’s documentary asks: If not EHCPs, what concrete support will replace them? How will the new system ensure that no child slips through the cracks?
The answers, for now, remain elusive. But what is clear is the human cost of a system in flux. Bright’s story—and those of the families she met—highlight the resilience, frustration, and hope that define the SEND community at this crossroads. The government faces a delicate balancing act: making support sustainable without sacrificing the legal guarantees that vulnerable children and their families depend on. The real measure of reform will be whether it eases the exhausting battles that define so many SEND experiences—or simply raises new barriers in a system already stretched to its limits.
