On February 23, 2026, the UK Government unveiled a sweeping set of reforms and a landmark £4 billion investment aimed at transforming support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across England. The new measures, detailed in the Schools White Paper titled Every Child Achieving and Thriving, are being hailed as a generational shift in how schools, early years settings, and local authorities address the needs of children who too often fall through the cracks of the current system.
According to the Department for Education (DfE), the reforms are designed to move away from a “one size fits all” approach and ensure that every child, regardless of background or need, receives tailored support without families having to wage exhausting battles for basic entitlements. The government’s plan includes a raft of new funding streams, additional specialist staff, and legal changes intended to embed inclusion at the heart of every school.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking at the launch, put it plainly: “I’ve heard first hand the struggles and exhaustion faced by too many parents who feel they have to fight the system to get their child the support they need. But getting the right support should never be a battle – it should be a given. That means no more ‘one size fits all’ system that only serves children who fit the mould. Instead, families will get tailored support built around their child’s individual needs, available on their doorstep. Whatever their background, wherever they live - this government will do right by every child.”
The reforms are the product of extensive consultations with parents, teachers, and experts. The government’s “national SEND conversation” revealed that the most consistent complaint from families was that help arrived too late—often only after a protracted struggle. The Education Select Committee and a wide array of charities and advocacy groups echoed these concerns, calling for urgent action.
Helen Hayes MP, Chair of the Education Committee, welcomed the government’s willingness to tackle longstanding problems. “England’s broken SEND support system has let down children, families, teachers and the other professionals who work with them for too long. I’m pleased to see the Government beginning the path towards long overdue reform with today’s Schools White Paper,” she remarked. Hayes emphasized, however, that “hard work, proper resourcing and a real desire to rebuild trust with parents” would be essential. She also pledged to scrutinize the reforms closely, looking for “cast-iron guarantees that children’s rights will be strengthened through these reforms, not eroded.”
The government’s investment package is broad and multi-layered. It includes a new Inclusive Mainstream Fund of £1.6 billion over three years, distributed directly to early years settings, schools, and colleges. This funding is intended to support targeted interventions, such as small group language support and adaptive teaching, at the earliest signs of additional needs. The aim is to ensure that children receive help promptly, rather than waiting for their needs to escalate.
For children requiring more specialized support, the reforms introduce an “Experts at Hand” service, backed by £1.8 billion over three years. This initiative will create a bank of specialists—including SEND teachers, speech and language therapists, educational psychologists, and occupational therapists—available to every school and local area. Notably, this support will be accessible to children regardless of whether they have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), a move intended to end the so-called “postcode lottery” that has left some families traveling miles for appropriate provision.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson underscored the government’s ambitions: “Children with SEND deserve a system that lifts them up, and that puts no limit on what they can go on to achieve. That means brilliant teachers and experts providing support where children need it, when they need it – in their local school, without families having to fight.”
The reforms also include the creation of 60,000 new specialist places, including 10,000 already delivered, and a £3.7 billion capital investment to ensure that every school has an inclusion base tailored to local needs. In addition, the government will invest £200 million to strengthen SEND outreach in every community’s Best Start Family Hub, ensuring a dedicated practitioner is available to support families from the earliest years.
One of the most significant policy shifts is the introduction of Individual Support Plans (ISPs), which will be co-designed with families and mandated for all schools, nurseries, and colleges. These plans are intended to log a child’s support needs and ensure that entitlements are written into law, reducing the need for families to navigate complex statutory processes. For those with the most complex needs, EHCPs will remain, but with a renewed focus on quality and timely delivery. The government is also piloting fast-track EHCPs for children under five with complex requirements, working in partnership with the NHS.
Charities and advocacy groups have responded with cautious optimism. The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) praised the commitment to specialist expertise but warned that the reforms would only succeed if the decline in qualified Teachers of the Deaf—down 26% since 2011—is reversed. “Deaf children rely on specialist teaching to develop language, communication and learning skills – and that specialist expertise cannot be replaced by any welcome increase in teacher SEND training alone,” said Justin Cooke, NDCS’s head of policy and influencing. “For this investment to deliver for deaf children, it must mean training and employing more qualified Teachers of the Deaf.”
Meanwhile, James Watson-O’Neill, CEO of Sense, which supports disabled and deafblind children, welcomed the “real commitment” shown by the government but stressed the need for a credible workforce plan and clear definitions of complex needs. “Without clear detail on how ‘complex needs’ will be defined in practice, many families will understandably fear that their child could fall through the cracks,” he cautioned. Sense and other organizations have pledged to participate actively in the government’s 12-week consultation, open until May 18, to ensure that families’ voices are heard and that reforms do not inadvertently reduce support for those who need it most.
Data from the DfE highlights the scale of the challenge: only 42% of deaf children achieved a good level of development at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, compared to 68% of all children, and just one-third of deaf children in England achieved at least a grade 5 in both English and Maths at GCSE level last year. Since 2015/16, the number of children receiving SEND support has increased by almost 19%, with EHCPs rising nearly 7% in the same period.
The government has also committed to training every teacher to support children with SEND, launching what it describes as the “biggest SEND training offer ever seen in English schools.” This, combined with new National Inclusion Standards and a streamlined early years funding system, is intended to ensure that support is both consistent and accessible, regardless of where a child lives.
As the consultation period unfolds, parents, educators, and advocacy groups will be watching closely to see whether these ambitious reforms can deliver on their promise. The government’s challenge now is to turn hopeful rhetoric into meaningful, lasting change for every child who needs it.