News Article

The UK government’s long-awaited Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, outlines a comprehensive overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.

Meantime, in relation to private and specialist schools, the government has also been setting out its thoughts on the role of the Department for Education (DfE), fees, and expansion.

SEND

Tiered Support System and Individual Support Plans (ISPs)
At the heart of the reforms is a new tiered system for SEND support. All children with SEND, including those without complex needs, will receive an Individual Support Plan (ISP), a legally backed plan detailing their day-to-day educational requirements. ISPs will replace much of the administrative reliance on Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) for children with less severe needs.

The tiered system consists of:

1. Universal Offer – baseline inclusive provision for all children, embedded in everyday teaching, supported by training and partnerships with families and local services.
2. Targeted Support – for children with ongoing but commonly occurring needs, including small group interventions and pre-teaching of curriculum content.
3. Targeted Plus Support – designed for children requiring specialist expertise, delivered through a new “experts at hand” service and access to dedicated inclusion bases within schools.
4. Specialist Support – reserved for children with the most complex needs. Here, specialist provision packages are co-designed with experts and parents, and only these children will qualify for a new EHCP.

The government intends for children to move fluidly between tiers as their needs evolve, ensuring support is responsive rather than static. ISPs will be digitised, interactive, and reviewed at least annually, with Ofsted monitoring implementation.

Reforming EHCPs and Special Schools
EHCPs, currently held by around 5.8% of pupils, will be restricted to those with the most complex needs, such as severe learning disabilities or profound behavioural challenges. Children currently on EHCPs will retain them until the end of their current phase of education; reassessments for transition to ISPs will begin from 2030. Special school placements will be safeguarded, with students able to remain until the end of their education, and special schools encouraged to provide outreach and short-term support to mainstream peers.

Funding, Accountability, and Collaboration
The reforms are backed by a £4 billion investment, split between an Inclusive Mainstream Fund (£1.6bn) and an Experts at Hand service (£1.8bn) over three years. Schools will also have a new duty to produce annual inclusion strategies, guiding the use of funding and strengthening accountability. Local authorities will collaborate with schools through SEND clusters to pool expertise and funding efficiently. The government also plans to introduce new performance measures to recognise progress for pupils entering secondary school behind their peers.

Points to Note for Investors and Operators
For investors and operators in the education sector, the reforms create several opportunities: growth in specialist services, technology-enabled ISPs, professional development for inclusion, and demand for evidence-based intervention programs. At the same time, there are potential challenges: parents’ concerns over reduced EHCP access, scrutiny from advocacy groups, and the need for schools to implement new standards without disrupting existing provision.

Private Schools

The government has also been clarifying the role of the Department for Education (DfE) in relation to private and specialist school expansion.

Stronger regulation and oversight is being proposed. A new regulatory framework would apply to independent specialist providers to ensure consistent quality, better value for money, and alignment with nationally defined standards. This is designed to address concerns about high fees and variable provision in parts of the private special school sector, and to limit expansion that is not clearly linked to need or quality benchmarks.

A central reform aim is to prioritise mainstream inclusion. The government plans to expand specialist capacity within mainstream schools, including tens of thousands of new specialist places and the introduction of Individual Support Plans (ISPs). Investment in inclusive funding and “Experts at Hand” services is intended to ensure children receive appropriate support locally, reducing reliance on costly out-of-area private placements and dampening demand-driven growth in the independent sector.

The reforms also include transitional protections. Children already placed in special schools by 2029 will be able to remain if families wish, and changes to Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) will be phased at natural transition points. Over time, reserving EHCPs for the most complex cases is expected to ease financial pressures that have fuelled private placements.

Importantly, the DfE is not given sweeping powers to ban or nationalise private special schools. Legal rights, including tribunal appeals, remain in place, though mediation reforms are proposed.

Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/every-child-achieving-and-thriving