Labour’s New SEND Reforms: A Welcome Reset, But Vulnerable Children Must Not Pay the Price

The government’s newly announced overhaul of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision marks the most ambitious reform in more than a decade. The £4 billion package, unveiled as part of the Every Child Achieving and Thriving schools white paper, promises “specialist SEND support in every school and community” and a decisive move away from the one-size-fits-all model that has failed too many children for too long.

Equi welcomes the direction of travel. After years of rising need, inconsistent provision and families forced into adversarial battles for support, the system is overdue for a reset. The introduction of Individual Support Plans (ISPs), with legal standing, for all children requiring additional help is a significant step forward. It recognises that support should not depend on securing an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), a process that has become both a bottleneck and a battleground.

The government’s commitment to embed specialist teachers, therapists and targeted interventions in mainstream settings is also encouraging. Direct funding to schools through the new “inclusive mainstream fund” could help ensure earlier intervention, reduce escalation of need, and ease pressure on councils.

However, the reforms also carry substantial risks. EHCPs- the only legally enforceable entitlement to support, will be reserved for the most complex cases by 2035, with around one in eight current recipients expected to transition to new plans between 2030 and 2035. This tightening of eligibility may be intended to ensure that statutory protections are focused where they are most needed, but it also raises the prospect of vulnerable children losing the legal guarantees they rely on.

There is a danger that the reforms, while framed as transformational, are also shaped by fiscal pressures. Commentators have already questioned whether the changes are “really about money,” reflecting the acute strain on local authority budgets. If cost containment becomes the dominant driver, the reforms risk repeating the failures of the past: rationing support, shifting responsibility onto mainstream schools without adequate capacity, and leaving families once again fighting for provision.

For British Muslim communities, the stakes are particularly high. While national datasets do not routinely disaggregate SEND by faith, local authority and school-level evidence consistently shows that Muslim-heritage children are over-represented in categories such as speech, language and communication needs, social and emotional mental health needs, and specific learning difficulties. In many urban areas, Muslim children make up a significant proportion of those requiring additional support.

This reflects a combination of socio-economic disadvantage, language barriers in early years, higher prevalence of long-term health conditions in some communities, and the impact of structural inequalities. Any reform that narrows access to statutory protections or relies heavily on mainstream capacity risks disproportionately affecting these children.

If EHCP thresholds tighten without a corresponding uplift in specialist provision, Muslim-heritage children already facing multiple layers of disadvantage, could be among the first to lose out. Similarly, if the new ISP system lacks the enforceability and accountability mechanisms of EHCPs, families may find themselves with plans that look promising on paper but deliver little in practice.

To ensure the reforms deliver on their promise, Equi urges policymakers to focus on four priorities:

• Guarantee real early-intervention capacity- Specialist staff must be embedded in classrooms, not just advisory roles.
• Protect statutory rights- Any changes to EHCP eligibility must be transparent, evidence-based and subject to robust safeguards.
• Address inequalities explicitly- Government should publish disaggregated data on SEND by ethnicity and socio-economic background to identify where reforms may have unequal impacts.
• Engage communities– Muslim-led organisations, schools and parents must also be part of the design and implementation of new local SEND partnerships.

Labour’s reforms offer a genuine opportunity to rebuild a system that has been failing children for too long. But success will depend on resisting the temptation to prioritise short-term savings over long-term outcomes. For the most vulnerable children, including many from British Muslim communities, the consequences of getting this wrong will be profound.

Equi stands ready to work with government, local authorities and schools to ensure that the reforms deliver a fair, inclusive and effective SEND system for every child.

Bushra Nasir is Chair of the Equi Governance Board, a former headteacher and CEO of a Multi-Academy Trust.

The views expressed in Equi Comments pieces reflect the author’s perspective and do not necessarily represent the views of Equi. We provide this platform to encourage dialogue on broad themes related to our work, from diverse perspectives.