SEND Matters Coalition: Keeping Parents Voices at the Heart of SEND Reforms

Last week I met with Helen Saul and Neil Giles, Co-Chairs of SEND Matters Coalition, a parent-led organisation doing fantastic work to ensure SEND reforms strengthen support without watering down legal rights or specialist provision. 

There is wide agreement that the system has to change. After speaking with Helen and Neil, their concerns echoed many of the issues parents and schools across Newbury and West Berkshire have raised with me through roundtables, meetings, casework, and my recent SEND survey. 

One of the biggest concerns is the proposed move away from Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) towards Individual Support Plans (ISPs). EHCPs are powerful legal documents and provide families with certainty because, particularly through Section F, specialist provision is legally enforceable and can be challenged when it is not delivered. The shift to ISPs risks weakening those protections.

While the Government has sought to reassure parents that they will “never be left without a route to challenge decisions,” the detail remains unclear and must be addressed when Ministers publish their response to the SEND: putting children and young people first consultation later this year.  

As parents have repeatedly told me, a “radical expansion” of children’s rights should not come at the expense of existing protections. The real challenge is creating a system that is transparent, accountable, and trusted by families. One that replaces conflict and costly legal battles with support that is responsive to every child's individual needs. 

Fundamentally, parents do not want to spend years battling an adversarial system. They do not want to leave jobs, put careers on hold, or feel pushed out of contributing to society because they are forced to fight for support. But when you are fighting for your child, everything else inevitably comes second. 

Those concerns have only been reinforced by the recent and deeply troubling whistleblower testimony from a local authority case officer. Following those allegations, I submitted Parliamentary Written Questions to the Department for Education (UIN 18407, UIN 18406, UIN 18405) pressing the Government to clarify local authorities' obligations to provide support and ensure families are not left without the help they need. 

Helen and Neil also raised important questions about the Government's drive for greater inclusion in mainstream schools. Done properly, that ambition is welcome. But there is a real concern that a one-size-fits-all approach will not work for children whose needs exceed what a mainstream setting can reasonably provide.

For some young people, that could mean being placed in an environment that leaves them overwhelmed, unsupported, and vulnerable to bullying or stigma. At the same time, teaching unions are warning that schools simply do not have enough staff to deliver the additional support required, risking a situation where children are left more isolated and teachers stretched beyond their limits. 

As we await the Government's consultation response and the details of future reforms, parents' voices must remain at the heart of the conversation. They understand better than anyone how the system works in practice and what must change. As SEND Matters Coalition puts it, every child deserves the “right support, in the right setting, at the right time.”