SEND reforms: EHCPs are ‘not optional extras’

Dr Jo Billington, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading, researches the lived experience of autistic children in mainstream primary schools. She is co-founder of the Centre for Autism Wellbeing Hub, a 5-year funded project aimed at developing a range of activities to support autistic children and their families to lead flourishing lives.

Dr Billington said: 

“If the proposed SEND reforms are accurately reflected in today’s reporting, many families will understandably be feeling extremely anxious.  We know that securing an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) often comes at significant personal cost. 

“Research and lived experience consistently show that parents and carers experience the process as lengthy, adversarial and, at times, traumatic. Families frequentlyexpend considerable emotional, financial and practical resources to secure legal protections to their child’s basic educational, health and social care entitlements. Such protections have become necessary precisely because these entitlements are not consistently or reliably delivered without recourse to legal challenge.

“We also know that the transition from primary to secondary school is a critical time. For children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, this period can bring heightened uncertainty, increased academic and social demands, and greater potential fordistress. 

“At such points in a family’s life, stability,predictabilityand clarity of provision are essential.Arguably, this is a time when more support isrequired, not less.

“While it is important to await full details and avoid speculation, any suggestion of reduced legal protections will understandably cause deep concern. For many families of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, EHCPs are not optional extras or ‘golden tickets’,they are legal safeguards that can make the difference between exclusion and inclusion, between coping and crisis.”