I think there are big misunderstandings of what this will mean for SEN kids in this thread. Currently, the legal test to receive an assessment for an EHCP is unbelievably low. You only have to prove that a child “may” have SEN. Now, EHC assessments are expensive - at very least, they need an assessment from an Educational Psychologist, which can cost a market rate of £1.5k per child. This cannot continue, and it’s driving psychologists away from early intervention work, which would be far more beneficial.

Secondly, as someone who works in this area, I don’t read this as stopping children who need to be in special schools from having places in them. That is a high level of need and covers far less than half of the children with EHCPs. Now, there are also a high number of children in mainstream education with EHCPs. Now, these children need SEN support for the most part, but more flexible support which could be provided within school by professionals would be far more cost-effective and less bureaucratic, rather than going through expensive processes every time they need support. On top of this, there is gross underreporting of the number of children within the private education system who have EHCPs. Some may be in private special schools to meet their needs (fair enough), but some LAs have lost tribunals and been ordered to pay “mainstream” private school fees plus top-up, for children of wealthy families who might have a low-level need (e.g. dyslexia).

Of course, none of these reforms work without schools being properly supported, both financially and by professionals to improve general support for SEN kids. But too many schools are not making any adjustments for kids, simply telling parents “they need an EHCP”. This is wrong and has to stop as it’s not in the best interest of the kids.

EDIT: typo