With the recent release of the SEND White Paper, Octavia Lemon, SENCo, at Demetae Academy, Staffordshire, offers her thoughts on the planned reforms and why it’s important to not lose sight of the children who it will impact most.
The government’s White Paper has triggered immediate reaction across UK news and is dominating discussion across social media. But beneath the political argument of SEND reform lies a simpler truth. This reform will be felt most acutely, not in Whitehall but in classrooms, by children.
At the epicentre of this is a major shift in how SEND provision will operate. It is proposed that EHCPs, by 2035, be reserved for children with only the most complex needs. If a child does not fall into the more complex needs bracket, then they will receive an Individual Support Plan (ISP). More than a million pupils are due to receive the new ISP which schools will be legally required to deliver…