Schools Versus Parents - is that the plan?

Are the SEND reforms quietly pitting schools against parents in a bid to get Local Authorities off the hook?

Over the past few weeks I’ve been reading the proposed SEND reforms with real interest.

Like many people working across SEND, I genuinely believe the system needs reform. Families know it, schools know it, and local authorities certainly know it. The current model is under huge pressure and isn’t delivering consistently for children.

But one thing we continually shouted about was….

Accountability.

Because right now too many families feel the only place accountability truly exists in the system is inside an EHCP, and even then, getting through the system to hold it to account is fraught with conflict.

Why families pushed for EHCPs in the first place

The significant rise in Education, Health and Care Plans over the past decade is often framed as something the system now needs to reduce.

But it’s worth asking why so many families began pursuing them in the first place.

For many parents, the EHCP became the only part of the system where provision was clearly written down, where responsibility was defined, and where there was at least some mechanism to hold someone to account if the support their child needed didn’t materialise.

It wasn’t about wanting paperwork or legal processes.

It was about wanting certainty that support would actually happen.

Schools are carrying an enormous amount

It’s important to say this clearly.

Schools and teachers are not the problem here.

Ellie, TA, sits with Bethan and Jess, supporting them with the Learning for Life activities.

Anyone who spends time in classrooms or working with SENDCos knows how much commitment, creativity, and care already goes into supporting children with additional needs. In many cases schools have been the strongest advocates for their pupils and for the families they work alongside.

Anyone working in education right now also knows that schools are already stretching themselves incredibly thin to meet rising SEND need.

Demand for SEND support has increased rapidly over the past decade. Specialist services are stretched, waiting lists have grown, and funding pressures are felt in almost every part of the system.

In that environment, schools are often expected to hold together support that sits across education, health and social care, while still delivering everything else that schools do.

That’s a heavy responsibility for any system to carry.

The ambition behind reform

The proposed reforms aim to move support earlier and reduce reliance on EHCPs.

The introduction of Individual Support Plans and a clearer graduated response is intended to ensure children receive the help they need without families having to navigate long statutory processes.

In principle, that ambition makes sense.

Most people working in SEND would welcome a system where support arrives earlier and more consistently.

Everyone involved in SEND wants the same outcome: children receiving the right support, at the right time, without families having to fight for it.

But for that to work, the levels of support before specialist provision must feel credible to families.

And that brings us back to accountability.

Where does accountability actually sit?

If schools are responsible for identifying needs, setting out the provision a child should receive, delivering that provision, and managing complaints about whether it has been delivered, then a difficult question emerges.

Where does that realistically leave parents if something goes wrong?

Too often it risks placing them in direct conflict with the very schools that once stood alongside them.

And that is something we should be very careful about creating.

Because in most cases parents and schools actually want the same thing.

The best possible support for the child.

The relationship we should be protecting

At its best, the SEND system works because of the partnership between families and schools.

Teachers bring deep knowledge of learning and the classroom environment. Parents bring knowledge of their child that no professional system can replicate.

When those two perspectives come together well, the results can be incredibly powerful.

But when systems lack clarity around responsibility, support or funding, pressure can start to build inside that relationship.

Parents push harder because they are worried their child’s needs won’t be met.

Schools feel that pressure while trying to manage limited resources and rising demand.

And slowly the partnership becomes strained.

That is not a failure of parents.

And it is certainly not a failure of schools.

It is usually a failure of system design.

If we want fewer EHCPs, we need stronger accountability earlier

If reform is intended to reduce the need for EHCPs, then the levels of support leading up to specialist provision must provide real clarity.

Families need to understand what support their child is entitled to receive. Schools need to know what they are expected to deliver. And there needs to be an independent body to hold the system to account. This doesn’t have to be the tribunal. The Local Government Ombudsman are keen to wider their scope and create real joined up change. There are options but asking schools to provide and police is a recipe for disaster.

Without accountability, families will continue to seek the one mechanism in the system that currently provides it.

The EHCP.

Which means we risk recreating exactly the same pressures the reforms are trying to solve.

Reform should strengthen partnerships, not strain them

SEND reform is a real opportunity.

An opportunity to build a system where children receive help earlier, where schools have the structures and resources they need, and where families feel confident that support will actually be delivered.

But as we redesign the system, we need to be careful not to unintentionally move conflict into the relationship between parents and schools.

Because those two groups are not opponents.

They are partners.

And if we want children with SEND to truly learn and thrive, that partnership is one of the most important things we have.

At Learn and Thrive we work closely with families and schools, and we see every day how powerful that partnership can be when the system supports it well.

Join the conversation

I’d be really interested to hear how others working across SEND are thinking about this.

Particularly school leaders, SENDCos, educators and families navigating the system day to day. If reform is going to succeed, it must strengthen the partnership between schools and families — not leave them feeling like they’re on opposite sides of the table.

Let us know your thoughts via Learn and Thrive contact page or share with colleagues and see what they think.

The more voices we hear from across the system, the better chance we have of building reforms that genuinely work for children, families and schools.

Jo Aiyathurai

Education Lead & CEO - Learn and Thrive.