The SEND policy reform white paper has just landed – here’s what you need to know
The “Every Child Achieving and Thriving” white paper outlines a comprehensive plan for the next decade of education, focusing on three core shifts: moving from a narrow to broad curriculum, ensuring children who were side lined are included, and bringing families from withdrawn to engaged.
The most significant changes announced include:
1. Structural and Funding Reforms
- Move to School Trusts: The government intends for all schools to join or form high-quality school trusts, including the creation of new trusts established by local authorities or local area partnerships.
- Targeted Disadvantage Funding: A new model for targeting disadvantage funding will be tested, potentially shifting from Free School Meals (FSM) eligibility to a stepped model based on household income and the length of time a family has been in poverty.
- Place-Focused Missions: Two specific missions—Mission North East (focused on white working-class outcomes) and Mission Coastal—will be launched to tackle entrenched disadvantage in specific geographical areas
2. SEND and Inclusion Reforms
- Financial Investment: An Inclusive Mainstream Fund of £1.6 billion will be provided over three years to support needs early in mainstream settings.
- Experts at Hand Service: A new £1.8 billion service will be created to give schools quicker access to speech and language therapists, educational psychologists, and other professionals
- Specialist Provision Packages: New nationally defined, evidence-based packages will form the basis for future Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), ensuring more consistent support across the country.
- Individual Support Plans (ISPs): All schools will be required to create digital ISPs for any child with identified SEND to capture barriers to learning and day-to-day provision
3. Workforce and Teacher Support
- New Teachers: The government plans to recruit 6,500 more expert teachers across secondary schools, special schools, and FE colleges.
- Maternity Pay: Funding will be provided to double full maternity pay from 4 weeks to 8 weeks for school teachers and leaders starting in the 2027/28 academic year.
- Teacher Training Entitlement: A new entitlement will ensure every teacher and leader can access high-quality professional development throughout their career.
- Support Staff Body: The launch of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) to negotiate pay, terms, and conditions for support staff
4. Curriculum, Standards, and Attendance
- Enrichment Entitlement: Enrichment will become a common entitlement for all children, covering arts, culture, sport, and civic engagement, supported by an Enrichment Framework and targeted funding.
- Attendance Targets: The government aims to restore attendance to over 94% by 2028/29, recover learning time equivalent to 20 million more days of school each year.
- National Year of Reading: 2026 has been designated as the National Year of Reading, accompanied by new statutory reading tests for Year 8.
- Updated Curriculum: A refreshed National Curriculum will be implemented for first teaching in 2028, with updated GCSEs following in 2029
5. Accountability and Technology
- Trust Inspections: Ofsted will introduce independent inspections of school trusts to assess the quality of leadership and support provided across multiple schools.
- School Profiles: New digital “School Profiles” will replace narrow data points, giving parents a rounded picture of a school’s performance, including enrichment and attendance.
- AI Tutoring: The government will support the development and trialling of AI tutoring tools for secondary school children, aiming for scale by the end of 2027.
- Data Spine: A new “data spine” will be created to connect and share information across different systems in education, such as pupil records and assessments
Our promise to you:
We will keep you up to date with all the new policy and implementation for the new white paper with our membership offer. You can join for free or if you want more options for services and training we have paid options.
Look out for our upcoming webinar and further information from AMHIE Chair Richard Daniel Curtis and our Steering Group.
