SEND parents may lose right to appeal support such as therapy hours under reform

SEND parents face losing the right to appeal the “day-to-day” support listed in their child’s education, health and care plans (EHCPs), from therapy hours to teaching assistants, the Schools Minister has suggested.

Currently, EHCPs contain a detailed assessment of a child’s individual needs and stipulate the additional support they are entitled to, such as the number of speech and language therapy hours or support from a one-to-one teaching assistant.

But it is understood that ministers intend to shift “specific and quantified support” out of legally enforceable EHCPs into non-statutory Individual Support Plans (ISP), according to campaigners who have held discussions with the Department for Education (DfE).

It means the specific day-to-day support that parents fight for at the SEND tribunal, such as the number of therapy hours their child has access to, may no longer be legally enforceable.

Speaking to parents in a session hosted by campaign group Special Needs Jungle, Schools Minister Georgia Gould said EHCPs will set out a child’s “broad entitlement” while an ISP will contain their “day to day provision agreed with the school”.