Schools white paper questions

See our Schools White Paper and SEND Reform for full information.

Responses from the Department of Education (DfE), March 2026, in answer to questions from Manchester parents/carers about the schools white paper and SEND Reform:

1. Will my child in mainstream lose their EHCP?

• Every child with a special school place in September 2029 will be able to stay in a special school until they finish education, as is appropriate for them.
• Transition will only begin in 2029 once the new inclusive mainstream system has been fully built and no child with a current EHCP will transition until 2030.
• Children who transition out of their EHCP will have an ISP in place ahead of their plan ceasing, developed in partnership with their families. 

2. Will my child be reassessed when they go to high school in 2028?

• Reassessments under the new threshold do not begin until 2029/30.
• Children move to the new system only at phase transfer from 2030 onwards.
• Therefore, if your child moves to secondary school in September 2028, they will not be reassessed then. They remain under the current EHCP system until the next phase transfer under the new legislation (secondary → post‑16).

3. When can we expect to see the new SEND Code of Practice published?

• The Code will be updated after legislation is introduced. A full public consultation on the revised Code will happen after the SEND Consultation response is published. No publication date is fixed yet. So the timeline is: Consultation response → Legislation → Public consultation on the updated Code → Final Code published.

4. Who can parents or young people contact if we believe settings or otherwise are implementing the changes before they become law and guidance?

• The setting (SENCO / Headteacher).
• Local Authority SEND team (they must continue to operate under the current law until 2029).
• SENDIASS – as an independent information, advice and support service to families.
• Ofsted – where concerns relate to inclusion, complaints processes, or unlawful practice.
• The SEND Tribunal (only for current statutory rights, not future reforms).

There is no new national enforcement body for pre‑implementation issues; current law continues to apply until 2029. 

5. Which parts of the changes will my local area be introducing before 29/30? When and what will these be?

Only non‑legislative reforms can be implemented before 2029. These include:

What local areas can introduce before 2029 -

• Inclusive Mainstream Fund investment (from 2026–27).
• Experts at Hand roll‑out (from 2026).
• National Inclusion Standards (published before 2028).
• Inclusion Strategies developed by schools.
• Expansion of inclusion bases using capital funding.
• Training programmes (SEND workforce CPD, teacher training entitlement).
• Digital ISPs testing, but ISPs are not statutory until 2029+.

What local areas cannot introduce before legislation -

• New EHCP rules.
• Specialist Provision Packages as a statutory threshold.
• ISP legal duties.
• New placement rules and cost‑banding.

Your local authority will publish a SEND Reform Plan, but implementation of statutory reforms is not allowed before 2029.

6. Will the Specialist Support Packages be the same in every local authority (LA)?

• Yes. Specialist Provision Packages are nationally consistent, designed by national expert panels, and used across all LAs. This is intended to end the current 'postcode lottery'.

7. Will the LA oversee the implementation of ISP or will each school do their own thing?

• Each school or college is responsible for producing and using Individual Support Plans (ISPs).
• There will be a statutory duty on settings (schools, maintained nursery schools, school based nurseries, and colleges) to use their best endeavours to produce an ISP for any child receiving targeted, targeted plus, or specialist support.
• This duty does not fall on the local authority, and it does not extend to private, voluntary, or independent early years providers.

The local authority does not oversee ISP implementation, but it does have strategic responsibilities in the wider SEND system, such as:

• Ensuring sufficiency of SEND places across their area. 
  
• Commissioning and funding specialist bases.
• Participating in local SEND partnerships and sufficiency planning. 
  

Quality and consistency of ISP use will instead be monitored through Ofsted, which will look at how well schools identify need, record provision and use ISPs as part of their inclusion practice.

8. How do we ensure schools are made accountable for the additional funding they will now receive for SEND and Inclusion?

We will hold schools to account on their use of inclusion funding through the requirement to produce an Inclusion Strategy. Schools will need to outline their planned strategy and investment in inclusion to strengthen their universal offer and remove common barriers to learning for their cohort. Ofsted will be able to draw on the strategy to assess how effectively leaders are planning for, implementing and delivering inclusive practice.

9. Will SENDIAS additional funding be ringfenced?

The Government is providing increased funding for SENDIAS service . It will not be ringfenced but is provided to SENDIAS services through the DfE Participation and Family Support Contract. This increased investment is to ensure the quality of support that families receive is improved through enhanced training and support to SENDIASS, including additional capacity for advocacy.

We know local services are critical which is why we want to help local services to support families better, particularly through the reform implementation period.

10. Why hasn't transport been mentioned in the white paper?

• The SEND reforms will enable more children to thrive in local mainstream settings. This will mean fewer children will need to travel long distances to access education, reducing the burden on local authorities.
• To support local authorities in the meantime:
• We have introduced a new home to school travel data collection to support benchmarking and decision-making.
• We will be publishing non-statutory guidance on partnership working to support joined-up decision-making to ensure travel arrangements are cost-effective.
• We have worked with MHCLG to create a bespoke funding formula for home to school travel within the local government finance settlement to ensure the available funding is directed where it is needed most.

11. Why is there a lack of Post 16/transition and Preparing for Adulthood (PfA)?

As part of the NEET prevention strand of the Youth Guarantee, we are improving transitions into Post-16. This will ensure that all children and young people have a planned destination before they leave compulsory education.

FOR those with SEND

We will work with schools, colleges and local authorities to design and implement a clear approach to support transition from school to college. In terms of post-16 destinations, the gap between those with SEN compared to those without has risen over the past 4 years, to 8.1 percentage points (84.4% vs 92.5% but we also know that young people with SEND are 80% more likely to be not in education, employment or training (NEET) than their peers’ average. We will work with schools, colleges and local authorities to design and implement a clear approach to support transition from school to college. In terms of post-16 destinations, the gap between those with SEN compared to those without has risen over the past 4 years, to 8.1 percentage points (84.4% vs 92.5%).

To improve outcomes and reduce the risk of young people with SEND becoming NEET, planning for transition needs to begin at least 12 months in advance. This will allow post-16 providers, in partnership with schools and local authorities, to create bespoke or cohort-based transition packages for students with SEND. In doing so, they will ensure young people can choose a suitable study programme and are supported from day one through to further education.

Preparation for adulthood

We expect the SEND Code of practice to be properly adhered to which includes preparation for adulthood and this directive already exists. The SEND Code of Practice states:

• All young people with SEN should be supported to make the transition to life beyond school or college, whether or not they have an EHC plan. As well as preparing them for adulthood generally, schools and colleges should ensure that young people with SEN have the information they need to make the final steps in this transition. This includes information about local employers, further training, and where to go for further advice or support. 
• For young people with EHC plans, where it is known that a young person will soon be completing their time in education and training, the local authority should use the annual review prior to ceasing the EHC plan to agree the support and specific steps needed to help the young person to engage with the services and provision they will be accessing once they have left education. 
  Some young people will be moving into employment or going on to higher education. 
• Others will primarily require ongoing health and/or care support and/or access to adult learning opportunities. They may be best supported by universal health 
  services and adult social care and support, alongside learning opportunities in the adult skills sector.
• This transition should be planned with timescales and clear responsibilities and the young person should know what will happen when their EHC plan ceases. During this planning process, the local authority must continue to maintain the young person’s EHC plan as long as the young person needs it and remains in education or training.