The plan to be unveiled on Thursday comes nearly a year after the SEND review was first published as part of a green paper.
Ministers have pledged to end the postcode lottery of provision and provide high-quality support across the country.
Measures include expanded training for those working with children with SEND, ranging from up to 5,000 early years special educational needs coordinators to 400 educational psychologists, covering a wide range of educational needs.
A new leadership level Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator National Professional Qualification (SENCo NPQ) will be created to ensure teachers have the training they need to provide the right support to children.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education will develop an apprenticeship for teachers of sensory impairments.
The plan includes new national SEND and AP (alternative provision) standards, which the Government said would give families confidence in what support they should receive and who will provide and pay for it, regardless of where they live.
To improve parents’ and carers’ experiences of accessing support, the Government said the plan would cut local bureaucracy by making sure the process for assessing children and young people’s needs through Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) is ‘digital-first’, quicker and simpler, wherever possible.
The Government said the '£70 million change programme' will work over the next two to three years with selected local authorities in nine regions, working alongside families to implement, test and refine longer-term plans – including new digital requirements for local authority EHCP processes and options for strengthening mediation.
Professionals will have access to new guides to help them provide the right support in line with national standards but designed to suit each child’s unique experience, such as how to make adjustments to classrooms to help a child stay in mainstream education.
The Government said it was investing over £10 billion for children with SEND and in AP by 2023-24, a 50 per cent increase since 2019-20.
Ministers have also approved the building of 33 new specialist free schools across 30 local authority areas in England to add to 49, which it said are already in the pipeline.
Other measures in the plan include:
- £30 million to go towards developing innovative approaches for short breaks for children, young people and their families, providing crucial respite for families of children with complex needs. The programme will fund local areas to test new services including play, sports, arts and independent living activities, allowing parents time to themselves, while their child enjoys learning new skills.
- A new approach to AP will focus on preparing children to return to mainstream or prepare for adulthood. AP will act as an intervention within mainstream education, as well as high-quality standalone provision, in an approach that meets children’s needs earlier and helps prevent escalation.
- A doubling of the number of supported internship places by 2025, from around 2,500 to around 5,000, backed with £18 million of funding to help young people make the transition into adulthood. The process for young people claiming funding for reasonable adjustments for apprenticeships will also be simplified.
Minister for children, families and wellbeing, Claire Coutinho said, ‘Parents know that their children only get one shot at education and this can have an enormous impact on their child’s ability to get on with life. Yet for some parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, getting their child that superb education that everyone deserves can feel like a full-time job.
‘The Improvement Plan that we are publishing today sets out systemic reforms to standards, teacher training and access to specialists as well as thousands of new places at specialist schools so that every child gets the help they need.’
Minister for learning disabilities and autism, Maria Caulfield said, ‘Everyone with special educational needs and disabilities deserves to live a happy, healthy and productive life – but we know there are often barriers to accessing the right support, especially for parents navigating the start of their children’s educational experiences.
‘It is vital that health, care and education are working together properly from day one for people with additional needs, which is why we’re making sure steps are being taken to better join up the system and provide support more readily for children and young people with special educational needs and for their families.’
Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza said, 'Children with SEND and their families have, for too long, felt penalised by a system that doesn’t support their needs.
'I am particularly pleased to see this plan’s focus on early help, which will prevent families from reaching breaking point, and the increase in specialist school places so that many more children are able to attend a great school, every day.'
Responding to the plan, head of policy and research at Action for Children, Joe Lane, said, ‘Too many children with SEND are going without even basic services and too many parents are having to fight tooth and nail to get any help at all.
‘This welcome plan of action today couldn’t come soon enough for these vulnerable children and families who urgently need help.
‘The race is now on for ministers to roll out these plans as quickly as possible and continue to look at the wider changes needed so parents get what they need, when they need it, and without a battle every step of the way.’
Meanwhile, the Local Government Association said the Government's plans did not go 'far enough'.
Councillor Louise Gittins, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said, 'Councils share the Government’s ambition of making sure every child with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) gets the high-quality support that meets their needs. It is good the Government has set out new national standards which will clarify the support available, and the focus on early intervention will also ensure needs are met more effectively.
'However, while the measures announced will help to fix some of the problems with the current system, they do not go far enough in addressing the fundamental cost and demand issues that result in councils struggling to meet the needs of children with SEND.'
Responding to the publication of the plan, Helen Hayes MP, Labour's shadow children and early years minister, said, 'This unambitious plan won't meet children's needs or end the scandal of families facing lengthy court battles.
'Labour will make breaking down barriers to opportunity for children and young a people a key mission in government. That means reforming SEND education by identifying children's needs to get support in place sooner and delivering ongoing teacher training to ensure more children can be appropriately supported in mainstream settings.'
'Battling the system'
Ahead of the plan’s publication, education secretary Gillian Keegan spoke of her own family’s struggle to get support for her nephew Joseph, who has Down’s syndrome, and is now 16.
Speaking during a visit to a special school for children and young people with autism and/or severe learning difficulties in Islington, north London, Keegan said that ‘Every family in the country with anyone with special educational needs will have felt at times like they’re battling the system.’
She said she thought her nephew’s early experiences in nursery might have been improved by some of the proposals in the Government’s SEND plan.
In an interview with The Guardian she said, ‘He did not have such a great time at nursery because he broke his arm and they didn’t notice. I think he has quite a high pain threshold because he wasn’t actually screaming in pain. That wasn’t such a great experience. Then he went to a wonderful mainstream primary school.’
