Calls for Government to Maintain Education Plans for Children with Special Needs

Ministers are facing calls to not cut education plans for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send). Campaigners say education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are 'precious legal protections', warning that thousands of children could lose access to education if the plans are abolished. The government says it inherited the system 'left on its knees'.

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson described it as a 'complex and sensitive area' when asked if she could rule out scrapping EHCPs. But Neil O'Brien, the shadow education minister, has criticised the government for 'broken promises and U-turns'.

An EHCP is a legally binding document which ensures a child or young person with special or educational needs gets the right support from a local authority. Full details of the proposed changes are due in October, but ministers have not ruled out scrapping the education plans - insisting no decisions have been taken. In a letter to the Guardian newspaper, campaigners have said that without EHCPs in mainstream schools, 'many thousands of children risk being denied vital provision, or losing access to education altogether'. 'Whatever the Send system's problems, the answer is not to remove the rights of children and young people. Families cannot afford to lose these precious legal protections,' they added.

Signatories to the letter include the heads of charities, professors, Send parents including actor Sally Phillips, and campaigners including broadcaster Chris Packham. Speaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Phillipson said: 'What I can say very clearly is that we will strengthen and put in place better support for children. I've been spending a lot of time listening to parents, to disability rights groups, to campaigners and to others and to colleagues across Parliament as well, because it's important to get this right.'