The national SEND Reform consultation titled ‘SEND reform: putting children and young people first’, was launched on 23 February 2026 by the UK Department for Education. Since that launch, our WPCF reps have hosted more than 25 parent carer engagement events across the county. Alongside well-being activities, chatting with guest speakers and drinking coffee, Worcestershire parent carers have been talking to us about the reform proposal. Our role has been to share information, answer questions, listen carefully and capture parent carers’ views on the proposal.
On Monday, reps from Worcestershire Parent Carer Forum (WPCF) attended the Department for Education SEND Engagement in Birmingham, which was also attended by the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson. We sat and spoke directly to the minister and shared Worcestershire’s parent carers’ feedback in very plain language. It was a very honest exchange of views – purely built on what Worcestershire families have told us over the last few months.
Most Worcestershire parent carers do not oppose the concept of reform itself. Many agree that the current system is adversarial, exhausting, slow, inconsistent, and traumatic. There is also broad agreement that: the current system pushes families into crisis, EHCP battles are damaging, that tribunals should not be the only route to secure support and outcomes shouldn’t depend on parents’ advocacy skills.
The feedback from Worcestershire parent carers has not all been negative. There is broad support for some of the reform principles including the concepts of: earlier intervention, support before diagnosis, reducing bureaucracy, better workforce training, integrated therapies, consistent national standards and improved early years support. Many families particularly welcome the acknowledgement that diagnosis delays should not prevent support.
However, the overriding concern is that the proposed solution will weaken enforceable rights before mainstream provision is genuinely capable of meeting need.
Loss of Enforceable Rights
The single biggest concern across Worcestershire parent carers is the proposed narrowing of EHCP eligibility. Worcestershire’s SEND families see EHCPs as far more than paperwork, but as the only legally enforceable route to provision, the only mechanism that forces local authorities to act, the only reliable way to secure therapies and the only way schools can afford 1:1 support. In short, for many families, an EHCP has been the only way to start getting their child’s needs met.
The reform’s proposed Individual Support Plans (ISPs) are viewed by Worcestershire families as weaker because they lack equivalent tribunal rights and legal enforceability.
What is True Inclusion?
We didn’t speak to a single parent who didn’t support the philosophy of inclusion. However, parents are clear, inclusion is not the same as a mainstream placement. True inclusion requires: smaller class sizes, specialist staff, access to therapeutic support, sensory-friendly environments across the whole school, SEND funding that’s protected, properly trained teachers and realistic staffing ratios.
Inclusion cannot simply mean physically placing children in mainstream classrooms without the conditions needed for them to succeed.
Trust Issues Driven by Existing System Failures
This theme is best summarised by one Worcestershire parent carer who said: “Why should families trust mainstream inclusion promises now, when current legal duties are already routinely breached?”
At our events, families routinely report that their child’s school already struggle to implement EHCP provision, that therapies specified in plans are frequently not delivered, deadlines are missed, and tribunals are frequently required to secure support. Some families experience years of conflict before an appropriate placement is agreed. Understandably, Worcestershire families are deeply sceptical about proposals that rely more heavily on discretionary or school-led support structures.
Narrowing the Definition of “Complex Needs”
Many of our parent carers are concerned the proprosed reforms will create a hierarchy of disability, with children with profound learning disabilities, severe physical disabilities and high medical complexity continuing to receive statutory protection whilst others do not. Meanwhile, autistic children without a learning disability, children with ADHD, dyslexic, dyspraxia, anxiety-linked attendance difficulties and sensory needs will struggle to meet future thresholds.
Many parent carers argue these children are precisely the ones most vulnerable to being judged “not complex enough” despite their disability having very high functional impact on their ability to learn and thrive.
Some Worcestershire families already experience this hierarchy or inequality when trying to access children’s social care and health services such as occupational therapy – both services having service criteria that significantly disadvantage neurodivergent children. The SEND reforms feel like inequality in education will be next!
Mismatch between Attendance & Well-Being
A major issue by Worcestershire’s SEND families is the mismatch between attendance statistics and wellbeing. Worcestershire parent carers describe children who: attend school physically but cannot access learning, are emotionally dysregulated after school, experience neurodivergent burnout, mask heavily in school and experience Emotional Based School Avoidance (EBSA) after a prolonged period of unmet needs.
Worcestershire families are worried reforms may incentivise keeping children in mainstream settings even when placements are failing their children psychologically.
Big Concerns about Accountability
One of the reasons EHCPs matter so much to Worcestershire families is that they create: named provision, quantified provision, legal accountability and tribunal routes.
They fear that ISPs will be: underfunded, difficult/impossible to challenge, dependent on schools’ goodwill and will be variable in quality.
Worcestershire’s Wishlist
So what do Worcestershire parent carers tell us they want from national SEND reform:
- Do not remove children’s legal rights
- Make serious and tangible improvements to mainstream inclusion before adjusting any laws or policies
- Retain robust independent appeal mechanisms
- Protect and invest in more specialist provision across Worcestershire
- Ensure mainstream inclusion funding reaches SEND learners and isn’t lost in the ‘system’
- Acknowledge that some children will always need specialist environments
- Stop defining inclusion by placement type
- Hold those that fail our SEND children and young people to account
Worcestershire Parent Carer Forum has also provided a briefing to the Worcestershire SEND & AP Executive Board on feedback from Worcestershire parent carers regarding the proposals.
Our next steps are to complete the national SEND Reform consultation on behalf of Worcestershire SEND families. The deadline for the consultation is this Monday 18th May 2026.
Families are encouraged to submit their own consultation responses.
EDIT 18/05/26: Download the Final WPCF SEND Reform Submission.
