Questions in the SEND Reform Consultation

The UK Government is consulting on SEND reform following the publication of ‘Every child achieving and thriving’ on 23rd February 2026. The consultation seeks knowledge and experience from a wide range of people and professions including strategic leaders in local authorities, mainstream schools, SEND settings, early years providers, inclusion bases, alternative provision and those working in creative health.

When responding to the consultation, you only need to answer questions that are relevant to your experience. To support you in making your response, we have listed the consultation questions below and organised them by the type of person they may be relevant to. You may find questions that are relevant to you in more than one of our categorisations.

This consultation closes at 23:59 on 18th May 2026. Respond to the consultation.

If you are a family member of a young person with SEND or are a young person yourself:

There are questions which focus on individual support plans, ways the Department for Education can hear about real experiences and early years.

• Q1. We want children, young people and their families to be involved in making better, evidence based decisions about SEND, both in their local area and across the country. How can we make sure children, young people and their families have a genuine say in these decisions?
• Q9. What arrangements would best support effective joint working between early years providers, Best Start Family Hubs, health, local authorities, and parents for children with SEND in the early years?
• Q15. What would provide assurance for families that an Individual Support Plan (ISP) is high-quality and contains the essential information?
• Q16: How can we ensure Individual Support Plans are clear, concise and practical for professionals to use?
• Q17: How can we best support transition for young people with SEND, so that they are well supported into post-16 provision and further education, training or employment?
• Q22. How can Specialist Provision Packages be designed to effectively support the main types of need we currently recognise?
• Q27. What information and support do parents need to make a decision about which setting will be best for their child?
• Q37. What information, advice and guidance can best support children, young people and their families to ensure greater fairness across the system?

If you are a teacher or work with teachers (including SENDCOs):

Questions 12 and 13 are about what national training is needed for teachers and ask how this can be introduced without disrupting the workload of teachers.

• Q8. Do you agree that the refreshed ‘areas of development’ will support educators to understand and address barriers to learning and participation? Please explain your answer.
• Q12. What are the most important issues for national training to cover, to help support children and young people with SEND?
• Q13. What practical actions can help teachers, educators and leaders manage workload whilst implementing these changes?
• Q14. How should the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) role evolve to better meet the needs of children and young people with SEND?

If you are a leader or teacher working in an inclusion base, or have an inclusion base connected to your setting.

You may also consider responding to these questions if your organisation works with young people in inclusion bases.

• Q11. What should the top three priority areas be for building and sharing evidence within the National Inclusion Standards?
• Q18. How can we make sure that every area can meet the full range of the needs of children and young people through Inclusion Bases?
• Q19. How can we make sure that Inclusion Bases help children and young people succeed in mainstream settings?
• Q21. What needs to be in place so that children and young people with low incidence, highly complex needs can always access the right specialist placement?

If you work in or with an SEND setting (or young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties, social and emotional needs, sensory impairments or physical disabilities):

These questions are relevant if you work with a greater complexity of SEND.

• Q2. How can we make sure that high-quality evidence and best practice inform decisions about SEND? Please share examples.
• Q22. How can Specialist Provision Packages be designed to effectively support the main types of need we currently recognise?
• Q23. We propose that EHCPs will guarantee educational provision set out in a Specialist Provision Package, with day-to-day provision captured in Individual Support Plans. What is needed to make these proposals work effectively?
• Q24. We propose creating a more direct route to Specialist Provision Packages and EHCP assessments for children under 5 with complex needs. How can we make sure this works in practice?
• Q25. What would you expect to be considered as part of the needs assessment, for example evidence and expert or professional input?
• Q26. What factors should LAs take into account in proposing to parents and young people a list of potential settings to name on a plan?
• Q28. What do you think is the right maximum length of time for a temporary placement in Alternative Provision (AP) schools? Please explain your rationale.

If you work in an early years setting:

These questions are relevant to those working with under 5s and their families.

• Q7. How do you think early years settings, schools, and college can best support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people?
• Q9. What arrangements would best support effective joint working between early years providers, Best Start Family Hubs, health, local authorities, and parents for children with SEND in the early years?
• Q10. How can the early years foundation stage (EYFS) two-year old progress check and the Healthy Child Programme development review be improved so that children’s needs are identified and supported more quickly? Please share examples.
• Q24. We propose creating a more direct route to Specialist Provision Packages and EHCP assessments for children under 5 with complex needs. How can we make sure this works in practice?

If you work supporting SEND in any setting (all teachers and SENDCOs):

These questions are relevant to all educators.

• Q3. How can we ensure that children are best supported by the Universal offer?
• Q4. How can we ensure that children in the Targeted layer, are best supported?
• Q5. How can we ensure that children in the Targeted Plus layer, are best supported?
• Q6. How can we ensure that children in the Specialist layer are best supported?
• Q12. What are the most important issues for national training to cover, to help support children and young people with SEND?

If you work in creative health:

These questions are relevant to music therapists and those who use music in mainstream settings to support mental health. You may also want to consider responding to questions 23 and 24 which relate to education health care plans (EHCPs) and Specialist Provision Packages.

• Q20. Through the Experts at Hand offer, we want to ensure that mainstream settings can get quick specialist support for children and young people. What arrangements are needed between local area partners (education, health, social care) to deliver this Experts at Hand offer effectively?

If you are a strategic leader working in a local authority, multi academy trust or school:

If you are a strategic leader familiar with budgeting or working across networks (e.g. in a multi academy trust) questions 29 to 37 ask about successful cross-sector working and where funding can make the greatest impact.

• Q29. We have set out our plans to regulate Independent Special Schools (ISS) sector. Do you agree that these proposed changes will lead to suitable placements being available at a fair cost? Please explain why.
• Q30. How should settings be held accountable for how they spend their Inclusive Mainstream funding?
• Q31. Do you agree that more SEND funding should sit directly within mainstream budgets? Please explain why.
• Q32: In relation to pooled funding, we propose that every school becomes part of a local SEND group. Do you agree that this proposal aligns with our aim for all schools to be part of high-quality, community-based trusts?
• Q33: How should disagreements about membership, provision, or funding in groups of schools for SEND be resolved?
• Q34: How can we ensure the most effective use of these local partnership groups?
• Q35. Which stakeholders are important for the success of local partnership groups, and why?
• Q36: How can we build stronger collaboration and a culture of improvement through local SEND strategic plans?
• Q37. What information, advice and guidance can best support children, young people and their families to ensure greater fairness across the system?

If you have anything further to contribute:

• Q39. This consultation outlines a series of measures intended to reform the SEND system. Some of these measures have already been finalised, and this is clearly indicated within the document. With this in mind, is there anything further you would like to contribute to help inform the remaining proposals that are still under consideration?