In this blog, you will learn:
Why this SENCO believes trust, early intervention and consistent mainstream support will be critical to reducing demand for EHCPs and tribunal appeals.
How workforce pressures and staffing structures could affect the success of the Schools White Paper, according to a SENCO.
Why this SENCO believes the Schools White Paper lacks clear details on how meaningful SEND reform will work in practice for schools and local authorities.
How to find and apply for the best local authority SEND jobs.
The Schools White Paper has prompted significant discussion across the education sector, particularly around SEND reform, mainstream inclusion and EHCP processes.
To explore what these proposed changes could mean in practice, we spoke with Abigail, a SEND Consultant, SENCO and advocate, as well as the founder of two SEND platforms.
Abigail is a respected voice within the SEND community, known for supporting schools and SEND professionals through practical guidance, tools and discussions.
She has created resources to help SENCOs understand how to interpret the Schools White Paper and navigate policy changes.
Throughout this interview, Abigail shares her perspective on the realities facing schools, the risks within the proposed reforms and what needs to happen for meaningful change to become a reality.
What are your initial thoughts on the Schools White Paper and the direction it sets for the future of SEND provision?
The Schools White Paper reads as a very well-packaged set of reforms. There is a clear narrative about inclusion, early intervention and reducing conflict with families, which is hard to argue with.
The difficulty is that it still lacks substance on how this is going to work in practice.
There are a lot of structural ideas, but not enough operational clarity. What will this actually look like in schools, classrooms and local authorities? Who is doing what, when and with what level of accountability?
Without these details, there is a risk that this will become another vision document that schools are expected to interpret and absorb, on top of everything else.
The government proposes digitising EHCP processes and creating a more streamlined system. How realistic do you think this is in practice? What risks or benefits do you foresee?
Digitisation is the easy part. We can all agree that paper-heavy systems are inefficient. The concern is that we digitise a process without improving it. A slow, fragmented system does not become efficient simply because it is online.
The same applies to the proposed Individual Support Plans. There is very little clarity about how onerous these will be, who is expected to complete them and how they will fit alongside everything else schools are already doing.
If this becomes another layer of paperwork without removing anything else, then the workload will increase rather than decrease.
A key benefit is stronger information sharing and clearer tracking of support. The risk is that it becomes just another compliance system for schools instead of a tool that genuinely improves support for children.
Do you think mainstream settings are currently equipped to meet the government's plans to improve inclusion and accessibility? What do you think needs to change?
Not consistently. Some schools do this exceptionally well, but they often do so despite the system rather than because of it.
The Schools White Paper places a significant expectation on mainstream settings to become more inclusive, yet it does not fully address what needs to change to make that realistic.
Inclusion is not just about expectation; it is about staffing, training, time, environment and leadership.
One of the most significant gaps for me is the continued reliance on the least-qualified staff to support the most complex pupils.
We are still, as a system, placing our most vulnerable children with Teaching Assistants who are often underpaid and undertrained, while qualified teachers are positioned elsewhere.
That is a structural issue, not a school-level choice and until there is a clear expectation around qualifications, training and pay, that will not shift.
The government wants all schools to join or form Multi-Academy Trusts. How might this structural change impact SEND delivery at a local level?
There is potential for strong trusts to share expertise, develop consistent practice and reduce isolation to create economies of scale that benefit SEND. The concern is that structure is being treated as a solution in itself.
A trust does not automatically improve SEND provision. It depends entirely on how it operates, how decisions are made and how responsive it is to local needs.
There is also a risk that SEND becomes more distant from local accountability.
Families need systems they can navigate and influence. If decision-making becomes more centralised without strengthening local relationships, that could create further tension rather than reducing it.
Do you feel the Schools White Paper adequately addresses current workforce pressures within schools and local authorities?
No, not sufficiently. It acknowledges workforce pressures, but it does not address some core issues. The role of the SENCO is a good example.
There is an expectation that SENCOs will coordinate increasingly complex systems, yet there is no clear move to strengthen their status in terms of pay, leadership level, or protected time. That is a significant omission.
If you are asking someone to lead inclusion across a school, manage statutory processes, coordinate external agencies and support staff, that role needs to be recognised and structured accordingly.
At the moment, that is not consistently the case.
How will early intervention plans and Alternative Provision reforms reduce demand for EHCPs and tribunal appeals over the long term?
If support is available early, clearly defined and consistently delivered, then families are less likely to pursue statutory routes. The issue is trust. Families often seek EHCPs because they do not trust that non-statutory support will be sufficient or sustained.
If Individual Support Plans or early intervention pathways are vague or applied inconsistently, demand for EHCPs will not decrease.
This only works if the support beneath the threshold is robust, transparent and reliably delivered. Otherwise, it simply shifts the pressure rather than reducing it.
How do you think the Schools White Paper’s ambition for every child to ‘achieve and thrive’ could be realistically achieved in practice?
It all comes down to what happens in classrooms. Children achieve and thrive not because of policy statements alone, but through consistent, high-quality teaching, appropriate support and a strong sense of belonging.
That requires a system in which staff are trained, supported and valued. It also requires provision to be planned and delivered effectively, with accountability focused on outcomes for children rather than compliance with processes.
Without that, the ambition remains aspirational rather than operational.
The Schools White Paper highlights improving attendance and reducing persistent absence for children with SEND. How realistic do you think these proposals are and what challenges might schools and local authorities face in achieving them?
Attendance for children with SEND is often a reflection of unmet needs rather than disengagement. If a child is not attending school, there is usually a reason that needs to be understood and addressed.
The proposals are only realistic if they are linked to meaningful improvements in provision. If they become another accountability measure without addressing underlying needs, they will not have the intended impact.
Schools and local authorities will face challenges around capacity, access to services and the complexity of individual cases. Attendance cannot be improved in isolation from the rest of the system.
What elements of the Schools White Paper surprised you the most?
The scale of the reform is striking. There is a significant shift in how support is structured, particularly with the introduction of layered support and the move toward digital systems.
What is more surprising is how much of that reform is described at a high level, without corresponding details about implementation.
What elements of the Schools White Paper do you think are most at risk of failing?
The elements of the Schools White Paper that rely on assumption rather than clarity and are most at risk, in my opinion, include:
The introduction of Individual Support Plans without clear guidance on workload and responsibilities.
The expectation that mainstream schools can absorb greater complexity without structural changes to staffing and training.
The assumption that early intervention will reduce demand without addressing trust.
There is also a real risk with inclusion hubs. In some schools, these are thoughtful, well-integrated spaces that support pupils effectively.
In others, they risk becoming a rebranded version of exclusion spaces. Without clear expectations, training and accountability, that inconsistency will continue.
Looking ahead, what do you think will be the most successful element of the Schools White Paper?
The focus on mainstream inclusion has the greatest potential if it is implemented properly.
If schools are genuinely supported to become more inclusive, with clear expectations, appropriate funding and stronger accountability, then that could make a meaningful difference.
The challenge, as always, is that success will depend less on what is written in the Schools White Paper and more on how it is enacted across thousands of schools and services.
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