Teachers and school staff - Have your say!
How to contribute to the Government Consultation on the Schools White Paper
This guide has been created to support teachers and school staff to respond to the Government’s consultation, SEND reform: putting children and young people first. This follows the publication of its 2026 Schools White Paper.
Read our guide
Read the White Paper
Reading it will help you understand the Government's proposals and answer the questions. This link will take you to other versions including an Easy Read version and a BSL version.
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The Consultation Portal
This link leads to the formal space to submit your views on the proposed reforms to the SEND system
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What is a Government consultation?
A consultation is when the Government asks for views before making final decisions and changing laws. In this case, they have published the above documents, set out a series of questions, and are inviting people to respond. It sets out the Government’s plans and ideas for future policy and what changes might look like in practice.
Anyone can take part – and we encourage autistic young people, parents, carers, teachers, professionals, and organisations to share their views and experiences as consultations are one of the main formal ways that people with lived experience can influence policy. Responses are analysed and the findings are shared with decision-makers, showing how proposals affect real people.
Consultations can be lengthy, technical, or hard to respond to, which is why we’ve created a guide. The Schools White Paper is a long and complex document and you may have more questions about what it means for you, your students, your colleagues, your family and people you care for. You can read our initial response to the White Paper here.
We have also produced an FAQ which you can find here.
The consultation is open until 18 May 2026.
- We would recommend answering the consultation when you have around one hour to spend on it as there are lots of questions. It may take you less or more time, depending on the experiences you’d like to share.
- The questions are not mandatory so you can answer the consultation in a way that makes sense to you, focusing on the questions that will best allow you to share your experiences, opinions and concerns. There is no need to answer questions that do not feel as relevant to you. Each question has a limit of 1500 characters – this is approximately 250 words.
It is important to note that any changes to Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), and the legal rights attached, will not be assessed until 2029. Any changes to EHCP eligibility will not be implemented until 2030.
Consultation Questions
Below we have suggested some questions that you may choose to focus on along with an explanation of what the question means and information you might want to include in your answer.
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We think this question is looking for more information about the kinds of things that every child should have access to. Our understanding is the Universal layer will be for every child, not just children with SEND. In your answer you may wish to include
- Your opinions on the way that support offers will be determined
- What you think every child needs to thrive and get the education they need
- What teachers and educational institutions want and need to be able to do to help everyone
- What support and resources teachers and school staff might need to be able to support all children
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We think this question is looking for more information about the kinds of things that children with SEND need to feel happy and fulfilled at school if they qualify for the new ‘Targeted’ support offer.
This layer will be for any child whose needs cannot typically be met at the Universal layer. Any child identified as having SEND will have a legal entitlement to receive an Individual Support Plan (ISP) from their school, which will set out a child’s day-to-day educational provision. We will be seeking more information from the Government about who this might apply to, the type of support the plans will offer and how it will be enforced. In your answer you may wish to include:- Your opinions on the way that support offers will be determined
- Specific examples of support that you think is valuable to children
- The value of unique support plans to a child’s education
- What support and resources teachers and school staff might need to be able to support children in this layer
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We think this question is looking for more information about the kinds of things that children with SEND need to feel happy and fulfilled at school if they qualify for the new ‘Targeted Plus’ support offer.
Targeted Plus will be for those who require more specialist input. They may have greater access to educational psychologists and speech therapists and Inclusion Bases. We will be seeking more information from the Government about who this might apply to, the type of support these plans will offer and how it will be enforced. In your answer you may wish to include:- Your opinions on the way that support offers will be determined
- Specific examples of support that you think is valuable to children
- The value of specialists such as educational psychologists and speech therapists to a child’s education and to the school staff supporting them
- Your experiences of working with specialists like educational psychologists and speech therapists and how accessible they are to you currently
- If you are an educational psychologist, speech therapist or other relevant specialist, your assessment of these plans and how workable they are, including any additional resources that would be needed
- What support and resources teachers and school staff might need to be able to support children in this layer
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We think this question is looking for more information about the kinds of things that children with SEND need to feel happy and fulfilled at school if they qualify for the new ‘Specialist’ support offer.
The Specialist layer will be for those with ‘Complex Needs.’ Children and young people deemed eligible for this layer will have access to EHCPs. This layer will exist in both mainstream and special schools. Access to this layer will be decided by whether children meet the criteria and support needs outlined in new Specialist Provision Packages (SPPs), which are still being developed. We will be seeking more information from the Government about who this might apply to. In your answer you may wish to include:
- Your opinions on the way that support offers will be determined
- Specific examples of support that you think is valuable to children
- How important EHCPs can be for autistic children
- Your personal experiences of EHCPs and the support they do or do not offer for children and young people with complex needs
- What support and resources teachers and school staff might need to be able to support children in this layer
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We think this question is interested in the relationship between support in schools and mental health and wellbeing. In your answer you may wish to include:
- Your personal experiences of providing or being unable to provide support for the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in your school
- Your opinions on the support that autistic children need to maintain good mental health and wellbeing
- Any changes to the SEND system that could improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people
- The role that schools and other education settings should play in maintaining the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.
- What support and resources teachers and school staff might need in order to support children’s mental health and wellbeing
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We think this question is looking for your thoughts on the ‘areas of development’ replacing the previous ‘four broad areas of need’ in the SEND Code of Practice. The areas of development are:
- Executive Function
- Motor and Physical
- Sensory
- Speech, Language and Communication
- Social and Emotional
In your answer you may want to include:
- What you think about the proposed new areas of development and whether they will better support children
- What the existing barriers to learning and participation are and how the new areas of development could address these
- What you think should be included in the new guidance
- How school staff could be supported to understand and implement the new areas of development
- How you think these areas of development should be used when developing provision for SEND children
- What works well in the existing SEND Code of Practice and what could be improved to better support staff and children
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We think this question is looking for more information about how children with SEND can be supported from an early stage, and before they start school. In your answer you may want to include:
- Any personal experiences of EYFS two-year old progress checks
- Your personal experiences of early years support and whether this is something families you work with have been able to access when necessary
- Your opinions about the support that is needed to identify children’s needs at an earlier stage in life
- How long it takes to receive support from the moment of first identifying that a child may need it
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The National Inclusion Standards are intended to provide a shared, nationally consistent understanding of the best available evidence to support children and young people with SEND.
We think this question is asking for your opinion on what the National Inclusion Standards should focus on and how this information should be shared among educational settings and professionals. In your answer you may want to include:
- What you see as central to providing good SEND provision
- What you believe every setting should understand and adopt in their support for SEND children
- How you think this evidence and guidance can be effectively shared with school staff and educational settings
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We think this question is looking for suggestions to improve training so that all school staff have the knowledge and understanding needed to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND. In your answer you may want to include:
- Your opinions on what mandatory training should include and how much training is needed, for example mandatory autism-specific training
- The resources that are needed to support school staff to put training into action and any barriers between training and implementation
- Your personal experiences of staff training on SEND
- Your opinions on the importance of training and the role it plays in supporting teachers with their work and providing the right support to children and young people with SEND
- Which staff would benefit most from autism and SEND training
- Whether additional training would help you to support children and young people with SEND
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The Government proposals set out significant changes that are highly likely to impact the workload of school staff across mainstream and specialist settings. This question invites you to share how you can be best supported while implementing the new proposals. In your answer you may wish to include:
- What information and guidance you think school staff might need
- Any already existing workload issues and challenges you and/or your colleagues are experiencing and the impact this has on delivering SEND support
- What support staff might need with managing their workload
- Any additional funding/staff capacity you think will be needed
- How you would like to be able to feedback what is working well and what obstacles staff are facing during implementation
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This question asks you to share your expertise on how the SENCO role could change so that it works better for staff and children. You may wish to include:
- Your experience working as or alongside a SENCO
- What works well in the SENCO role and what needs improvement
- What additional support, training, resources or capacity SENCOs need to fully support SEND children at school
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This question is asking for your opinion on how ISPs can be user-friendly for school staff and other professionals. In your answer, you may wish to include:
- Your experience of what works well and what could be changed in the existing EHCP format
- What sort of format you think ISPs should take and what should be included in them
- Who should be involved in creating, influencing and writing ISPs
- What is the most important information for you as a staff member to know
- The support and resources required to make ISPs practical to use
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This question invites you to discuss how to address current barriers during the transition period from secondary school to sixth form, college, university, training or employment. You may wish to talk about:
- What kind of support young people need to feel confident about their next steps
- Examples of the type of support young people with SEND may need when leaving school, for example:
- Extra support with application processes
- Support to develop essential skills needed for interviewing, starting a new course or role
- Knowing what support they are entitled to (job coaches, Access to Work etc)
- How to find out what opportunities are available
- Support to explore different education and career pathways
- Designated funding for transition support
- Job coaches and career advisors that understand the barriers young people face
- The resources that education professionals need in order to support young people with SEND during transition periods
- Barriers to providing consistent support to young people with SEND during transition periods
- The role and value of consistent support throughout transition periods.
- Your experiences of what has and has not worked in the past during transition periods, and anything you can think of that might have been helpful.
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Our understanding is that inclusion bases (which are also sometimes referred to as SEN units, resourced provision, pupil support units, resource bases) are specific ‘hubs’ within mainstream schools that children and young people with SEND can access, to help them to feel happy and supported at school. These bases may help with building specific skills and providing a space for children and young people to go to if they are struggling in the classroom environment. Our Cullum Centres are an example of an Inclusion Base, and you can find out more about them here.
This question is asking what support children in mainstream schools need to make school inclusive and accessible for them. Your answer could include:- What type of sensory environment supports young autistic people to learn best
- What sort of equipment might help young autistic people to learn, e.g. communication support, sensory support etc.
- Your personal experiences with ‘Inclusion Bases’ or similar
- What sort of expertise and knowledge you would like to be available for staff in these spaces to help them to make sure children feel safe and supported to learn
- The resources, support and workforce necessary to provide successful inclusion bases
- Any barriers to providing successful inclusion bases
- What sort of needs and situations you would want to be trained and equipped to address when working in an Inclusion Base
- What the current barriers are for SEND children in mainstream schools and how these could be addressed in Inclusion Bases
- What you see as the purpose of an Inclusion Base
- What you think a successful Inclusion Base looks like
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The proposed Experts at Hand programme would give schools better access to specialist SEND professionals.
We think this question wants you to share your understanding of what mechanisms might be needed in order for the Government’s new Experts at Hand programme to be implemented effectively. In your answer you may want to include:- Your thoughts about the proposed Experts at Hand programme
- The value of having more specialist professionals available to schools
- Your experiences of working with specialists like educational psychologists and speech therapists and how accessible they are to you currently
- If you are an educational psychologist, speech therapist or other relevant specialist, your assessment of these plans
- What resources and support would be needed to ensure that more specialist professionals can be available to schools
- How you think these specialists should be commissioned by Local Authorities
- Whether you think this would be enough to adequately support the staff and children in your school
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We think this question is asking for information about school places for children and young people with very high and complex needs. Low incidence disabilities are considered to occur rarely. When answering this question you may want to include:
- Information that should be considered when defining ‘complex needs’
- Personal experiences of helping a child with highly complex needs to secure the right school place
- The kind of support and information you think families need to access the right school place for a child with highly complex needs
- Specific support needed for autistic children with a co-occurring low incidence, highly complex needs
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Specialist Provision Packages will provide ‘nationally defined’ support for children with the most complex needs. They will be used alongside EHCPs to provide support for the Specialist layer.
We think this question is asking what should be included in these nationally designed packages. You may wish to share:
- Your opinions on the way that support offers will be determined
- Anything you think children might need from a holistic package designed to properly support them and their learning
- How packages could be made flexible to make sure they can address the unique and potentially fluctuating needs of each individual child, and avoid leaving gaps if children don’t clearly fit into the predetermined support packages.
- How packages could be designed with the meaningful involvement of young people, parents, carers and families, as well as education, health and care professionals
- The resources and support that education professionals and/or specialists need in order to fulfil Specialist Provision Packages
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We think this question is asking you to think about how to make sure the new system will truly work for children with SEND, their families, and education professionals. In your answer you may wish to include what you would need to feel confident about the proposals working, for example:
- Full clarity and detail on the proposals and what they will mean for education professionals, children and families
- Any additional funding or capacity you think might be needed to implement the new proposals and the support recommendations in the new SSPs and ISPs
- The capacity that schools, specialists and education professionals have to implement the new plans and any support or funding you think might be needed for training and implementation of the new system
- How you would like to feedback on the new system
- Statutory protection if these changes delay, reduce or remove vital support for children
- What kind of collaboration you think is needed with education professionals, families, parents and carers to make sure implementation fully supports all children with SEND
- Any questions you have regarding how the increased workload (creating ISPs, Inclusion Strategies, sharing expertise etc.) will impact the workload of teachers and school staff
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We think this question is asking for your thoughts on how children will be assessed and how decisions will be made regarding the type of support they are entitled to. You may wish to include:
- Job titles of any health, care and educational professionals who you think would have valuable evidence and expertise to add to the assessment process
- What training and level of knowledge around autism is needed
- The importance of parent/carer/family involvement and the role they should have in deciding support entitlements
- The importance of listening to the child or young person if they are able to contribute and how this can be achieved
- How to make sure assessments are holistic and what they should include, for example: any relevant evidence from across school, health, care, mental health, their relationships and their behaviour at home.
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We think this question is asking for your suggestions regarding what councils need to consider when they suggest which school settings might best suit a child. In your answer, you could include the factors you think are most important to families, and what you think councils should consider. You might include:
- The needs of the child
- The value of the parents' opinion on what is best for their child
- The value of opinions from other professionals e.g. teachers, healthcare professionals
- The location
- Whether the child requires specialist support and how well equipped a setting is to provide this
- To what extent cost of a placement should or should not be considered
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We think this question is asking for your opinion on how schools should be expected to show how they are spending money meant for SEND and inclusion. In your answer, you may want to include:
- How schools could plan their SEND spending
- How we could keep track of the support schools are offering to children
- What sort of evidence schools can gather to show how their funding is being used
- Who should be responsible for gathering and reviewing this evidence
- Any support or guidance school staff would need in order to gather and share this evidence
The Government suggests that schools could be expected to create annual Inclusion Strategies that set out how they plan to provide support to SEND children. Writing an Inclusion Strategy would give schools access to extra SEND funding. Another option the Government paper suggests is accountability via OFSTED.
In your answer, you may want to discuss:
- What you think of these options
- Whether you think Inclusion Strategies would be a good way to create annual plans for support provision
- Whether you think Inclusion Strategies or OFSTED would be a good way to govern access to SEND funding
- What support and guidance school staff might need to create an annual Inclusion Strategy
- The impact that this will have on workforce and workload
- Whether you think using OFSTED would be an effective way to measure the support schools are providing to SEND children
- Whether there any barriers you can foresee with either of these proposals
- Any alternative methods you think would be better than the Government’s suggestions
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The Government has proposed redirecting a higher portion of the high needs budget into the core budgets of schools and colleges. This includes EHCP ‘top up’ funds and is intended to give schools greater direct responsibility over SEND funding.
We think this question is asking for your opinion on where SEND funding should be held and who should be in charge of overseeing SEND spending. In your answer you may wish to discuss:
- What difference it might make if SEND funding was in your school budget rather than sitting in council budgets
- Any experiences you have of securing and spending SEND budget through your local council
- Any positive or negative impacts you might expect if more funding was to sit in school budgets
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We think this question is asking for your thoughts on its proposal for schools to pool some funding from their inclusive mainstream funding to meet needs across their group, by sharing expertise and resources across an area. In your answer you may want to include:
- What your thoughts are on schools coming together and sharing SEND resources
- How you think it could work in practice
- Whether you think this could benefit school staff and SEND pupils
- Any positive or negative outcomes to pooled funding you can foresee
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This question refers to the Government’s plans for schools to work together to share expertise, resources, and provide high quality support to all SEND children in their area. You may want to share:
- What you think the purpose of these SEND partnership groups should be
- How you think schools could work together to provide the best possible SEND support
- What sort of knowledge and resource sharing would benefit staff and children you work with
- Any obstacles you can foresee with these partnership groups and how they could be addressed
- Any additional funding or capacity you think would be needed for these partnerships to succeed
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We think this question is asking for suggestions on how the local SEND strategic plans can be used to strengthen relationships between local authorities, Integrated Care Boards, health providers, education settings and parents and continually improve experiences for SEND children and their families at school. In your answer you may want to include:
- How local collaboration on SEND could be improved
- Anything that has previously supported collaboration and a culture of improvement
- Anything that has previously been a barrier to collaboration
- What a ‘culture of improvement’ means to you
- Any examples of successful collaboration on SEND or similar issues
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We think this question is asking for suggestions to make sure that the system is fair for everybody in it. In your answer you might want to include:
- Your experiences of what factors determine decisions made about children's needs and the support they have access to and if there are any additional barriers for some groups of children with SEND
- Your personal experiences of the system and whether you have witnessed examples of fairness or unfairness
- Any examples of support or guidance that would give you greater confidence in the fairness of the system, for example legal protections for children and routes to challenge lack of support
- Any barriers or challenges that make it harder to provide a fair experience for everybody in the education system
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This is an opportunity for you to include anything that you feel is important based on your experiences, beliefs and what you want to see change in the system, particularly on topics the other consultation questions have not covered.
Key issues that we think the government are still thinking about are:
- Specialist Provision Packages
- National Guidance on Reasonable Adjustments
We also think the consultation does not include questions around the changing role of the SEND tribunal. Previously the SEND tribunal could hear cases about EHCPs and make decisions about what school place a child should be offered. The same legal protections will not apply to ISPs and the tribunal will no longer be able to enforce decisions about what school a child goes to.
We are seeking more clarity about the legal protections attached to ISPs but you may wish to include your thoughts on these changes in this question. Including:
- Any concerns you have about changes to legal protections and accountability for delivering support
- What legal protections and options for challenging decisions about SEND support there should be
- Whether the SEND tribunal should be able to make decisions about what school a child or young person attends
- Any thoughts or concerns you have about the Government proposal that complaints from families related to ISPs will be handled within school instead of externally via tribunal - including how this could impact relationships with families and staff wellbeing
We also think there should be more room in the consultation to talk about the resources, workforce and funding schools need to be able to deliver on these proposals. You may also wish to include your thoughts on:
- The support that schools need to make improvements, for example increased funding, increased staff numbers and teaching assistants and workforce retention plans
- Barriers and challenges that schools and school staff face
- Your personal experiences of providing SEND support and the resources you need to do this
For staff in specialist schools, the Government has proposed that special schools will have a more clearly defined role to deliver support for those with the 'most complex needs' whilst also 'acting as system leaders' to mainstream settings through sharing their expertise.
Government will also legislate to bring the duties and regulatory framework of Independent Special Schools (ISS) into line with other specialist settings. This could include a price cap on ISSs to ensure placements are at 'a reasonable price'. Any ISS that does not meet these new standards and duties will not be able to register as an ISS, provide specialist placements commissioned by local authorities or receive state funding.
In your answer you may wish to include any thoughts on the following:
- Whether you and your colleagues have capacity to support mainstream schools with your expertise
- The resources and support that you and/or your colleagues would need to fulfil these plans
- How ISS’ work might change now it is expected to fall in line with the public sector in both commissioning and support provided
- How the price cap might impact support for SEND children