- Mon Feb 23, 2026 9:24 pm
#106608
Having read some of it, and the summary provided by the National Governance Association in detail, I think it's OK. The Guardian has its knockers knotted because the new ISPs won't be vulnerable to legal appeal in the way the ECHPs (they're still Statements to me) were. The number of cases where that will make a difference will be small.
The extra money will be useful, as will the writing off of SEND debts - that is mega.
I'm attaching the text of the NGA summary.
The schools white paper:
Every child achieving and thriving
A summary for governing boards in schools and trusts
The schools white paper sets out the government’s long-term plan to reform the education system
so that high standards and inclusion are better delivered. It responds to challenges facing the
sector in key areas such as attainment, disadvantage, SEND and attendance.
This summary explains key proposed changes outlined in the schools white paper. The proposals
represent the long-term direction of travel; changes and targets will roll out in stages following
consultation with the sector.
Overall ambitions for pupils
The government has established national targets to ensure every child is encouraged to achieve
their potential. These include:
• Better academic standards: the goal for children to leave secondary school with an average
grade of 5 or higher across their GCSEs.
• Halving the disadvantage gap: supporting children from low-income backgrounds to
achieve roughly a full grade higher in each GCSE than they do today.
• Recovering learning time through an increase to the national attendance rate, with an
ambition to see children attending 20 million more days of school each year from 2028/29.
• Increasing pupils’ sense of belonging at school: by 2029, every school will be expected to
monitor children’s sense of belonging and engagement.
The paper recognises that these ambitions can only be delivered by an expert workforce. As such,
plans also contain a package of reforms to boost teacher recruitment and retention, including
improving maternity pay and a scheme to incentivise headteachers to work in high-need areas.
SEND system reform
To better support mainstream settings and earlier intervention, the government has announced a
series of initiatives and significant changes to the current approach, including:
• Inclusive mainstream fund: in addition to existing core SEND funding, all schools can expect
to receive additional funds to support targeted and small group interventions for children with
additional needs.
• “Experts at Hand” service: schools will be able draw on a multi-agency support offer
overseen by local authorities, bringing together specialists from speech and language,
educational psychology and occupational health. This support will be available to all children,
even those without an EHCP.
nga.org.uk
• National inclusion standards: an evidence-based digital library of resources to guide how
schools are meeting the needs of children by 2028.
• Schools will be required to publish an inclusion strategy which explains how resources are
deployed to benefit children with SEND. This document will replace the current SEN
Information Reports.
How pupils access personalised support is also changing, with the government proposing that
education, health and care plans (EHCPs) be reserved for only the most complex cases.
• Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for all children with additional needs: schools will be
legally required to develop a plan that describes a pupil’s day-to-day provision and the
support required. ISPs will be created in collaboration with parents.
• EHCPs for pupils requiring more complex support: EHCPs will be based on a ‘Specialist
Provision Package’ that sets out the evidence-based interventions and resources required.
Pupils with EHCPs will also have an ISP which will explain how the specialised support will be
delivered by the school.
These changes are expected to take effect from 2029, and all existing duties and rights of pupils
with SEND will remain in place until new legislation begins.
Full details on the proposed changes to the SEND system can be found in the government’s open
consultation: SEND reform: putting children and young people first.
Support for disadvantaged pupils
• In Summer 2026, the DfE will consult on a new model for targeting disadvantage funding,
moving away from the current measure of Free School Meal eligibility, with a view to adopting
a household income-based measure in future. There is also an ambition to make use of
centralised data to trigger funding, removing the requirement for manual parental application.
• White working-class children have been identified as one of the largest and lowest-performing
groups that require further support. Together with measures to reduce the attainment gap, the
DfE plans to use findings from the Independent Inquiry into White Working-Class Educational
Outcomes to support engagement with these communities.
• Recognising that some challenges are concentrated in specific geographic regions, the
government has launched two area-specific programmes: Mission North East and Mission
Coastal, which aim to tackle barriers to progress.
• The pupil premium strategy statement will be redesigned to provide more accessible
information for governors and trustees to support better oversight and accountability.
Formal collaboration and MATs
The DfE encourages more structured collaboration to promote best practice and resource sharing.
• There is an expectation that all schools will join or form a high-quality multi academy trust
(MAT), with local authorities also able to establish trusts.
• The DfE has confirmed it will develop a new set of trust standards which will focus on inclusion,
standards, value for money and community collaboration. Ofsted will use these standards to
inspect MATs.
• There will be a consultation on requiring all trusts to maintain local governance structures for
every school in their organisation to ensure trustees hear directly from their parents and
communities.
• The government is proposing that every school should be part of a local grouping to
collaborate on SEND. In the long term, all schools would pool a minimum level of funding to
support needs fairly across their specific group, which would include sharing expertise and
commissioning of shared resources like specialist staff.
Parental collaboration and engagement
The government describes a system where families are treated as partners in their child’s
education.
• Best Start Family Hubs will provide a single point of access for parents to get advice on
supporting learning at home and identifying emerging needs sooner
• School Profiles: a new digital service will bring together Ofsted report cards, attainment data,
attendance, and enrichment offers in one place.
• Parental forums in trusts: the government will consult on requiring academy trusts to have
local governance structures that include all their schools, hold annual parental forums, and
ensure boards hear directly from parents and school communities.
An improved complaints process
The white paper also acknowledges that the current complaints system needs to work better for
parents and staff. The DfE has said it will:
• develop a new digital solution for handling complaints which will be launched to simplify the
process and to stop parallel escalations
• publish new guidance that sets out clear and consistent timeframes for resolving issues,
helping to manage expectations for both schools and families
• consult on requiring maintained schools to include an independent member on complaint
panels to increase fairness and objectivity
• produce advice and case studies to help schools identify and handle vexatious complaints
• require the complaints panel to include an independent SEND expert where there are concerns
around a school granting an ISP or the content of the ISP
Exclusions and behaviour
The white paper sets out high expectations for behaviour, while ensuring that sanctions do not
result in pupils losing learning time or being removed from settings without appropriate oversight.
• Schools will have flexibility to require children to complete suspensions on-site in a supervised
environment rather than be sent home, ensuring they remain in a learning environment.
• The government will consult on a new duty requiring schools to set work for excluded children
to mitigate lost learning.
• Increased scrutiny with a new internal dashboard to identify school-level trends. Ofsted and
the DfE will use the dashboard to identify patterns in pupil movement that could suggest off-
rolling or other practices, including unlawful uses of off-site directions and managed moves.
© National Governance Association 2026
Memento Mori, Caesar.
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- By Malcolm Armsteen
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