For SEND parents, scrapping EHCPs would be like cutting our oxygen

For most parents, their child’s graduation from further education will be a cause for enormous pride, celebration and a million Instagram posts.

But for me and my daughter’s dad, it has meant agonising over what the future holds for her. 

Elvi, 23, is severely disabled and the move from special needs college to adult services feels like a cliff edge. 

For the few days left that Elvi is at school she has an education, health and care plan (EHCP) that gives her legal rights to the additional help she requires to learn and live. 

It’s what got her to the specialist college in the first place.

That plan will cease when she leaves and it feels like our oxygen supply is being cut off. We have to reapply for everything from help with personal care to speech and language therapy, from adult services. The process could take years.

So when Keir Starmer’s government refuses to say whether their promised overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system includes ditching EHCPs, I completely understand why parents feel terrified.

It is the next big political row brewing for the Prime Minister after the u-turns on cutting benefits, and serves as another reminder that policy changes are about real people, not numbers on a spreadsheet. 

It’s too late for Elvi, but for hundreds of thousands of children, removing EHCPs will remove their legal rights and protections. 

Until the government can answer questions on whether they will scrap EHCPs, and if so what will replace them, parents across England are going to worry and MPs’ inboxes will overflow with emails from desperate families.

The threat to EHCPs was made public by Department for Education advisor Christine Lenehan, who told journalists in May: ‘We are considering whether EHCPS are the right vehicle to go forward.’

Since then ministers have been tying themselves in knots evading questions about whether crucial rights are going to be axed.

In an interview with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson said she will introduce ‘better support’ but refused to discount that EHCPs will go. Education minister Stephen Morgan repeated the same answer this morning. 

Apparently all will be revealed in the autumn, but that’s a long time to wait for parents who are already in fight or flight mode from constantly having to battle for help denied to their children.

We aren’t stupid. By not answering these questions ministers are implying big changes are afoot, but holding back the details. 

EHCPs were introduced in 2014 when Elvi was 13. 

The idea was that all the experts involved in a child’s life would contribute to a document that described what the aims were for that child, what support they required to meet those needs and who would provide it. 

I would be the first to admit that the system is flawed, though a great idea in principle.

In practice it took me years to get my head around the paperwork, and few of the professionals turned up for Elvi’s annual review meetings. 

As austerity ramped up and school and council budgets had to spread more thinly, there were constant ‘computer says no’ arguments about what support Elvi would receive. I remember having to wait two years for a vital walking frame because no one would agree to fund it.

Worse, agreed support often didn’t materialise.

Elvi has a life-limiting genetic disorder, is a wheelchair user and has the learning age of two but she wasn’t considered disabled enough to qualify for our local authority’s children with disabilities team.

News stories have suggested that the children with the most complex needs will retain protections. Our experience makes me worry how high the threshold would be to qualify, as does the attempt to make it harder for people to qualify for support under the now-ditched PIP reforms in the government’s benefits bill. 

To me, scrapping legal rights by getting rid of EHCPs is looking at the SEND issue through the wrong end of the telescope. 

Children with additional needs will always require help and that will always need to be assessed, agreed and written down and there should be a way for families to seek redress if they are not. 

Without that support, many children go into crisis, which means more expense to the public purse later down the line. 

There are some good ideas coming from the government, for example early identification of children who would need additional help to learn, increased SEND teacher training and making mainstream schools more inclusive. 

They are beginning to talk to parents and organisations who work on the ground. All of these are positive steps.

But my message to the government is this: be honest with parents, voters and MPs. Tell us your plans before this simmering rage boils over and so that we can build a system that works for every child.

Or you’ll risk chaos, parental anger, and maybe another u-turn. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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