SEND reform could remove key EHCP appeal rights
SEND reform: the EHCP appeal rights families could lose
In his final appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer addressed people across the country who “struggle to be seen or heard”, telling them they were the reason he entered politics.
For many SEND families, the Government’s latest reform proposals appear to point in the opposite direction.
A new Department for Education consultation on education otherwise than at school, known as EOTAS, contains a clear statement about the future of SEND Tribunal appeals: “There will no longer be appeal rights over the individual SEN and SEP set out in an EHCP.”
SEN means a child or young person’s special educational needs. SEP means the special educational provision needed to meet those needs.
This would be a significant change. Under the current system, parents and young people can appeal the educational contents of an Education, Health and Care Plan, including Section B, which describes the child’s needs, and Section F, which sets out the provision required to meet them.
The proposals have not yet become law. Nothing is changing immediately. However, families need to understand what is being suggested while there is still time to respond.
These proposals are not part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, which has already become law. They form part of a separate programme of SEND reform set out in the schools white paper Every Child Achieving and Thriving and the related consultation, SEND reform: putting children and young people first.
The Government has said that it plans to introduce separate legislation through a future Education for All Bill. The final contents of that Bill are expected to be shaped by the consultation process, which is why it is important for families to understand what is being proposed and respond while they still can.
The Home Ed Daily wrote more about the schools white paper and what it could mean for SEND and home education here:
What families can appeal now
At present, parents and young people can appeal to the SEND Tribunal when they disagree with certain decisions made by a local authority.
This includes decisions not to carry out an EHC needs assessment, not to issue an EHCP or to cease maintaining one. Families can also appeal parts of the EHCP itself, including:
- Section B, which describes the child or young person’s special educational needs
- Section F, which specifies the special educational provision required
- Section I, which names the school, college or other placement
These rights matter because an EHCP must do more than acknowledge that a child needs support. It should identify those needs properly and state what provision must be made.
Where a plan is vague, incomplete or does not reflect the available evidence, a Tribunal appeal allows a family to ask an independent legal body to examine it and order changes.
For many families, this has been the only effective route to securing specific and suitable provision after discussions, complaints and mediation have failed.
What the Government is proposing
Under the proposed SEND system, EHCPs would continue for children and young people with more complex needs. However, educational provision would be organised around new Specialist Provision Packages.
The consultation describes these packages as forms of support for groups of children and young people who have similar characteristics and require similar provision. More detailed information about an individual child’s needs and day-to-day support would be recorded in an Individual Support Plan, or ISP.
The Government says parents would still be able to appeal decisions about:
- whether an assessment should take place
- eligibility for an EHCP
- the Specialist Provision Package offered
- the placement named
- whether changes should be made following a review
However, families would no longer have a separate right to appeal the individual special educational needs and provision recorded in the EHCP.
The consultation says that information about a child’s individual needs and provision could instead be considered as part of an appeal about their Specialist Provision Package or placement. The more detailed information would sit within the child’s ISP.
That distinction is important. The Government can say that Tribunal rights will continue because some appeal routes would remain. At the same time, the existing right to challenge the individual description of a child’s needs and provision would be removed.
Why removing separate appeal rights matters
Children with SEND do not arrive in neat categories.
Two children may share a diagnosis or broad description of need while requiring very different support. Their communication, sensory needs, health, anxiety, learning profile, interests and previous experiences may be entirely different.
The concern is that a system built around standardised packages could make it harder to secure provision designed around the individual child. Parents may be left arguing that the overall package is unsuitable rather than being able to challenge each missing, vague or inadequate part of the plan directly.
Professional assessments could also take on a different role. Instead of asking what provision this particular child needs, professionals may be encouraged to consider which existing package most closely fits them.
Packages and national standards are not necessarily wrong. Greater consistency could help children who currently receive little support unless their parents repeatedly push for it. The Government says its reforms are intended to reduce the postcode lottery, identify needs earlier and strengthen the duties placed on education settings. It also says settings would have a legal duty to deliver the provision recorded in a reformed EHCP.
But national consistency should not come at the cost of individual rights. Families need clear answers about how the detailed provision in an Individual Support Plan would be challenged, corrected and enforced when a setting or local authority disagrees with them.
What is being proposed for EOTAS families?
EOTAS is arranged when a local authority accepts that it would not be appropriate for a child or young person’s special educational provision to be delivered in a school or college.
It may include tuition at home, online education, therapies, community-based learning or a mixture of different providers.
The new consultation says parents and young people would not be able to appeal specifically over whether EOTAS should be provided.
It also proposes that every child receiving EOTAS would be placed on the roll of a named school or further education setting. That setting would manage and oversee the EOTAS arrangement, even where most or all of the provision took place elsewhere.
If a school, college or local authority later proposed changing or ending an EOTAS arrangement, a family could request an early EHCP review.
However, the consultation states that there would be no right to appeal to the SEND Tribunal against a local authority’s decision to change or cease EOTAS. Instead, it asks respondents what other arrangements should be available for resolving these disputes.
This creates an obvious question. If a family cannot appeal specifically to secure EOTAS, and cannot appeal a later decision to remove it, what genuinely independent route would remain when they believe education in a setting is inappropriate for their child?
An early review is not the same as an independent appeal. The decision would still rest with the bodies involved in arranging and overseeing the provision.
EOTAS is not elective home education
Despite the similar language, EOTAS is not the same as elective home education. In elective home education, parents choose to take responsibility for providing their child’s education.
With EOTAS, the local authority remains responsible for arranging and funding the special educational provision because it has accepted that provision in a school or college would be inappropriate.
This consultation is therefore not directly proposing new rules for all home educating families. However, it is highly relevant to families whose children are learning outside school because their SEND needs could not be met within a setting.
It also matters more widely because many home educating families have children with SEND, including some who left school after support failed or a placement broke down.
Why many parents may not know about this
The Government’s wider SEND reform consultation closed in May 2026. Thousands of parents, young people and professionals responded. The Department for Education says it is still considering those responses alongside the new EOTAS consultation.
However, the explicit statement that there will no longer be appeal rights over individual SEN and provision appears within the newer EOTAS consultation document.
Parents who completed the main SEND consultation may not realise that another consultation has opened or that it contains this wording.
That is why the information needs to be shared beyond families who currently have EOTAS arrangements. Every parent of a child with an EHCP should understand the proposed direction of travel.
These are proposals, not current law
The current EHCP and SEND Tribunal system remains in place.
The Department for Education says that no final decisions have been made. Any changes would require parliamentary approval and would not begin before September 2030.
That does not make the proposals less important. It means there is still time to scrutinise them and speak up.
Once legal appeal rights have been removed, rebuilding them would be considerably harder.
How to respond
📢📝 Respond to the SEND reform: education otherwise than at school consultation is open until 11.59 pm on 18 September 2026. It applies to England.
Parents, carers, children, young people, education professionals and organisations can respond.
Families may wish to comment particularly on the proposed appeal arrangements and Question 7, which asks what route parents should have to resolve disputes about starting, changing or ending EOTAS provision.
There is also an open Parliamentary petition calling on the Government to protect the legal right to SEND support.
The petition raises concerns about reduced appeal rights, Specialist Provision Packages, EHCPs and school choice. The Government has already issued a response, but the petition remains open until 14 October 2026 and would need 100,000 signatures to be considered for a parliamentary debate.
📢📝 Sign the Parliamentary petition to protect legal rights for children with SEND
📢📝 Families can also contact their MP and ask them to examine the proposed removal of separate appeal rights over individual needs and provision.
Children’s rights should not quietly disappear
The current SEND system is exhausting, adversarial and often painfully slow. Families should not have to fight as hard as they do to secure suitable education. Reform is clearly needed. But replacing a failing system must not mean removing the legal tools families use when that system fails them.
Earlier help, clearer standards and better-funded support would be welcome. They should sit alongside strong individual rights, independent scrutiny and meaningful routes of appeal.
Children’s needs cannot always be reduced to a standard package. Their legal protections should not be reduced either.
