A senior Department for Education adviser has admitted that the government never thought its reforms “would be perfect” by now, four years after a major shake-up of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) landscape.

The Children and Families Act 2014 paved the way for new education, health and care plans (EHCPs). Like the system of statements it replaced, an EHCP is a legal document provided by local authorities describing a young person or child’s special education needs or disabilities.

Parents of children with SEND have been critical of the reforms, in part owing to delays over processing them. Despite a deadline of 20 weeks for a council to issue a plan once it has been requested, some families have had to wait 90 weeks for old statements to be transferred over to EHCPs.

André Imich, who has been an adviser to the Department for Education on SEND since 2010, and who was closely involved with the Act, acknowledged there was still some way to go with the reforms. 

‘It is not perfect yet’

Speaking at FestABLE, the UK’s first national festival of specialist learning, Mr Imich said: “I just wanted to make the very obvious point. We brought in reforms in 2014 - it was the biggest change to the system for many, many years. We said in 2014 it would take a long time for everyone to master all the requirements and absorb the contrary changes intended.

“We never thought that by 2018 it would be perfect. It is not perfect yet but there are many, many examples of where it is going well.”

Speaking about the need for timely assessment, Mr Imich said the latest figures showed that in 2017 there was a “significantly improved performance from local authorities” in producing ECHPs within the 20-week deadline.  

He said there had been changes that demonstrated the “vision behind the reforms” and showed things were moving in the right direction. He added: “Parents are involved in areas of activity that four years ago they certainly would not have been involved with. They are sitting with directors of education, they are sitting with commissioners from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and representing the parent-carer voice from their area.  

“We know there are weaknesses, we know they are not fully engaged across the country, but there are examples where there and we need to embrace that.”

FestABLE was organised by National Star College, a specialist FE college in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.