Bridget Phillipson has been urged to set out how the government will be “co-creating” its plans for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms ahead of its White Paper, which is due to be published next year.

The chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, Helen Hayes, has also told the education secretary to act swiftly to implement the reforms once they have been announced.

The letter has been sent in response to the government’s decision to delay SEND reforms until 2026.

Ms Phillipson had said in a letter to the education committee that she wanted “to have a further period of co-creation, testing our proposals with the people who matter most in this reform - the families - alongside teachers and other experts”.

Writing to the education secretary today, Ms Hayes has called for more information about how this process will work.

She said: “Your letter refers to a process of co-creation involving parents, educators, experts, and representative organisations. We would welcome further detail on how this process will operate in practice.”

Call for detail on how DfE will ‘co-create’ SEND reforms

Ms Hayes added: “I would be grateful for an outline of the specific steps you plan to take to design and facilitate this co-creation process, including how stakeholders will be selected and engaged, how co-creators will be resourced to be equal participants in the process, how feedback will be incorporated, and how the department will ensure that decision-making remains transparent, inclusive, and accountable.”

The planned reforms come amid wide recognition that the SEND system is not working for young people and is financially unsustainable.

There have been concerns that the government could opt to reduce or remove education, health and care plans (EHCPs).

A Department for Education SEND adviser told Tes earlier this year that the government was looking at whether EHCPs were the right vehicle to deliver support.

At a Westminster Hall debate in September, schools minister Georgia Gould said that there would always be a legal right to additional support for pupils with SEND.

DfE planning long-term SEND study

The DfE is also planning to launch a long-term £14.5 million study tracking the experiences of pupils with SEND in three year groups as they move through their education.

It has published a contract notice for a cohort study, which would look at how experiences and outcomes differ by types of SEND and in different types of school settings.

The department has said the study would follow up to three cohorts of pupils with SEND,

It anticipates that the first cohort will start for pupils in Reception and follow them annually from 2027. A second cohort in Year 6 would be followed annually from 2028, and a third cohort of Year 11 students would be followed from 2029.

The contract notice says that the project is likely to initially run from the summer of next year until spring 2030.

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