Three Things Every SEND Family Needs to Know This Spring

Something big is happening - and not enough families know about it

In the space of a single week in February, three things happened that will shape the next decade of SEND support in England:

1. The government published a White Paper that proposes rewriting how EHCPs work - including weakening your right to appeal
2. New benefit rules taking effect in April 2026 will halve a key disability payment for new claimants
3. A family launched a legal challenge against the reforms within five days of them being announced

If you're a parent, grandparent, or carer of a child with additional needs, this affects you.

1. The SEND reforms: what's actually changing

On 23 February 2026, the government published a Schools White Paper called "Every Child Achieving and Thriving". Buried inside it are the biggest proposed changes to SEND law since 2014.

The new support tiers

The current system is essentially two levels: SEN Support (school-based, no legal teeth) and EHCPs (legally binding, with appeal rights). The White Paper replaces this with four tiers:

• Universal - High-quality teaching for everyone
• Targeted - Extra support recorded in a new document called an Individual Support Plan (ISP)
• Targeted Plus - Specialist input from educational psychologists and therapists
• Specialist - For the most complex needs, with an EHCP

The government says this gives legal rights to the 1.4 million children currently on SEN Support who have no enforceable entitlements. That's a genuine gap - and ISPs could help close it.

The part they're not shouting about

EHCPs are being narrowed. They'll be reserved for children with "the most complex needs" requiring a Specialist Provision Package. Children who would currently qualify for an EHCP may be directed to an ISP instead - which has weaker protections.

Tribunal powers are being weakened. Right now, if you appeal your child's school placement to the SEND Tribunal and win, the tribunal can order the local authority to name a specific school. Under the new proposals, the tribunal can only tell the LA to think again. The LA keeps the final say.

This matters because families currently win 95% of tribunal appeals. That statistic doesn't suggest the law is broken - it suggests local authorities are routinely making unlawful decisions. The government's response isn't to fix LA compliance. It's to limit what the tribunal can do about it.

ISP disputes can't go to tribunal at all. If your child is on an ISP and the school isn't delivering, your complaint goes through the school's internal process. Not an independent tribunal. The school's own complaints procedure.

What stays the same (for now)

Nothing has changed yet. The current EHCP legal framework is still fully in force. If your child has an EHCP, it remains legally enforceable. If you're in the process of applying for one, the current rules apply.

The reforms wouldn't start rolling out until September 2029 at the earliest, with a gradual transition through to 2035. Children currently in Year 3 or above keep their EHCP until at least age 16.

But the consultation that will shape these changes closes on 18 May 2026 - and your voice matters. More on that below.

2. The benefit changes: what's happening to your money

The cut: Universal Credit health element halved for new claimants

From 6 April 2026, the UC health element (paid to people assessed as having Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity) drops from approximately £97/week to £50/week for most new claimants.

That's roughly £2,550 a year less.

If you already receive the LCWRA element, you're protected at the current rate. But if you need to claim after April - because your health deteriorates, because caring responsibilities increase, because life changes - you'll get half.

The government's own impact assessment estimates these changes will push 50,000 children into relative poverty.

Many parents and carers of SEND children claim the LCWRA element because their caring responsibilities prevent them from working. This cut creates a two-tier system based on when you claimed, not what you need.

The good news: DLA uprated

DLA for children increases by 3.8% from April 2026, in line with inflation. The new rates:

This increase is automatic - you don't need to do anything. DWP will send uprating letters before April confirming your new amount.

Carer's Allowance also rises to £86.45/week, and the earnings threshold goes above £200/week for the first time (£204), giving carers slightly more room to work alongside caring.

PIP: shelved, but watch this space

The government originally planned to introduce a "4-point rule" for PIP that would have affected 800,000 people. That was dropped from the legislation and handed to the Timms Review - a comprehensive review of how PIP is assessed, expected to report in Autumn 2026.

PIP replaces DLA when your child turns 16, so any changes to PIP assessment criteria will directly affect SEND families in the coming years. The review is examining whether current descriptors capture the reality of neurodevelopmental conditions - which is exactly where many families feel the current system falls short.

3. The legal challenge: families are already fighting back

On 28 February - five days after the White Paper was published - a family instructed lawyers to challenge the lawfulness of the SEND consultation itself.

Jessica Hayhurst, a primary school-age child with complex needs and an EHCP, is represented by her mother Melissa through the law firm Rook Irwin Sweeney. Their barrister is Steve Broach KC of 39 Essex Chambers - described by Chambers and Partners as "the Godfather of education law" - who is acting pro bono.

The argument

The legal challenge doesn't dispute the government's right to reform SEND. It challenges whether the consultation is fair. Specifically:

The 132-page consultation document contains 40 questions - but none of them ask about the tribunal power removal or the shift of legal duty from local authorities to schools. These are arguably the two most significant changes in the entire White Paper, and families aren't being asked what they think about them.

Under established legal principles (the Gunning principles), a fair consultation must provide sufficient information for people to make an informed response. The claimant argues this consultation falls short.

As Melissa Hayhurst put it: "Families deserve a consultation that genuinely invites scrutiny... not one that sidesteps hard questions."

What happens next

The Department for Education must respond to the pre-action letter by 13 March 2026. If they refuse to amend the consultation, the family can file for judicial review in the High Court.

This isn't without precedent. The same legal team successfully challenged Hackney Council's consultation on children's centre closures - the council conceded the judicial review. And a similar challenge was brought against the 2022 SEND Green Paper consultation on comparable fairness grounds.

Why evidence matters more now

Add it all up and the picture is clear: EHCP eligibility is narrowing, tribunal powers are weakening, and financial support for new claimants is being cut. ISPs may genuinely help children who currently have no legal protection, but the overall direction is toward fewer enforceable rights and more discretion left to schools and local authorities.

So what does that mean in practice?

If the threshold for an EHCP goes up, the families who get through will be the ones who can show, clearly and consistently, what their child needs and why. Not from memory. Not from a stack of notebooks. From structured, dated records that map directly to what assessors look for.

If your complaint about an ISP goes through a school's internal process instead of a tribunal, the difference between being heard and being brushed off is whether you can point to documented patterns or just a frustrated email.

If DLA renewal comes around and you need to demonstrate care needs, piecing it together from memory six months later is a different experience to having it already logged.

None of this is about gaming a system. It's about making sure your child's reality is visible to the people making decisions about their life.

What you can do right now

Respond to the consultation (before 18 May 2026)

The government is required to consider consultation responses, and this is a genuine opportunity to shape how these reforms actually work. You don't need to answer all 40 questions. Focus on what matters to your family. Special Needs Jungle has published a detailed guide to crafting your response that's worth reading.

Some things worth knowing:

• Be specific. Use real examples from your family's experience. A concrete story lands harder than a general objection.
• Think about unintended consequences. Policy teams don't always consider what happens when a rule meets reality.
• Don't copy and paste. The DfE will use software to identify duplicate responses - original submissions carry more weight.

Check your benefits

If you're not currently claiming DLA for your child, or you think your child's needs have changed, now is a good time to review. DLA for children isn't changing - and the evidence you'd gather for an application is the same evidence that supports an EHCP.

If you claim Universal Credit and are considering a new claim for the health element, be aware of the April 2026 deadline. Existing claimants are protected at the current rate.

Start capturing evidence - even if everything else is uncertain

Whatever happens with these reforms, one thing won't change: evidence of your child's daily reality is the foundation of every application, review, and appeal.

Sleep patterns. Meal difficulties. Sensory overload. Meltdowns. Breakthroughs. The things you see every day but might not think to write down - until someone asks you to prove it happened.

This is what JakTrack is built for. Not adding to your workload, but turning 30 seconds of logging into structured evidence that's ready when you need it. Sleep tracking that calculates care time automatically. A diary that extracts patterns you're too close to see. An evidence dashboard that maps your data to benefit eligibility criteria and tells you where the gaps are.

The system is changing. Your child's needs aren't. Make sure the evidence is there when it counts.

Further reading

• Special Needs Jungle: SEND reforms - rights given, rights stripped away
• Special Needs Jungle: Consultation response guide
• IPSEA: Government publishes White Paper on SEND reform
• Contact: The Schools White Paper and SEND reforms
• Education Hub: What parents need to know
• Citizens Advice: How Universal Credit is changing in 2026
• Special Needs Jungle: Legal challenge against SEND proposals