What the 2026 SEND reform means for health and care integration
Transforming Care
10 June 2026
By Emily
The UK landscape for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) is undergoing its most profound structural shift in over a decade. The government’s landmark consultation, “SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First,” sets out an ambitious, 10-year strategy to fundamentally redesign how education, health, and social care services support children with additional needs in England.
Getting SEND support shouldn’t be a battle, but the current system forces families to fight every step of the way. By shifting the focus away from administrative battles and toward early, inclusive intervention, the 2026 reforms aim to change the trajectory for children who require SEN support at some point during their schooling.
The reform features key pillars that will transform how SEND support is accessed and delivered. This will therefore, be able to drive improved outcomes for children and young people.
Universal mainstream inclusion
The baseline of the new policy is that all educational settings must become inclusive settings. The government is aiming to reverse the trend of children being educated away from their local communities.
Activities and investment to support will include:
- The Inclusive Mainstream Fund: A £1.6 billion fund allocated over three years will provide schools, colleges, and early years settings with the direct resources needed to deliver a much improved inclusion offer.
- Capital Investment: Between now and 2030, £3.7 billion in capital investment will be deployed to make school buildings accessible and build tens of thousands of new places in mainstream settings.
- Inclusion Bases: The policy replaces confusing terminology like “SEN units” or “resourced provision” with a unified model called Inclusion Bases built right into mainstream schools. Support Bases will be funded by individual schools or academy trusts for targeted, short-term support, while Specialist Bases will be funded by local authorities to deliver dedicated, specialist care on-site.
- Mandatory Inclusion Strategies: Every school will be legally required to publish an Inclusion Strategy, detailing exactly how they intend to remove barriers to learning. Inclusion will also be deeply embedded into Ofsted inspection frameworks and national data measures.
A new framework: The three layers of support
To move away from an “all-or-nothing” approach to funding and support, the SEND reform policy features a clearer, graduated framework written into law.
Above the universal classroom offer, support will be structured into three distinct tiers:
- Targeted Support: This focuses on early, everyday classroom adaptations and localised support before needs escalate. It will be delivered directly via mainstream settings using Ordinarily Available Provision (OAP).
- Targeted Plus Support: This introduces direct access to dedicated education and health professionals. This is backed by a £1.8 billion investment to bring therapists and specialists directly into schools.
- Specialist Support: This layer provides intensive, individualised support packages for children with the most complex needs. It will be maintained through local authority commissioning and retains its protected legal status.
The Digital Individual Support Plan (ISP)
In one of the most significant operational updates, the government is introducing the digital Individual Support Plan (ISP). Every single child receiving Targeted or Specialist support will have one of these.
Unlike the static paperwork of the past, these digital plans are designed to be dynamic, evidence-based profiles that track a child’s barriers to learning and the specific interventions in place. Because they are digital, they are intended to reduce the administrative burden on Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) and ensure that vital data follows a child seamlessly through school transitions.
Faster pathways for complex needs and stronger accountability
For children with the most complex profiles, the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) system will remain, but it is being streamlined to eliminate the lengthy, adversarial delays families currently face.
- Fast-track under-5s: Children under five with complex needs will have a fast-track route to support to ensure early years intervention isn’t delayed by bureaucracy.
- Upholding mainstream preference: If a family prefers a mainstream setting for a child with complex needs, that preference will be legally upheld and supported.
- National inclusion standards: An independent expert panel will oversee new national guidelines to ensure that support is consistent across the country, reducing the “postcode lottery” of SEND care.
- The Children’s Commissioner: The Children’s Commissioner for England will take on a new, statutory remit to independently oversee and scrutinize the progress of these reforms, keeping the focus entirely on outcomes.
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