Ministers are facing calls to not cut education plans for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
Campaigners say education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are “precious legal protections”, warning that thousands of children could lose access to education if the plans are abolished.
The government says it inherited the system “left on its knees”. Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson described it as a “complex and sensitive area” when asked if she could rule out scrapping EHCPs.
But Neil O’Brien, the shadow education minister, has criticised the government for “broken promises and U-turns”.
An EHCP is a legally binding document which ensures a child or young person with special or educational needs in England gets the right support from a local authority.
Full details of the proposed changes are due in October, but ministers have not ruled out scrapping the education plans – insisting no decisions have been taken.
In a letter to the Guardian newspaper, campaigners have said that without EHCPs in mainstream schools, “many thousands of children risk being denied vital provision, or losing access to education altogether”.
“Whatever the Send system’s problems, the answer is not to remove the rights of children and young people. Families cannot afford to lose these precious legal protections,” they added.
Signatories to the letter include the heads of charities, professors, Send parents including actor Sally Phillips, and campaigners including broadcaster Chris Packham.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Phillipson said: “What I can say very clearly is that we will strengthen and put in place better support for children.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to parents, to disability rights groups, to campaigners and to others and to colleagues across Parliament as well, because it’s important to get this right.”
O’Brien, the shadow minister, said the government had “no credibility left”.
“This is a government defined by broken promises and U-turns. They said they would employ more teachers and they have fewer. They said they would not raise tax on working people but did,” O’Brien said.
The Liberal Democrats’ education spokesperson Munira Wilson said talk of removing EHCPs would be “a great cause of concern for parents”, adding that “no child, or their family, should face uncertainty over receiving the support they need”.
Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday, education committee chair Helen Hayes said the Send reforms should be carried out in a way which “builds the trust” of parents who had lost faith in the system.
Although the government may not set out its plans on Send until later in the year, she also said she hoped ministers would “learn the lessons from the welfare Bill and the events we saw last week in Parliament”.
The U-turn on proposed welfare changes, triggered by a large rebellion of backbench Labour MPs, has made future spending decisions “harder”, the education secretary said on Sunday.
Data from the Department for Education released in June showed that the number of EHCPs has increased.
In total, there were 638,745 EHCPs in place in January 2025, up 10.8% on the same point last year.
The number of new plans which started during 2024 also grew by 15.8% on the previous year, to 97,747.
Requests for children to be assessed for EHCPs rose by 11.8% to 154,489 in 2023.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have been clear that there are no plans to abolish Send tribunals, or to remove funding or support from children, families and schools.”
The spokesperson added that it would be “totally inaccurate to suggest that children, families and schools might experience any loss of funding or support”.