Local authorities across England have a duty to assess children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and produce ‘Education, Health and Care Plans’. EHCPs are vital for identifying the needs of children and ensuring that those needs are communicated to and met by the local authority, schools, nurseries or other services and settings. Key parts of an EHCP are legally enforceable and provide a guarantee for children and their families.

EHCPs were introduced with the Children and Families Act 2014 by the coalition government. Much of the initial work on EHCPs was carried out under Lib Dem minister Sarah Teather, with the draft legislation published in her name in 2012. Today EHCPs have a mixed reputation. They have played a significant role in the rise of local government expenditure on social care. Across England spending on SEND provision by councils is predicted by some to reach £12 billion by 2026. It is unsurprising then that there is ever more pressure to reduce those costs and we can see numerous examples of councils formulating strategies to push down the ‘demand’ for EHC assessments.

My local authority, Shropshire Council, is no exception. In response to a question to cabinet on July 17 on the worsening rate of assessments being completed within the statutory 20-week window, it was explained how the council is working to “address the increase in demand” with a proposed framework for ‘Ordinarily Available Provision’. The view apparently taken is that too many children who could have their needs met without an EHC Plan are requesting them anyway. Now, there is little doubt that a much more inclusive approach to education across mainstream schools which could offer provision that meets a broad range of needs as a matter of course needs to be a central priority for education policy nationally. This will involve reform of our approach to education, schooling and the curriculum at all levels of the system. Councils like Shropshire and others which claim to pursue such goals at only a local level are at best optimistic and, it would appear, are more concerned about their own financial sustainability than meeting the educational, health and social needs of children.

A report produced by researchers at ISOS Partnership for the County Councils Network and the LGA was published on July 25. It has drawn a lot of comment from across the SEND community, including charities and independent campaigners, much of it critical. The report focuses its attention on the rising pressures the current system for SEND provision in England creates on local authorities’ budgets, suggesting that up to one in four councils could face an existential threat. The report calls for a number of measures, not least the need for reform that looks at the education and schooling system as a whole, promoting inclusivity and addressing children’s needs as early as possible within existing settings, reducing the need for children and young people to require additional SEND provision, particularly in special schools, except in the cases of the highest need.

However, among the most controversial of their recommendations is a proposal to weaken the statutory framework of EHCPs, removing their enforceability. They further propose to “redirect the focus” of the SEND Tribunal towards disability inequality disputes, blocking the primary mechanism by which parents, carers and young people themselves can hold local authorities to account when they fail to meet their obligations agreed to in an EHCP. I don’t think it is possible to overstate how damaging that could be to the interests of children who have been let down by councils, whose parents or carers have had to fight tooth and nail to secure the provision for their children they are entitled to.

The narratives used by both the report and by my local authority are clearly directed at framing the needs of children and young people as a burden of ‘costs’ and ‘demand’ on the limited resources of Councils which could pose a threat to their financial sustainability. Whilst nobody can deny the immense financial pressures that local authorities face, the solution is not to attack and undermine the rights of children or the means of enforcing those rights. EHCPs are an important piece of the SEND system which offer accountability and give parents and carers fighting to secure appropriate provision for their children a glimmer of hope.

As Liberal Democrats we should be proud of the introduction of EHCPs, and fight across the country to defend them and the principle of accountability that they introduce. We must continue to press councils to meet their statutory obligations and to support parents struggling in a system full of obscurity, inequality and uncertainty.

* Robert Jones is the chair of North Shropshire Liberal Democrats and candidate in Ruyton and Baschurch ward of Shropshire Council in 2025.