SEND Reforms Must Not Be About "Taking Away", Warns Andy Burnham
SEND is likely to be one of the biggest challenges facing the Labour government in 2026 (Alamy)
5 min read
Exclusive: Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has said that reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system must “start from a principle about nothing being taken away”.
In an interview with PoliticsHome, Burnham said that he believes that the SEND system should eventually "move away from" Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), but in a way that does not "destabilise or frighten" the public.
The issue of how to solve the growing crisis in SEND provision is likely to be one of the biggest challenges to face the Labour government in 2026, with long-awaited proposals expected to be published early next year. There is a feeling among many Labour MPs that the issue could lead to a major government confrontation with its backbenches in the next few months.
That's because, while there is a widespread consensus that the system is unsustainable in its current form, many Labour MPs are concerned that changes could result in less support for some pupils.
As things stand, pupils requiring extra support can be issued an EHCP, a legal document that identifies the specific needs and sets out tailored support. The government triggered alarm among parents and carers earlier this year when it said it was considering whether EHCPs were the right approach, without setting out what system could potentially replace them.
Speaking to PoliticsHome earlier this week, as Greater Manchester prepared to send Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson its own proposals for reform, Burnham said that he believed that changes should see an eventual move away from the EHCPS.
The Labour mayor said that "EHCPs [are] part of the problem, in that [they add] much greater fragmentation to an already fragmented landscape."
Asked if he would like to see EHCPs stay initially and then be phased out, Burnham said: “I think moving away from them, yes. But as I say, in a way that doesn't destabilise or frighten or anything like that.”
Burnham, a former health secretary, was broadly supportive of the government’s direction of travel to boost inclusion and have more children with SEND in mainstream schools.
Plans to reform the system were originally promised in the summer of 2025. However, PoliticsHome revealed in September that the reforms were facing delays amid concerns within government over a potential backlash akin to the Labour rebellion that forced Prime Minister Keir Starmer to abandon planned welfare cuts earlier this year.
PoliticsHome understands that while the Department for Education (DfE) and the Treasury had settled on a funding settlement for SEND reforms earlier this year, the welfare rebellion forced the government to look again at what it was preparing to put before Labour MPs.
Referring to Greater Manchester’s proposals for reform, Burnham added the authority wants to “move to a whole school, not an individual child funding model” and believes that the area could be “a test bed for the reforms”.
“To build confidence with the reform journey, it does need to start from a principle about nothing being taken away, and the sort of support that people have now, that being not threatened if people don't want to immediately change things,” Burnham said.
While the number of EHCPs has ballooned in recent years, funding has not kept pace with the growing level of demand, leading to many councils across the country running large deficits. These are currently kept off the accounting books by the Statutory Override.
Despite the severe financial pressures facing councils and the government, Burnham warned that SEND reforms “cannot clearly be cost-driven”.
"Because that would, again, get it in the wrong frame from the start.”
He said, however, that existing money in the system “could be spent much better”.
“We think you can spend the money much better and get a much better result, but that actually could even lead towards reducing those pressures, making funding more sustainable and even potentially savings.”
One major criticism of the Labour government since being elected in 2024 is its weak communication. Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who, like Burnham, is seen as a potential successor to Starmer, recently told The New Statesman that the government "sells ourselves short" by failing to communicate the "huge amounts" it has done in office effectively.
Burnham stressed that an important part of getting SEND right would be making sure changes are communicated well to the public, to “understand the fears of young people, fears of parents, when the kind of talk of change is in the air”.
“It's doing it in a careful, and if you like, almost a slightly iterative way, rather than an overly top-down way,” he added.
He continued: “One thing I would say, and I would ask everybody to do this, and I obviously include myself in it, is take the politics right out of it. There isn't a space for that...
“Focus relentlessly on the voices of those young people, their families, and what they are looking for, and just follow that and proceed with care, but also by truly listening.”
Burnham stressed that "the complete failure" to prepare a pathway for young people with SEND after they leave school is part of the reason why, even if you manage to make the system work at school, "it all collapses again at the school leaving age".
“We’ve been really clear that we need supported pathways for young people with additional needs, and we don't think the SEND reform will be meaningful unless it is very focused on what those pathways are beyond school, and what those opportunities are, and what the offer from our employers is," he told PoliticsHome.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “For too long, families have been failed by the SEND system – with parents across the country forced to fight for every scrap of support and rising demand meaning children’s needs are spiralling to crisis point.
“We have launched the biggest national conversation on SEND in a generation alongside work already underway, including investing at least £3bn for more specialist places, and dedicated SEND leads in every Best Start Family Hub nationwide.
“Our plans for reform, which we will set out in the coming months, will protect the parts of the system that parents need and value, and set out a path to fix those that are so clearly broken.”
