24 February 2026
On 23 February 2026, the UK Government published the long awaited Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, which sets out “a vision for education for the next decade”. At the same time, the Government published more detailed plans to reform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system in England: SEND reform: Putting Children and Young People first.
The RCSLT welcomes the UK Government’s vision for an inclusive education system for all children. We are heartened that the vital role that speech and language therapists play, working alongside families and other professionals, to support children and young people with SEND is recognised throughout the proposals and support the ambition for settings to have “expert advice and support” readily available.
In particular, we are pleased to see the commitment to invest £1.8 billion over the next three years to establish an ‘Experts at Hand’ offer, to provide early years settings, mainstream schools, and colleges with wraparound support from professionals including speech and language therapists. It is also encouraging that the expectation is for local authorities and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to work together to commission the Experts at Hand offer, in collaboration with local settings, health partners, and families.
The success of the Experts at Hand service – and indeed the reforms as a whole – will depend upon the availability of qualified professionals, including speech and language therapists.
While we commend the Department for Education (DfE) for setting out steps to boost the speech and language therapy workforce, there is a limit to what the DfE can achieve alone. It is essential that the Department of Health and Social Care’s upcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan takes into account the increased demand for health professionals to work with children and young people with SEND, and commits to action to address the recruitment and retention of speech and language therapists.
The plans to provide Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) only to children and young people with the most complex needs will undoubtedly cause concern to parents and carers, particularly while uncertainty remains about how ‘complex needs’ will be defined. While we hope that the changes proposed will enable many more children to receive early support without an EHCP, we will be seeking assurances that all children who need speech and language therapy will be able to access it once the new system is in place.
We look forward to continuing to engage constructively with the Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care, and NHS England on the implementation of the reforms. It is vital that the expertise of speech and language therapists is sought in all relevant developments if the reforms are to deliver the best possible outcomes for children and young people.
We will be producing a more detailed briefing for members on the SEND plans in the coming days.
What happens now?
There is no immediate change to statutory provision, with new legislation not expected to come into effect until September 2029. From now until the commencement of legislation, the current duties and rights will continue.
However, investment in the universal and targeted support offers, and wider systems changes, will begin from 2026/27.
The Government has launched a formal 12-week consultation on these reforms. We will be working with our members, parents and caregivers, and partner organisations, to develop a full RCSLT response to the consultation. We also encourage our members who work in SEND to respond directly.
What are the key changes?
The reforms are based on establishing a national system of tiered support that children can move between as their needs change.
The Universal offer is intended to set a new consistent baseline for mainstream education settings, aiming to place inclusion at the heart of everyday practice. To deliver this, there will be a new requirement for all settings to ensure that staff receive training on SEND and inclusion. There will also be a new duty on schools to produce an Inclusion Strategy which will be inspected by Ofsted.
Settings will provide targeted support for children and young people who have ongoing and commonly occurring needs which cannot typically be met by the universal offer. Targeted support may include small group interventions to develop language skills, or pre-teaching key vocabulary to help access the curriculum.
Children and young people who need extra support to thrive in inclusive mainstream education will receive Targeted Plus support, with input from education and health professionals such as speech and language therapists through the Experts at Hand service.
Children and young people with “the most complex needs” who require an offer which is substantially different from the usual curriculum model and approach delivered in mainstream setting will receive specialist support, based on nationally defined ‘Specialist Provision Packages’.
All children receiving targeted or specialist support will have a digital Individual Support Plan (ISP) which will be provided by their school, college, or early years setting and developed in partnership with parents. Only children who need a Specialist Provision Package will have an EHCP.
All layers will be guided by the National Inclusion Standards which will set clear, evidence-based guidance for what support should look like across the 0-25 system.
