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Thousands fewer pupils could be entitled to the full package of special education support in England under a raft of changes being considered by Sir Keir Starmer, as Labor seeks to improve the “neglected”. that system.

Senior government officials say ministers are looking at legislation to reform the system by which children with special educational needs (SEN) get the support plans they need to access a full state aid.

Education, health and support plans (EHCPs) were introduced in 2014 as part of the Children and Families Act, which sets out the support that local authorities have a legal obligation to provide to children with the highest needs.

EHCPs open up additional help for those who qualify, including one-to-one support, transport services and, in some cases, access to expensive private education.

The proposals being considered include changes to the system behind the provision of support, which is likely to affect children at the “mild” end of conditions such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, according to a senior official. .

“This means thousands of fewer students are getting statements,” an official said.

The move is just one prong in a wider suite of reforms introduced to the SEN system by Starmer.

The government is looking to significantly increase provision for special education support within mainstream schools, including £740 million announced this month for local authorities to create new SEN places.

It also promises to improve early intervention services offered in schools to prevent students’ conditions from worsening over time.

Starmer said this week that his “legacy at SEN is a system that has been neglected to the point of complete crisis”.

“We need to change, put in place an earlier intervention system, and make sure it’s the main priority,” he told parliament’s Liaison Committee on Thursday.

“If we don’t change the way we provide special education, we will never be able to close the gap and fix the problem,” he added.

Experts say the SEN system is broken due to demand for EHCPs ballooning and putting huge strain on stretched council budgets.

Meanwhile, they argue, very limited support is offered to people with SEN who do not get a statement, driving families and schools to seek out EHCPs for some less severe circumstances.

Local authorities have amassed deficits in their high-needs budgets of around £3.3bn this year, according to the IFS, which warns this could rise to over £8bn over the next three years.

Outcomes First Group, England’s largest provider of specialist education for children with SEN, released a report this week calling on the government to redesign the EHCP process with a tiered model of assessment.

The proposed model will limit statements to “more severe cases of SEN that require comprehensive and specialist intervention”, while offering simpler and more targeted interventions to people with less complex needs.

Luke Sibieta, research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, said that given the increasing number of students with EHCPs, “it would not be surprising if the government started thinking about gradations”.

Sibieta added that the “missing part of the current system” is state support for those whose needs do not qualify for a full EHCP right.

The number of children and young people needing special education support in England has doubled in the past decade, from 240,000 in January 2015 to 576,000 in January 2024, according to the National Audit Office.

Almost five percent of all students now have a special needs plan, up from a steady rate of 2.9 percent between 2000 and 2018, according to the IFS.

Rising demand has outstripped funding, despite a real-terms increase in the government’s most-needed budget of more than 50 per cent over the past decade – from £6.8bn in 2015 to more than £10bn in 2024.

The government said there were “too many children whose needs are not being met and parents are forced to fight for support”, adding that it was determined to “restore confidence in families” across the country.