Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether safeguards will be introduced to help ensure that Individual Support Plans (ISPs) do not become resource‑led documents due to limited specialist provision.

The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice sets out that the provision made for pupils with special educational needs should be recorded accurately and kept up to date. As a result, many settings already keep records of the needs and provision required by children or young people with SEND and communicate these with parents.

The department is introducing a duty on settings to produce an individual support plan for every child or young person with SEND, ensuring help keeps pace with their development, prevents challenges from escalating, and reduces the risk of them disengaging from learning.

Additional funding through an Inclusive Mainstream Fund will be provided to early years, schools and colleges to boost the existing core funding for SEND, with over £500 million per year over the next three years. This funding, alongside their existing core funding, will help equip settings to invest in high-quality, adaptive teaching, targeted evidence-based support, inclusive pedagogy and decision-making, and create safe, calm and accessible learning environments for all. On 25 March, we published the guidance ‘Inclusive mainstream fund: best practice for schools’, which provides examples and case studies of how settings can use this funding to enhance support for children with SEND. The guidance is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-mainstream-fund-2026-to-2027/inclusive-mainstream-fund-best-practice-for-schools--2.

Our proposed reforms go further to support educators, with easier access to expert advice through Experts at Hand and evidence-based tools and resources through the National Inclusion Standards.