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What the SEND Reform White Paper means for your school.

The Feb 2026 White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, is the biggest structural change to UK SEND provision since the 2014 Code of Practice. ISPs become statutory. Co-production with parents becomes mandatory. £7bn of new funding lands. This page covers what's changing, the timeline, and what your school needs to do before September 2029.

SEND Reform White Paper illustration

The five things every SENDCo needs to know.

1.7m

SEND pupils need a statutory ISP by September 2029

£7bn

new SEND funding announced in the Feb 2026 White Paper

Statutory

ISPs become a legal requirement, Ofsted-inspected

Annual

reviews are mandatory, with co-production by parents

£1.6bn

Inclusive Mainstream Fund creates new school-level cost reporting

White Paper key facts illustration

What’s changing.

Four shifts in how UK schools handle SEND, all anchored to the September 2029 enforcement date.

ISPs become statutory

Individual Support Plans become a legal requirement for the 1.7 million children currently on SEN Support. Schools that can't show structured plans by September 2029 will be at significant risk of failing the inspection standard.

Co-production with parents is mandatory

Every ISP must be co-produced with parents. The DfE's expectation is digital, not Word-and-email. Parent contribution must be evidenced in the plan itself.

Annual reviews, with most schools moving termly

Reviews are mandatory at minimum annually. Most schools will move to termly APDR (Assess, Plan, Do, Review) cycles to keep up with statutory expectations and Ofsted scrutiny.

A national schema, expected 2027

DfE is developing a structured national format for ISPs. Schools won't be free-form drafting. There will be a defined schema every plan must map to.

The timeline.

From White Paper publication to statutory enforcement is roughly 42 months. Most of that is school preparation time.

  1. Feb 2026

    White Paper published

    Every Child Achieving and Thriving sets out the new statutory framework. Consultation closes March 2026.

  2. 2026 – 2027

    Schools prepare

    The 18–24 months between publication and enforcement is when schools restructure their SEND systems, train staff, and choose tools.

  3. Expected 2027

    DfE publishes the national schema

    The structured ISP format becomes available. Software providers map to it; schools begin using compliant tools.

  4. September 2029

    Statutory enforcement

    ISPs become a legal requirement. Ofsted starts inspecting against the new standard. Schools without compliant systems are at risk.

What schools need to do.

Six concrete steps SENDCos and senior leaders should be working through in 2026.

  • Audit your current SEND systems against the new statutory standard. What you have today probably doesn't meet it.
  • Decide whether to digitise existing tools or replace them. Word documents on a shared drive don't satisfy the co-production requirement.
  • Plan your parent co-production workflow. How will parents contribute? How will you evidence their contribution in every ISP?
  • Prepare for the £1.6bn Inclusive Mainstream Fund. Costed intervention reporting becomes a school-level expectation, not just an LA one.
  • Map your APDR cycle structure. Termly review prompts for every SEN Support pupil. That's a process, not a tool.
  • Set internal milestones backwards from September 2029. Most schools should aim to be running compliant systems by September 2028 at the latest.
School action checklist illustration
On the public record

Our response to the SEND consultation.

In March 2026 we submitted formal evidence to the DfE’s consultation on SEND Reform. We argued for live MIS data integration, structured digital ISPs, parent co-production through a portal, and published interoperability standards. SENDCo View is built to that response.

Submitted 23 March 2026 · Response ID ANON-NWUY-VQXP-2

Read the full response →

SENDCo View is built for the new standard.

Statutory ISPs, parent co-production through a secure portal, EHCP evidence packs, costed interventions, live MIS data fusion. All designed for the post-White-Paper requirements.

See how →Become a founding school

Looking for the rest of our guides for SENDCos? Browse the resources hub →