CLC Welcomes Progress in Legal Reform for Children with SEND
11 November 2026
The Children’s Law Centre (CLC) has welcomed vital work to amend significant reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) framework. The work was commenced after CLC and a wide range of supporters intervened in April last year to highlight concerns to the Education Committee about the impact on children with SEND.
The Department for Education and CLC have since worked together on the legal framework to find a significantly improved way forward in setting the foundations for change. This work has secured key legal rights around the specification of provision in statements, recognition of the importance of health interventions which enable educational access and the central role of children and parents in making decisions about special educational provision.
Rachel Hogan BL, SEND Specialist Legal Adviser at CLC said: “Everyone recognises that children with special educational needs and disabilities face enormous barriers from within our education system. For many years we have witnessed the rights of children being infringed because they have not been getting the right support at the right time.
“It is critical that changes to the SEND framework are effective in addressing those issues. That’s why we have worked constructively with the Department of Education to ensure that is the case.
“We are pleased that we have been provided with the time to support the work of the Department in securing and regulating the rights of children with SEND and that we have been able to reach an agreed way forward. Significant commitments have been made and assurances given by the Department on key areas around the identification, assessment and provision for children with SEND. These were some of the major concerns initially raised by CLC and others who signed our joint letter in April of this year.
“We also want to reassure parents that parental and child input into the assessment and statementing processes has been a focus of our work, making sure the voice of parents and children must be properly considered when decisions are being made. “CLC will continue to work with all interested parties to challenge any erosion of rights that may present, including through the finalisation of the Code of Practice and all of the underlying work of the EA in transforming SEND provision, including the development of Local Impact Teams and Enhanced Support Model which will change the way statements of SEND are written and how SEND provision is delivered.
An open letter was published by the Children’s Law Centre on 22nd April 2026 and endorsed by a broad coalition of trade unions, children’s charities and other organisations, calling for a halt to the implementation of new legal provisions through revised Regulations and a revised Code of Practice.
As part of the Education Committee’s scrutiny, the Regulations were paused to enable detailed technical work to ensure security of children’s legal rights. CLC has worked intensively with the Department on the content of the regulations and this joint engagement is now complete. The next step is for the Education Committee to decide whether it will recommend that the regulations proceed to the Assembly for approval and onwards to implementation.