At the end of last year the Department for Education (DfE) placed the SEND Reforms on hold and announced a National SEND Conversation to gather feedback from parent carers, young people, and practitioners to shape the reform of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system, aiming to make it more effective and inclusive. The consultation process runs until January 14th 2026 and the findings will inform the upcoming Schools White Paper. The ‘Conversation’ includes face to face events across the country, online discussion sessions and the opportunity to provide written feedback via a digital survey.
PACC is attending the West Midlands in person event on Monday 12th January 2026 in Birmingham. We have just received the agenda for the event and wanted to share this with you and ask what you think is the key feedback we should be sharing? The agenda for the event can be seen here.
PACC is also participating in an online session specifically for Parent Carer Forums in the afternoon of Monday 12th January.
Both sessions will be attended by the Minister for School Standards Georgia Gould OBE MP and will be structured around the DfE five principles for SEND reform.
Early: Intervene sooner, as soon as a need is identified, to prevent escalation, with a focus on early years and key transition points.
PACC key points to raise: Importance of peer support in the early years, supporting parent carer mental health, practitioners to have clear understanding of the life of a parent carer, focus on developing communication skills from the earliest point, clear expectations around transition between nursery and school delivering continuity and consistency, focus on planning next steps and preparation for adulthood, agree post 16 setting in Year 10 to allow for a planned and quality transition, the need to think about wider support needs, the role of health and social care and effectively reviewing support plans. Ensuring that support and interventions are person centred and not generic, listening to the concerns raised by Parent Carers from the start.
Local: Enable children to learn close to home in inclusive mainstream settings, while special schools remain vital for complex needs.
PACC key points to raise: the challenge of sufficiency in large rural areas, understanding that some children and young people have needs that are so specific they need something very personalised – how do we do that locally? Many school buildings also do not support inclusion being outdated and crowded, basics such as breakout rooms, sensory spaces and accessible toilets need to be made available. School transport will still be required in rural areas, make it more flexible, think holistically so breakfast schools and afterschool clubs are also accessible locally, understand that the role of schools needs to change and reflect the needs of modern-day society and the needs of families. The current curriculum doesn’t support inclusion, it is narrow and focused on academic achievements being the only goal. Schools need greater flexibility to meet young people’s needs and success needs to be measured in more ways than just exams. Destination data for all schools needs to be collected more effectively alongside data around mental health, participation in the community / sports / arts activities as measures of success. All teachers should be confident about how to differentiate work and learning, recognise the signs of poor mental health and understand the importance of children and young people having a sense of belonging and being cared for. It is essential that education staff understand and can recognise masking and understand behaviour as communication.
Fair: Ensure every school has the resources and capability to meet common and changing needs without parents having to battle for support.
PACC key points to raise: This isn’t always about funding, attitude and culture is key too. The system needs to recognise the skills and knowledge of parent carers and the importance of working in partnership with them and this needs to be a clear expectation placed on schools. This must include a culture of transparency where good communication between school and home is recognised as key in delivering good outcomes. School leaders and teaching staff need to understand the lives of SEND families and the multiple challenges they face, school staff have a key role with linking with the wider system, this needs to be built into the school’s role, and supported by time and resources being made available to deliver this. Supporting transitions and reviewing the effectiveness of interventions should be resourced properly, along side planning time for agreeing next steps. All school staff should have a good level of understanding of SEND, reasonable adjustments and Equality Act duties and feel empowered to respond to individual needs. Ensure that schools are supported through access to the wider system, including Health and Social Care services. Build relationships between education and other specialists, bring specialist support into schools, value and make time for basic skills development that are the foundation of children’s physical and emotional growth.
Effective: Ground reforms in evidence-based practice, making high-quality, proven support easy to find and implement.
PACC key points to raise: Listen to SEND families about what works and remember that what works for one young person with SEND wont always work for another young person with SEND. Ultimately the approach needs to be person centred. Make sure that there is a funded and comprehensive training and support offer from Local Authorities that has been co-produced with the local SEND Community. Access to free training and support must come with expectations around implementation and change that delivers improvements in the experience of SEND pupils and their families. Ensure that coproduction continues to be central to the strategic and operational delivery of the local SEND systems supported by local Parent Carer Forums. School improvement plans should be co-produced with families and reflect needs of all pupils. Invest in communication and information provision by all parts of the SEND system so that there is less misinformation and a greater understanding by all practitioners and SEND families of how this system should work and what support is available.
Shared: Foster collaboration between education, health, and care services, working in partnership with local authorities, families, and experts.
PACC key points to raise: Improved joint working and partnership working is essential to improving inclusion. Social Care needs to be seen as part of the SEND system, supporting families to adapt and respond to unexpected challenges, and providing support when education placements breakdown and family life might become difficult. All practitioners need to be able to effectively sign post families to either the right information or somebody who have provide the help needed. Too often families are given the wrong information and are passed repeatedly from one service to another because nobody knows how support should be provided. There needs to be a co-ordinated and holistic plan of support for young people with SEND that recognises needs in and out of school. There should be a shared understanding of co-production, what it involves and why it is important across the system. Currently Health and Social Care systems to often do not understand their duties under the Children and Families Act and their role in delivering a successful SEND system. Communication across services needs to be improved, with records being shared and jointly owned.
PACC has gathered lots of feedback from Shropshire parent carers over the last 12 months which will inform our response at these events but if you have particular points, you want the DfE to hear please share your feedback here. Any feedback received will inform PACC’s participation in both the in-person event and the online event specifically for Parent Carer Forums on Monday 12th January 2026.