The Children’s Plan and EHCP Reform: Opportunities and Risks Ahead

Written by Nina Hinton, Director of Business and Development 

The Children’s Commissioner’s Children’s Plan (September 2025) calls for an education system that is inclusive by design. At its core are proposed reforms to Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) that could reshape how schools, colleges, and other providers support children with additional needs. 

The report highlights several key themes: 

• Providers are now expected to do more than deliver academic learning, also providing pastoral care and supporting emotional, social and cultural development. 

• Many children face “additional needs” beyond traditional categories such as SEND or Pupil Premium, including those with unstable home lives, health challenges and caring responsibilities. 

• Capacity remains patchy, with some providers well-equipped and others struggling to access specialist services. 

• The vision is for an inclusive system “by design”: better access to specialist staff, stronger multi-agency working, and improved tools (such as unique identifiers) to help children navigate systems. 

• EHCP reform is intended to widen access, simplify processes, and reduce delays, ensuring more learners can benefit from structured support earlier. 

For awarding organisations, these developments signal both opportunity and risk. They create scope for closer collaboration with those in their provider network to ensure assessments remain fair and accessible, but also raise concerns about capacity and consistency if reforms are not implemented carefully. 

Opportunities 

Earlier, Wider Support

Widening eligibility and streamlining EHCP processes will allow more children to receive timely interventions. For providers, this means a stronger chance to prevent needs escalating into absences or exclusions. 

Awarding organisations can help by ensuring reasonable adjustments reflect this broader spectrum of need. At Open Awards, we continue to review how flexible qualifications and assessment arrangements can support learners more effectively, working alongside our providers to define and shape what “good support” looks like in practice. 

Joined-Up Services

One of the most positive shifts is the expectation of closer integration between education, health and social care. If realised, this will relieve providers from carrying responsibility for unmet needs alone and foster stronger local partnerships. 

For awarding organisations, multi-agency working provides richer insight into learners’ needs. At Open Awards we are committed to working with educational providers, health providers, youth services and the voluntary sector to ensure assessment approaches align with the realities learners face outside the classroom.

Greater Consistency and Fairness

The implementation of existing procedures relating to EHCPs can vary heavily depending on where a child lives. Local Authorities vary significantly in terms of the percentage of EHCP requests for assessment that are accepted. The reforms aim to tackle this postcode lottery, creating a fairer, more consistent system. 

This consistency will benefit both learners and providers, and support awarding organisations in ensuring fairness across cohorts. By working together, providers and awarding organisations can also advocate for the right resources, from specialist staff to sustainable funding models that reflect the real costs of inclusive practice. 

Innovation in Assessment

As reforms embed, providers and awarding organisations will have the chance to experiment with more flexible, innovative and inclusive assessment models. This could include digital exams, extended assessment windows, catch-up opportunities, or hybrid approaches to maintain engagement during absence. 

By piloting and refining these innovations in partnership with providers, Open Awards know we can help shape a system that promotes inclusion without compromising rigour. 

Risks 

Capacity Strain

Expanding eligibility may increase demand in the short term. Providers, local authorities, and external agencies already working at full stretch could struggle to meet this rise. 

We know we will need to monitor how demand for access arrangements grows and ensure providers are not burdened with additional administrative requirements. 

Uneven Implementation

While national reform aims to standardise provision, local variation in staffing, budgets and expertise could mean uneven rollout. Some areas may move faster than others, leaving children in certain regions waiting longer for support. 

Providers will need support to prepare for a transitional period in which old and new systems overlap, creating potential uncertainty for staff and families. 

Administrative Overlap

Simplification is a key aim, but providers will need clear guidance to avoid duplication between revised EHCP processes and existing “graduated response” models. Without alignment, there is a risk that staff spend more time managing paperwork than supporting learners directly. 

Moving Forward Together 

The Children’s Plan paints a compelling vision of a system where no child is left behind because their needs went unnoticed. Achieving this will require investment in early identification, stronger local partnerships, and staff training to meet wider and more complex needs. 

Awarding organisations have an essential role to play: ensuring assessments remain accessible, providing clear guidance to those delivering qualifications and assessments, and partnering on pilots that embed inclusive practice. 

The opportunity is clear: a system that works better for children and families and helps every learner to thrive. The risk is equally clear: without adequate resources, alignment and collaboration, reforms could falter under the weight of good intentions. 

The challenge now is to collectively seize the opportunity and work together, across education and beyond, to turn aspiration into action.