More Children. More Plans. More Pressure.

What the SEND reforms mean for teachers — and what we can do about it. 

In February 2026, the government published its Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving. If you work in SEND, you’ve probably already read it, skimmed it, or had it quoted at you in a staff meeting. 

The headline ambition is a good one: every child with SEND supported in their local mainstream school, earlier and more consistently than ever before. Fewer battles. Clearer pathways. Better outcomes. 

But tucked inside the reforms is something that deserves a closer look — because it has direct implications for every class teacher in England. 

Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for every child with SEND. 

What SEND Support Plans Mean for Teachers in Practice

Currently, around 1.7 million pupils in England are identified as having SEND. Under the proposed reforms, every one of those children — not just those with an EHCP — would have a formal, standardised ISP setting out the support they need day to day. 

For some schools, this will feel like a natural extension of what they already do. Many schools — particularly those with strong SENCO leadership — already have an IEP in place for every child on their SEND register who requires support that is additional to or different from their peers. But it’s important to be clear: IEPs have never been a statutory requirement in England. The 2014 SEND Code of Practice moved away from mandating a specific format, requiring only that schools follow an Assess-Plan-Do-Review cycle. What that looks like in practice has been left entirely to individual schools — and the result is significant inconsistency. Some schools use one-page profiles. Some use provision maps. Some use nothing particularly formalised at all. The DfE has acknowledged this directly, noting that schools “do it differently” and that “there’s no national standard for what should be included.” For a large number of schools, therefore, a formal written plan for every child with SEND will be a genuine cultural and operational shift — not just an administrative tweak. 

That means targets. Measurable, meaningful, individual targets. 

And who writes those targets? Class teachers. The same teachers who are already managing 30 children, planning lessons, marking books, attending meetings, and trying to find a quiet ten minutes to eat lunch. 

This isn’t a criticism of the policy. Earlier, more consistent support for children with SEND is exactly what is needed. But let’s be honest about the reality: good intentions at a policy level don’t automatically translate into manageable workloads at classroom level.

The gap between policy and practice 

SENCOs know this gap well. You can support teachers, guide them, model good practice — but you cannot write every target for every child on every teacher’s caseload. Your role is to monitor quality, ensure targets are appropriate and needs-led, and step in where support is needed. The writing itself sits with the teacher. 

The problem is that writing high-quality IEP targets is a skill. It takes knowledge of a child’s specific area of need, an understanding of what good targets look like, and the vocabulary to articulate them clearly and meaningfully. Many teachers — especially those newer to the profession, or those working with a need they haven’t encountered before — find it genuinely difficult. 

The result? Targets that are too broad. Targets that are vague. Targets that don’t change from year to year. Or targets written in a last-minute rush the night before parents’ evening. 

None of that serves children. And none of it is the teacher’s fault.

What good looks like — and how to get there 

Good SEND targets are needs-led, not diagnosis-led. They’re specific enough to be measurable, but written in language that’s meaningful to the people delivering them. They come with clear success criteria and a sense of what support and resources are needed. 

Getting to that level of quality consistently — across an entire school, for every child with SEND — requires time, training, and access to the right resources. 

This is exactly why I built SENDT. 

During my time as a SENCO, I spent years sitting alongside teachers who wanted to write better targets but didn’t have a starting point. I’ve watched the stress, the second-guessing, the last-minute scramble. And I’ve thought about what would have made the difference. 

Teachers are already stretched. The SEND reforms will add more pressure — and more paperwork.

A bank of ready-to-use targets, reviewed by specialists 

SENDT is a searchable bank of over 500 ready-to-use IEP targets, covering a wide range of areas of need — from communication and language to cognition, social and emotional development, and sensory and physical needs. 

Every target comes with: 

• clear success criteria so teachers and SENCOs know what progress looks like 

• suggested resources and provisions to support delivery 

• keyword tagging, so you can search by diagnosis or area of need and find what’s relevant fast 

It’s designed for teachers to use independently — to find a starting point, adapt it to the child in front of them, and write something that actually reflects that child’s needs. And it’s designed for SENCOs to trust — because the foundation is consistent, evidence-informed, and professionally written. 

School plans are also available, so your whole staff team can access the same resource — which means consistency across IEPs, and less time spent by SENCOs correcting and rewriting. 

The reforms are coming. The workload is real. The support exists. 

Whether the ISP proposals pass in their current form or evolve through consultation, one thing is certain: the expectation on mainstream schools to support children with SEND is growing, not shrinking. The direction of travel is clear. 

Teachers deserve tools that make SEND support plans manageable. Children deserve targets that are genuinely written with their needs in mind. 

If you’d like to see what SENDT looks like, there’s a free trial available — no card details, no commitment. Just a chance to explore the targets and see whether they’d work for your school. 

Try SENDT free at sendt.org.uk 

The SENDT SENCO is a qualified SENCO and SEND practitioner with over 15 years of experience supporting children with SEND in mainstream schools.