24th April 2026
HEADLINES
By James Saunders
HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE I hope you’ve all had a good week. It’s been another busy one here at Honywood, and I wanted to take a moment to share some news from a meeting I attended recently with our local authority colleagues in Essex. We were looking at the government’s new White Paper—”Every Child Achieving and Thriving”— and what the 2026 SEND reforms are going to look like for our community. Now, usually, when people hear “government white paper” and “SEND reforms,” they expect a lot of dry, technical jargon. But I want to strip that away and talk about what this actually means for our learners and for you as families. If I’m honest, for too long the system has felt like a bit of a battle for many parents and those of us in schools. We’ve all seen how hard it can be to get the right support at the right time, often involving mountains of paperwork and long waits for an EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan). The heart of these new changes is about moving away from that “crisis” model and towards something much more inclusive and proactive. The feedback I gave was about duplication. Too often those of us in the system have to repeat the same thing over again. I liken it to booking a doctors appointment. You all will have felt that dreaded moment when the receptionist asks what’s wrong with you. So you reluctantly give them an overview of your problem only to arrive at the doctor and be asked, “what can I do for you?”. I might just be me, but that line always frustrates me - I am left thinking, “why did I bother explaining everything the first time if I was going to have to do it all over again”. That was where I suggested the system could improve. As parents we know what it’s like to have to repeat an entire narrative to every professional we come across - it needn’t be that hard.
What’s changing? The big shift is that we are moving to a three-tier system of support. Instead of help only being available once a child has a formal diagnosis or a legal document, the goal is to have “Experts at Hand” available to us right here in school. •
Individual Support Plans (ISPs): Every child who needs extra support will have a digital “Individual Support Plan.” This isn’t a dusty document in a filing cabinet; it’s a living, breathing plan that you, as parents, will be able to see and contribute to. It’s about us working together to map out what works for your child on a day-to-day basis.
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Experts in School: One of the most exciting parts is that Essex is planning for schools to have much more direct access to specialists—like educational psychologists and speech therapists—without needing to wait for a formal EHCP process. This means we can act the moment we see a learner struggling, rather than waiting for them to hit a “trigger point.” I wait to see if they are able to recruit in the numbers required.
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A Culture of Inclusion: You know how much we value equity here at Honywood. These reforms are designed to support that by making sure every mainstream classroom is equipped to handle a wider range of needs. I feel we do this already but welcome any further resources.
Why this is good news for Honywood? At Honywood, the future is a story yet to be written, and no door should ever be closed to a young person because of how they learn.