Why Scrapping EHCPs Would Be a Devastating Step Backwards for Our Children

By Laura Johnstone

As a parent of a suspected neurodivergent child—and someone who has lived through the challenges of neurodiversity myself—the proposal to scrap Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) is not just worrying, it’s terrifying.

EHCPs were introduced to ensure children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities receive tailored support across education, health, and social care. They are legally binding documents that protect the rights of children who need additional help to learn, develop and thrive. To take these away, or even to dilute their power, would not just be a bureaucratic change. It would be a denial of support, an erasure of identity, and a removal of safety for thousands of families.

Let me be very clear: scrapping EHCPs would be catastrophic for children’s education and their social development.

1. Education: A Right, Not a Privilege

EHCPs aren’t “nice extras”—they’re lifelines. For many children with complex needs, an EHCP is the only way to secure one-to-one support, specialist teaching, or even access to an appropriate school environment.

Without them, many neurodivergent children risk:

Being excluded from mainstream education. Falling through the cracks in underfunded and overstretched school systems. Receiving blanket, one-size-fits-all approaches that don’t work for their learning styles.

We’ve come a long way from the days when children with disabilities were either sent to institutions or left to struggle without support in mainstream settings. Taking EHCPs away would send us back decades.

2. Socialisation: Isolation by Policy

Children with additional needs already face social barriers. Friendships can be harder to form. Understanding unspoken rules of play or conversation doesn’t come naturally for every child.

EHCPs help level the playing field. They put in place:

Speech and language support. Occupational therapy. Social skills groups. And crucially, trained teaching assistants who help children integrate and engage with peers.

Removing this support doesn’t just impact education—it impacts human connection. And that’s where it becomes heartbreaking.

Without EHCPs, we risk isolating children, not just academically, but socially. We risk creating a two-tier system—those who are “able enough” to cope without help, and those who are left behind, forgotten in the noise.

3. Segregation Is a Slippery Slope

When we start removing legal protections and support systems, we slide dangerously close to a world many of us thought we had left behind—a world where difference meant exclusion, where neurodivergence meant institutionalisation.

It wasn’t that long ago that children with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, and physical differences were placed in asylums or “special schools” hidden from public view, simply for being different. That shameful history should serve as a warning.

To scrap EHCPs is to flirt with that old thinking again. It’s to say, “You don’t belong here. You’re too complicated. You cost too much.”

I refuse to accept that. And I know I’m not alone.

4. This Is Why We Must Speak Up

There is a petition demanding this proposal be rejected. It needs 100,000 signatures to be debated in Parliament—and we are getting closer every day.

Please, if you believe in inclusive education, if you believe every child deserves the right to learn in a way that works for them, sign it:

Sign the Petition Here

We need to send a message loud and clear: Our children are not paperwork to be filed away. They are people. They matter.

Final Thoughts

As a mum, a neurodivergent woman, and someone who advocates daily for inclusion, I will not sit quietly while children’s futures are threatened by cuts disguised as “reform.”

Now is the time to stand together.

Call to Action: If this blog has resonated with you, please like, comment and share. Sign the petition. Talk to your MP. Let’s make sure our children are seen, heard, and supported.

References:

Petition to Stop the Government from Scrapping EHCPs Department for Education: SEND Code of Practice Scope UK: History of Disability Rights and Institutionalisation IPSEA: The Importance of EHCPs in Education NAS: Support for Autistic Children in School Settings