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Parents will be "terrified" of dramatic changes Labour is planning to special needs education in schools this autumn, the Tories have warned. Schools minister Catherine McKinnell signalled plans to cut the number of children being given an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, which entitles them to extra support such as personal tuition or speech therapy, but pledged that no child would be denied the help they need.

She also spoke about plans to cut the number of pupils in special schools, with more moving into mainstream education. It follows warnings that local authorities are being driven to bankruptcy by soaring demands for support while parents are forced into legal battles to ensure children get the help they need.

Ministers insist the current system is failing the 1.7million pupils with special needs and changes to be published in a White Paper will improve outcomes for youngsters. But Conservatives say the measures will "terrify" parents and warn the Government is on course to provoke another rebellion by angry Labour MPs.

Ms McKinnell confirmed dramatic changes are planned as she spoke to the Commons Education Committee on Tuesday. She said: "Tens of thousands of children with SEND [special educational needs and disabilities] could have their needs met without an EHC plan and could be educated in mainstream settings, along with their peers, and most importantly, their outcomes would be improved."

She said the current system is "just not delivering the outcomes we want to see for those children and young people". And she added: "We want all children to feel they belong in a mainstream setting if that is the best place for their needs to be met."

The minister pledged: "Some of the detail will have to be set out in the schools White Paper that we'll set out in the autumn. But I want to be very clear that we won't be removing any existing effective support."

Shadow education minister Neil O'Brien said: "This has the potential to be another huge row similar to the welfare vote, where Labour MPs will be asked to vote to save a lot of money from special needs.

"It has all the makings of a big rebellion."

There were 576,000 children with Education Health and Care (EHC) plans entitling them to extra help last year, up from 240,000 in January 2015.

But councils, which are supposed to provide the support, cannot afford it. A inquiry by the Commons Public Accounts Committee warned earlier this year that the gap between the amount councils spend on special needs and the funding they get from central government would reach £4.6billion in 2026 - "impacting their wider finances and potentially causing nearly half of English local authorities to be at risk of effectively going bankrupt".

Families registered 21,106 appeals against decisions made by local councils about special needs provision in the 2023-24 academic year.

The National Audit Office said in a report: "Families and children lack confidence in a special educational needs system that often falls short of statutory and quality expectations. Stakeholders told us that insufficient capacity and long waiting times contributed to low parental confidence."