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Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has launched a charm offensive to win over parents of children with special educational needs (SEND), as the Government attempts to cut soaring costs. Planned reforms due to be announced this year have been delayed following a backlash to leaked proposals. However, Ministers are determined to makes changes following warnings that the SEND Budget is set to exceed £20 billion.

Mrs Phillipson has launched a "national conversation", providing more than 100,000 opportunities for families and education professionals to express a view in person or online. But think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned the government's approach was "a mess", and said it remains unclear how the Department for Education will deal with a £6 billion funding gap without taking money away from other school budgets.

The Education Secretary previously promised to publish a SEND white paper this year, which was expected to confirm plans to cut number of expensive education, health and care (EHC) plans issued by councils. These give children a legal right to support, but under the new proposals youngetsrw would instead be promised the support they need by default in mainstream schools.

An announcement has now been delayed until 2026 after campaign groups condemned the plans. However, the Office for Budget Responsibility warned that the cost of SEND will increase from around £12.5 billion in 2024-25 to more than £20 billion in 2029-30 without changes.

There are now 639,000 young people with a plan, more than double the number of ten years ago, and struggling local councils forced to foot the bill are on course to rack up debts of £14 billion.

The government responded by announcing in last week's Budget that it will fund special needs education directly from 2028-29 onwards, but it remains unclear how that will affect other school budgets, or how councils will pay off their existing deficits.

IFS economist Darcey Snape said: "The special educational needs system in England is a mess - with big fiscal costs as well as costs to children, their families and their schools."

He added: "The government also has a set of tough choices to make regarding the £14 billion of deficits that councils are projected to have accumulated by 2028.

"Simply writing off these debts would be unwise, as it would remove any financial incentive councils have to try to control SEND spending in the next few years. But the government will need to find a way to stop these cumulative deficits from pushing dozens of councils towards effective bankruptcy when they have to account for them in April 2028."

The first event in the Department for Education's "conversation" was hosted by School Standards Minister Georgia Gould in Bristol. She said: "We want this to be the biggest national conversation on SEND in a generation, and I urge parents, teachers and all those with views to participate and help us deliver lasting reform."