
The key changes being made to special educational needs – at a glance
The government has set out broad changes it will make to the SEND system in England in the coming years.
WEDNESDAY, 25 FEBRUARY 2026, 09:29

The government has set out broad changes it will make to the SEND system in England in the coming years.

Ties to the disgraced financier run deep through the academic world, documents released by the DoJ show
Major institutions of higher education in the US are reckoning with the latest release of the Epstein files after discovering the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s relationships with board members, professors and administrators on campuses across the country.
In some cases, professors...

New special educational needs regime to result in far fewer children being given education, health and care plans
UK politics live – latest updates
Hundreds of thousands fewer children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) will be given education, health and care plans (EHCPs) as a result of long-awaited changes announced by the education secretary on Monday.
Bridget Phillipson...

Finance campaigner marches on to set and tells Tory leader her policy to cut interest rates will only help top earners
UK politics live – latest updates
Kemi Badenoch has faced what could be described as the stuff of nightmares for a UK politician being interviewed about a personal finance policy: being ambushed and contradicted live on air by Martin Lewis.
As the Conservative leader was being...
The need to push back against a core Democratic Party constituency.
Artificial intelligence companies are urging teachers to prepare students for an “A.I.-driven future.” What that means varies from school to school.
Teachers say they want to equip high school students to drive artificial intelligence, rather than be mere passengers steered by chatbots.

Full details of government plans to be published this morning with reforms partly driven by move to contain soaring costs
Here is the Department for Education’s news release from overnight about the Send reforms.
And this is what it says about how it will spend £4bn improving Send provision in English schools,
To dramatically improve the support mainstream schools can provide for children with...

Too many young people go out into the world ill equipped. We’ll change that: we’ll give more rights and support to them and their families
Send support for schoolchildren in England to get £4bn overhaul
The advent of fully comprehensive education. Raising the school leaving age to 16. The introduction of a national curriculum. Each of these reforms reflected the growing value we placed on...

In today’s newsletter: Rising need and shrinking budgets have left England’s Send provision at a crossroads, with children’s futures hanging on the success of Labour’s reforms
Good morning. Across many areas of England today anxious parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) will be packing their kids back off to school after half-term, waiting to hear what...

Dr Jack Tagg had accrued £14,000 in interest on his loan before he had even finished his studies.

Teachers of primary and secondary children in Aberdeen said they have been “kicked, bitten and spat at” while in class.

Is it to be a degree and heavy debt when graduate jobs are shrinking? Or foregoing a degree, knowing society still worships them? Confused, angry: who wouldn’t be
Some months ago, I was at my old university, speaking to prospective sixth-form and college students about taking a degree in the arts and what future careers they could expect. It was a cohort of teenagers from underrepresented...

‘Generational’ reforms are a key moment for Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, and for Keir Starmer
Ministers will unveil a “generational” overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities (Send) support, pledging £4bn to transform provision in schools in England and warning councils they could lose control of Send services if they fail to meet their legal duties.
The reforms are...
He was America’s longest-serving college president, with 47 years of service, by the time he retired in 2015.
A student objected to the potential closure of her New York City middle school. The professor, speaking on a hot mic, said, “They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school.” The comment was assailed as racist.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that no remote classes would be held. The last official snow day in the city’s schools was in March 2019.

Labour expected to outline sweeping changes to special educational needs provision with council debt surging
Labour is due to reveal its plans to overhaul the special educational needs and disability (Send) system on Monday. But why are changes needed? And what changes are ministers likely to propose?
Continue reading…

Already struggling to get help, families with children with special needs are concerned changes could make things worse
At the age of 12, May Race’s son Joseph spends almost all of his time in his bedroom, too anxious, burnt out and – she says – traumatised even to join his parents and older brother downstairs most days. Joseph no longer leaves the house at all.
He is autistic and has dyslexia...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
• This week’s question: what would happen to the world if computer said yes?
I’ve always thought it would be good to acquire an old warehouse in every town throughout the land and convert it into low-rent community...

Education secretary suggests Labour’s priority is maintenance grants for poorer students rather than cutting interest
Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservatives would scrap the “unfair debt trap” of high interest rates on student loans, piling pressure on Labour ministers to tackle the growing outrage over the high costs.
The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, admitted the system of plan...