The key changes being made to special educational needs - at a glance

The government has published plans to reform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system in England - and there are a lot of new terms to get your head around.

You might already be familiar with education, health and care plans (EHCPs), but now we're talking about individual support plans (ISPs), too.

There will also be "targeted", "targeted plus" and "specialist" layers of support, as well as new national inclusion standards.

All of these phrases will become crucial to anyone working out how they'll be affected by the new system, which the education secretary says will get support to children with SEND "when they need it, as routine and without a fight."

Here are the key changes that have been announced.

The big change is that, by 2035, only children with the most complex needs will qualify for EHCPs.

They are legal documents that identify a pupil's needs and set out what support they should receive. Local authorities are responsible for ensuring EHCPs are followed.

Until 2015, the proportion of pupils with EHCPs in schools was relatively stable at 2.8%. Since then it has nearly doubled to 5.3%.

The government is worried that without changes, demand will only grow and it won't be possible to meet it.

Children who already have an EHCP, or who have been assessed as needing one, will keep them until they finish whichever phase of education they are in - primary or secondary school, for example.

At that point – starting from September 2029 - they'll be reassessed.

For example, pupils who are now in Year 2 will undergo the reassessments when they reach Year 6.

Parents will still be able to apply for EHCPs, which will be delivered by local authorities, and challenge the decisions made about what support their child can get at tribunal.

That proportion of children receiving EHCPs is expected to grow in the foreseeable future while the reforms roll out, but the government hopes its changes will mean it happens at a slower rate and will fall back to its current level by 2035.

The government's new vision is that pupils with SEND, including those who don't have EHCPs, will have new ISPs.

As a reminder, ISP stands for "individual support plans".

These documents will set out a child's needs, what support they should receive and what it hopes to achieve.

The government described them as "flexible" plans that set out what the child needs day to day - as opposed to an EHCP, which is the framework giving them legal entitlement to support.

Children with EHCPs will also have ISPs, which will set out how the content of the EHCP will be delivered.

All children will have a legal right to an ISP and their nursery, school or college will be responsible for consulting with parents and drawing them up.

They will be reviewed at least once a year.

If parents are not happy with what's in a child's ISP, they will have to go through a school complaints system first before being able to complain to the local authority, or to the government.

Got all that? Good.

Because those two different documents - EHCPs and ISPs - sit alongside three new layers of support for children with SEND, in addition to what the government is calling a "universal offer" for all children.

All children with SEND will have an ISP. What the ISP says about their needs determines which layer of support they will receive.

There's "targeted" support, which might involve pupils receiving help in small groups, and reasonable adjustments such as the provision of coloured paper or laptops for children with dyslexia, for example.

Then there's "targeted plus" support, which will give a child access to specialists like speech and language therapists and educational psychologists, as well as to dedicated SEND spaces within schools called "inclusion bases".

The third level is "specialist support", for children with the most complex needs.

This is where things get a bit more complicated. When a child receives "specialist support", they will be given a "specialist provision package", which will be created by education, health and care experts and will spell out what they need.

However, only children with "specialist provision packages", as part of the specialist support layer, are intended to qualify for new EHCPs. The Department for Education says EHCPs will be "based on" those packages and will give children a legal right to the support they set out.

The government wants children to be able to switch between these three layers if and when their needs change.

And it says by 2028 "national inclusion standards" will be in place, setting out what support children and families should be able to expect from schools.