Send provision Blunkett says any changes need 'incredible sensitivity'

Ministers must use "incredible sensitivity" in changing the provisions for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), David Blunkett, a former Labour education secretary, has said, as the government was urged not to drop education, health and care plans (EHCPs).

- Sally Weale Peter Walker

Lord Blunkett, who went through the special needs system himself when attending a residential school for blind children, said ministers would have to tread carefully and that a "bumpy" road lay ahead.

He also urged the government to reassure parents that it was looking for "a meaningful replacement" for EHCPs, which guarantee individual support in learning to more than 600,000 children and young people.

Blunkett sympathised with Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, over the challenge. He said: "It's absolutely clear that the government will need to do this with incredible sensitivity and with a recognition it's going to be a bumpy road."

Blunkett, whose senior roles in Tony Blair's government included that of home secretary, said government proposals due in the autumn to re-examine Send provision in England were not the same as welfare changes, largely abandoned last week, aimed at reducing spending. "They put another billion in [to Send provision] and nobody noticed," Blunkett said, adding: "We've got to reduce the fear of change."