Policy & Reform
SEND Reforms & Snapshot
The SEND system is changing. Snapshot is ready.
The SEND system is changing. Snapshot is ready.
The government's 2026 SEND reforms are the biggest shift in special educational needs provision in a decade. This page explains what's coming, what it means for your school, and how Snapshot fits in.
The current SEND system leaves too many children without consistent, documented support. Too many pupils sit below the EHCP threshold but above what universal provision can reliably meet — and for those children, support often depends on whoever knows them best, whatever gets passed on at transition, and however much time their SENCO has.
The reforms set out to change that. The goal is a single, inclusive education system where every child with identified SEND has a clear, documented, regularly reviewed plan — and where mainstream schools have the knowledge, tools and specialist support to meet a wider range of needs.
From September 2029, every child with identified SEND will have a statutory Individual Support Plan. Not just those with EHCPs — every child. ISPs will be reviewed regularly, shared with families, and follow the learner through transitions. For SENCOs, this means more documented plans, more reviews, and more demand on an already stretched role.
The white paper is explicit: more children should be educated in mainstream settings. That means more complex needs in every classroom, greater pressure on class teachers and TAs, and a growing need for consistent, accessible profiles that every adult can read and use.
The Inclusive Teaching Framework, published alongside the reforms in March 2026, sets out the knowledge teachers need to support pupils with SEND across five key areas — speech and language, sensory, motor, executive function, and social and emotional development. Schools are being asked to build a shared language for understanding need.
£1.8bn is being invested to bring speech and language therapists, educational psychologists and occupational therapists directly into mainstream schools. These specialists will need a shared profiling language with teachers and SENCOs — a consistent framework that bridges specialist and educational knowledge.
White paper published. Consultation begins. Forward-thinking schools start preparing.
National Inclusion Standards published. Pilot schools begin ISP trials.
ISPs become statutory for all children with identified SEND.
Full transition from EHCPs to the new system. SEND Code of Practice updated.
An ISP is a statutory document. It mandates that every child with identified SEND has a plan — but it doesn't tell schools how to build one, what framework to assess against, or how to communicate a child's needs to the adults around them. That's where Snapshot comes in. Snapshot's 8-domain profile gives SENCOs a consistent, evidence-informed starting point for every child. The output — a wheel, a narrative summary, and a shareable PDF — is exactly the kind of structured picture an ISP needs to be built on. Schools using Snapshot now will have a head start when ISPs become statutory in 2029.
Snapshot's eight domains map directly onto the areas of need identified in the Inclusive Teaching Framework — the evidence base the government is using to shape SEND professional development nationally. The same language, the same structure, already in use in your school.
The reforms specifically call out transitions as a pressure point. Snapshot profiles travel with learners — the same clear picture in every teacher's hands from day one, whether that's a new TA, a new year group, or a new school entirely.
Trusts are being given a bigger strategic role in coordinating SEND provision and pooling funding across schools. Snapshot's consistent framework gives MAT SEND leads the shared language they need to see need and provision clearly across every setting.
Snapshot supports professional judgement — it doesn't replace it. It isn't a specialist assessment tool, and a Snapshot profile isn't a substitute for an EHCP, a SALT report, or an educational psychology assessment. It's a structured starting point that helps everyone around a child — teachers, TAs, families and specialists — start from the same shared understanding.
The schools that start building consistent SEND profiling now will be the ones ready when the reforms arrive. Snapshot gives you the framework to start today.