Where education goes next
Education chapter 12. Proposals, their legal status, and their precedents — because almost every idea in English education has been tried in some form already.
Every proposal here is recorded with two things a reader needs before its content: whether it is actually law yet, and what happened when something similar was attempted before.
The proposals
This tracker records status and precedent, not merit. It does not say whether any proposal is a good idea — that is a political question — only whether it is law, and what happened when something similar was tried before. Precedents are included because almost every proposal in English education has one, and a tracker that omitted them would present each as novel.
- Regional, non-statutoryGreater Manchester Combined Authority
The Greater Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc)
A technical education route intended to sit alongside the English Baccalaureate, directing young people on a technical path towards seven career gateways at 16 — manufacturing and engineering, digital and technology, health and social care, creative, culture and sport, financial and professional, education and early years, and construction and the green economy. It is a combined-authority programme, not a national qualification, and it carries no statutory force.
GMCA, The Greater Manchester Baccalaureate ↗Precedents
Secondary technical schools · Legislated for in the Education Act 1944
The 1944 settlement envisaged three kinds of secondary school — grammar, technical and modern. The technical schools were the leg that was never built at scale: at their peak they educated a small minority of pupils, and most areas never opened one. The reason usually given is cost and the difficulty of recruiting staff who could have earned more in industry, and neither of those constraints has gone away.
Education Act 1944 ↗University technical colleges · From 2010
UTCs are 14–18 technical schools sponsored by universities and employers. A substantial number of those opened have since closed, converted to mainstream academies or joined multi-academy trusts, commonly after struggling to recruit pupils at 14 — an entry point that asks families to move a child mid-secondary. Some are well regarded and continue. The record is mixed rather than uniformly bad, and it is the closest available precedent for a technical route with employer backing.
Baker Dearing Educational Trust, University Technical Colleges ↗The German dual system · Post-war, continuing
Frequently cited as the model, and genuinely well regarded. It rests on institutions England does not have: chambers of commerce with statutory roles in setting and assessing training, long-standing employer obligations, and a settled social expectation that an apprenticeship is a normal route rather than a fallback. Transplanting the qualification without the institutions is the part that has repeatedly proved hard.
House of Commons Library, Apprenticeship statistics and policy ↗
- In forceDepartment for Education
T Levels
Two-year technical qualifications for 16 to 19 year olds, each including an industry placement, introduced from 2020 as the technical counterpart to A levels. They are in force and being taught; the policy question now is take-up and whether the placement requirement can be met at scale.
DfE, Introduction of T Levels ↗Precedent
Diplomas (14–19) · 2008 to 2013
A previous attempt at a broad technical qualification alongside GCSEs and A levels. Take-up fell well short of projections and the programme was wound down. The lesson usually drawn is that a new qualification competes with established ones that universities and employers already understand.
House of Commons Library, 14-19 education ↗
- Proposal onlyDepartment for Education
Individual support plans for every child with SEND
The 2026 schools white paper proposes a new legal requirement on schools to produce an individual support plan for every child with SEND, drawn up by teachers and specialists rather than by the local authority. It would require legislation and has not been introduced.
DfE, Every child achieving and thriving ↗Precedent
Individual education plans under the 1994 Code of Practice · 1994 to 2014
School-level plans for pupils with SEN below the statement threshold existed for two decades. They were removed in the 2014 reforms, with the Code of Practice moving to a graduated approach instead, partly on the argument that they had become a paperwork exercise. A proposal to reintroduce school-level statutory plans is therefore a return to a mechanism that was tried and dropped, which does not make it wrong but does put the burden of explanation somewhere specific.
SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years ↗
A precedent is not a prediction
A precedent is not a prediction. That secondary technical schools were never built at scale in the 1940s does not mean a technical route cannot be built now, and that university technical colleges have a mixed record does not settle what the MBacc will do. Precedents narrow the range of things it is reasonable to assume, and that is all they do.
Why precedents sit inside each card
Separating the precedents into their own section would let a reader take the proposal and leave the history. The technical-education proposals in particular have three precedents between them, and none of those precedents is widely known outside education policy.
SEND reform
The 2026 white paper proposes the largest change to SEND provision since 2014. Its status is tracked in full in the SEND chapter and repeated here because it is the largest single item currently proposed.
This tracker records status, not merit. It does not say whether any proposal is a good idea — that is a political question — only whether it is a proposal, a bill, or the law. The distinction matters because a family reading about a change will want to know whether it applies to them yet, and for everything below except the 2014 Act, it does not.
- In forceIn force since September 2014
EHC plans and the 0–25 framework
Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 is the law currently in force. Everything described elsewhere on this page — the duty to secure provision, the 20-week limit, the right of appeal — comes from it and is unchanged.
Children and Families Act 2014, Part 3 ↗ - Proposal onlyPublished 23 February 2026
Schools white paper: Every child achieving and thriving
Published on 23 February 2026, setting out the government’s intended direction for SEND. A white paper is a statement of policy intention. It changes nothing on its own, and none of what follows below has taken legal effect.
DfE, Every child achieving and thriving ↗ - Proposal onlyProposed February 2026
Individual support plans for every child with SEND in school
The white paper proposes a new legal requirement on schools to produce an individual support plan for every child with SEND, drawn up by teachers and specialists rather than by the local authority. This would be a new duty and would require legislation.
DfE, Every child achieving and thriving ↗ - Proposal onlyStated February 2026
EHC plans retained, with transition from 2030
The government has stated that EHC plans are retained and that existing plans and protections remain in place until at least September 2030; that transition from a mainstream EHC plan to an individual support plan would begin only in 2030; that children in year 3 or older would not transition until the end of secondary school; and that a child holding a special-school place in 2029 could keep it until they finish education. These are stated commitments in a policy document, not statutory guarantees.
DfE, Radical expansion in rights for children with SEND ↗ - Announced, not introducedAnnounced in the 2026 King’s Speech
Education for All Bill
The bill announced to legislate the white paper. Checked against the UK Parliament Bills API on the verification date: no bill of this title appears among the current session’s bills, so it has been announced but not introduced. Until it is introduced, passed and brought into force, none of the proposals above is law.
UK Parliament, Bills before Parliament ↗ - Proposal onlyAnnounced February 2026
Funding announced alongside the white paper
The government announced an inclusion grant of £1.6 billion over three years from 2026/27, £3.7 billion for more than 60,000 specialist places, £1.8 billion for an "Experts at Hand" programme, and £200 million for teacher training. Announced spending is not the same as spending that has occurred, and these figures are recorded here as announcements.
DfE, Radical expansion in rights for children with SEND ↗
Parliamentary status checked against the UK Parliament Bills API on 2026-08-16. This tracker is refreshed when the underlying status changes, not on a schedule.
View as table
| Item | Status | Stated |
|---|---|---|
| EHC plans and the 0–25 framework | In force | In force since September 2014 |
| Schools white paper: Every child achieving and thriving | Proposal only | Published 23 February 2026 |
| Individual support plans for every child with SEND in school | Proposal only | Proposed February 2026 |
| EHC plans retained, with transition from 2030 | Proposal only | Stated February 2026 |
| Education for All Bill | Announced, not introduced | Announced in the 2026 King’s Speech |
| Funding announced alongside the white paper | Proposal only | Announced February 2026 |
Full detail, including what the proposals would mean for existing plans and the transition dates, is in Chapter 5.
Related chapters
- In this sectionEighty years of educationWhere the precedents in this chapter come from.
- In this sectionSpecial educational needsThe SEND reform tracker in full.
- In this sectionWho runs our schools?The structural change the last fifteen years actually delivered.
- In this sectionEducationThe other chapters, and how this section is built.
Scope and definitions
England, not the UK
Education is devolved. Every figure on this page is England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland operate different frameworks with different legal definitions, and their figures are not directly comparable.
Population
This chapter carries no statistical dataset. It is a record of legislation, linked to the Acts themselves, and no population is counted anywhere on it. That is stated explicitly because every other chapter in this section must declare the population it counts, and a chapter that simply omitted the declaration would be indistinguishable from one that forgot.