The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act received Royal Assent in April 2026. The headline change, replacing automatic EHCP eligibility with a three-tier system, has been widely reported. Less discussed is what the Act changes for the decisions parents are actually facing this term: whether to request an assessment now, how to respond to an annual review, and what to do when a school’s response to a child’s needs falls short.
Decisions to make now, before the tiers are defined
The regulations that will set the threshold for Specialist Support, the tier that carries an EHCP and Tribunal rights, have not yet been published. That creates a genuine, time-limited decision for parents of a child who does not currently have an EHCP but may need one: requesting an assessment under the current framework, before the new threshold is in force, is likely to be more favourable than waiting until the tiers are defined and applying under a system that may set the bar for Specialist Support higher than today’s EHCP threshold.
This is not a reason to panic into an unnecessary application. It is a reason to treat a live, unresolved concern about a child’s needs as something to act on promptly, rather than deferring “until things settle.”
Annual reviews, now
For a child who already holds an EHCP, an annual review taking place before the new framework is implemented should still proceed under the current law: Section F must remain specific and quantified, and the plan can still be amended on its existing terms. Parents should not assume a review taking place now will be conducted under the new tiers; the transitional reassessment point is tied to phase transfer, not the calendar date of a routine review.
Phase transfer is the trigger to watch
The Act ties reassessment against the new tiers to phase transfer: early years to primary, primary to secondary, and so on, from 2030. For a family with a child approaching a phase transfer close to or after that date, this is a material planning point. Evidence gathered well in advance of a phase transfer, while the current EHCP framework still governs what “needs” and “provision” mean, is likely to carry more weight than evidence assembled after reassessment against tiers whose criteria are not yet settled.
What has not changed
The core duties on schools under the Equality Act 2010, including the duty to make reasonable adjustments, are unaffected by this Act. A pupil without an EHCP, or one who is later assessed as Targeted or Targeted Plus, retains the same discrimination protections as before, and disability discrimination claims continue to be heard by the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) regardless of a child’s tier. Parents whose primary concern is a school’s failure to make reasonable adjustments, rather than the content of an EHCP, are not directly affected by the tier changes.
The practical takeaway
Where a decision can reasonably be made now, under the framework that is currently in force and whose rules are settled, that is generally preferable to waiting for a system whose thresholds and internal complaints process are not yet defined in regulation.
Source
Legislation: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, legislation.gov.uk.
Keerat Solicitor acts exclusively for parents and young people in SEND, EHCP, and education law matters across England. To discuss how this Act affects a specific decision, get in touch.