HSE Response to the 2026 SEND White Paper

Human Scale Education welcomes the focus articulated in the SEND White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving. We resonate deeply with the government’s assertion that children are "citizens of our common future". We acknowledge the statements that belonging and high standards are not mutually exclusive, a principle HSE has championed for decades and the call for inclusion for all. It is also pleasing to note that the White Paper acknowledges relationships between peers, teachers and families are important. However, we are disappointed that the government remains intent on fixing the current system with harm reduction tactics rather than being open to exploring a wider call for re-structuring how schools operate; we believe this requires a transformative approach. Yes, these are incredible “challenges we face” but we must be braver in our vision for the future. 

Without addressing the impersonal,

industrial scale of many current institutions,

these reforms will continue to treat

symptoms rather than the cause.

We argue that true systemic change requires a fundamental look at the size of our schools and the organisation of the learning community. At the heart of the Human Scale Education framework is the belief that fostering deep, meaningful relationships is the key to both wellbeing and achievement. Without addressing the impersonal, industrial scale of many current institutions, these reforms will continue to treat symptoms rather than the cause. To "give children their childhood back," we must move toward learning environments designed around the human scale.

National Standards

The White Paper rightly acknowledges the troubling decline in the number of children who feel a sense of belonging at school, yet the proposed solution of relying on National Standards and evidence-based adaptive teaching, misses the fundamental human requirement for connection. 

From the perspective of Human Scale Education, belonging is not a metric to be achieved through top-down standardisation, but a natural by-product of scale and relationship. We would argue that standardising a sense of belonging would be problematic, missing the nuances that come with being truly known. Real belonging only flourishes within small learning communities where every child is visible, valued, and has a voice. 

Systemic change must prioritise our

core values of democratic participation

and human-sized learning environments.

We will continue to argue that the government must move away from the high-stakes, large-scale environments that treat students as data points. Systemic change must prioritise our core values of democratic participation and human-sized learning environments, as these are the only structures capable of reversing the UK’s low pupil-wellbeing scores and fostering a genuine sense of agency.

Democratic Participation

We acknowledge the White Paper’s call for children to be "active participants in their learning", as this vision directly mirrors the Human Scale Education principle of Democratic Participation. However, we are concerned that this aspiration remains incompatible with a system currently obsessed with rigid attainment gaps and data-driven metrics. 

Such pressures often force educators to prioritise rote learning and teaching to the test at the expense of genuine engagement. True systemic change requires a fundamental shift in assessment and curriculum; one that values the process of inquiry and the development of the whole child as much as any standardised outcome. 

To achieve this, we must empower schools to function as democratic communities where the curriculum is a co-created journey rather than a pre-packaged commodity. As highlighted in the recent Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report, professional autonomy is welcomed but this finite balance of workload, standardised testing and large schools quickly diminishes the autonomy that has been advocated for in the report. 

Family and Community

The White Paper correctly asserts that "it all begins with family" and that schools should not be "alone in working for the brighter future," a sentiment that Human Scale Education supports as a starting point for a much more holistic way of existing. The relationship between home and school is a deep collaboration where schools and communities function in tandem to foster a sense of belonging that extends far beyond the school gates. We advocate for learning environments that are intentionally small enough to maintain genuine, daily partnerships, transforming the school into a community hub rooted in social justice and fairness. However, a significant gap remains between the government’s rhetoric of partnership and a reform package that leans heavily on top-down National Standards. 

From our perspective, true systemic change requires more than central directives; it demands the devolution of power to local school communities. By fostering human-sized learning environments, we can empower families and educators to co-create the educational experience, ensuring that the school remains a responsive and democratic reflection of the community it serves

Inclusion

While the White Paper correctly identifies that children with SEND are "not succeeding as they should," and that a simpler system is required. The proposed remedies including standardised banding and streamlined EHCP processes largely function as harm reduction rather than true reform. It is hard to see how this is any different to pre-2014 SEND Code of Practice where a tired School Action banding existed. These measures attempt to manage the symptoms of an exclusionary mainstream culture without addressing the industrial-scale structures that create those exclusions in the first place.

We believe that inclusion can only exist when the learning environment is human-sized. In a small-scale setting, SEND support becomes a natural, fluid part of a personalised relationship between a teacher who knows the child well and a student who feels safe enough to learn. Systemic change requires us to move beyond efficient processing and toward a model where every child’s needs are met through the strength of the learning community itself.

Final Thoughts

Human Scale Education calls on the government to ensure that this White Paper serves not merely as a "vision of change," but as a genuine catalyst for structural downsizing. We do not need a more efficiently managed industrial school system; we require a human-scale system that fundamentally prioritises relationships over regulations and people over percentages. This is not an argument against mainstream schools; HSE has a number of patrons, trustees and members who have been or who are leaders and educators in mainstream settings, with lived experiences of establishing schools within schools, community-rich, democratic learning environments. Therefore, we believe that by shifting the focus to human-scale, we can prepare the next generation to "shape our world together," for if we want children to be active citizens of tomorrow, they must be treated as active participants today.

Moving forward, we will be working closely with our members and trustees to develop a fuller, more robust response to this reform. Our aim is to challenge the government’s proposals by synthesising the existing data with the powerful, lived human stories of education that a metric-driven system so often ignores. We remain committed to advocating for a future where education is defined by the quality of our human connections and the depth of our community collaboration.