The Law Commission – clarity and care for disabled children’s law

26 September 2025
By Ellie Haworth, Head of Children’s Services Transformation and Improvement, SCIE

Many of you will have been waiting with keen anticipation for the outcome of the Law Commission review of SEND law, and now it is here.

In their words, the recommendations would amount to “the most substantial change to this area of the law since the Children Act 1989”. Those are big words, and as a sector, I think we have been needing big words, grand ambitions and superb delivery.

As such, SCIE welcomes many of the key recommendations of the Law Commission report. They echo what children, young people, families and practitioners have been telling us for years: the system is complex, too adversarial and often leaves families exhausted rather than supported.

Supporting parents and carers

I particularly welcome the recommendation that calls for a right to advocacy for parents attempting to navigate the children’s disability system. I come to this opinion because of my years of experience talking to people with lived experience of social care. I know how hard they have had to fight to get their voices heard, and how they often need to fight to secure the right support, with this process taking a heavy toll. These missed opportunities to support families can result in difficulties becoming more entrenched or lead to crisis situations. As we all know that entrenched and crisis situations are harder to resolve.

SCIE has a training programme available for local authority staff on Parent Carer Assessments. The aim of this programme is to support the attendees to understand that improving practice in the assessment and the development of support plans for parents can reduce the harms caused by the system. It is my hope that these recommendations from the Law Commission will bring this practice improvement to the fore, but in the meantime, Local Authorities and practitioners may want to look at our training programmes.

Making systems simpler

Another important theme is simplicity. As participants in our training and consultancy programmes often highlight, fragmented assessments and disconnected funding streams make it difficult to connect families to their support.

We support Local Authorities on this subject as part of our consultancy; we deliver system reviews to understand whether the design of services supports efficient and effective delivery and outcomes. When we review these services, SCIE always ensures that the voice of lived experience is embedded, so that the service design meets the needs and delivers outcomes for the children, young people and families who draw on them.

Preparing for adulthood

Finally, the Commission’s focus on transition to adult social care and the preparation to adulthood is crucial. Too many young people and families still describe the ‘cliff edge’ between children’s and adults’ services. SCIE is proud to be supporting children, young people and their families with this transition to adult social care. Our approach is to equip and empower people with the skills, information and energy to navigate the system well. And of course, because we deliver this support in a group format, people empower each other. The power of peer support, combined with system information, is formidable.

Turning ambition into action

We are pleased that the recommendations of the Law Commission echo what real people have been telling us and that the lived experience of care systems is being heard.

While we wait to see how these recommendations will be taken up by government and turned into policy, SCIE is here to help and work with the sector on making changes real in our communities.