Parents in Farnham, Bordon and Haslemere shouldn’t have to battle the system just to get support for their children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Yet that is the daily reality for many families, a fight through intolerable delays, endless bureaucracy, and repeated rejections. For those families, the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is often the only thing standing between their child and being forgotten.

Now Labour wants to take that away.

As part of their proposed overhaul of SEND provision, Labour ministers have refused to rule out removing EHCPs altogether. Campaigners and charities have rightly sounded the alarm: doing so would strip away the only legally binding protection children with SEND have, leaving thousands without the tailored support they urgently need.

Data from SEND Tribunals show that parents win 96 percent of cases, showing how often councils fall short.

Conservative-run Surrey County Council Cabinet minutes dated April 25, 2023 show that out of 511 appeals registered with the Special Education Needs and disability tribunal, the tribunal found in favour of the Authority in just 3 percent cases, with a partial agreement in a further 3 percent of cases.

EHCPs are not a luxury. They are a lifeline, a formal legal guarantee that local authorities must deliver specific educational and health support. But the current system is failing.

Nationally, only 50 percent of EHCPs are issued on time, and in places like Surrey, that figure has collapsed to just 16.2 percent in 2023, down from 65.3 percent in 2021. Instead of fixing this crisis, Labour appears to be reaching for the axe.

I’ve spoken extensively with parents about the problem. The threat is real and local.

In Farnham, I’ve spoken to parents who have waited over two years for their child’s needs to be properly recognised.

In Bordon, one mother had to withdraw her son from school and home-school him full-time after being refused an EHCP. Families like these deserve more support, not less accountability.

The threat is compounded by what’s already happening. This spring, Surrey County Council announced it would no longer respond to individual SEND casework raised by Liberal Democrat MPs.

But now Labour is threatening to go even further, tearing up the only enforceable mechanism parents have left.

I, and my Liberal Democrat colleagues, are calling for a different approach: real investment in SEND services, quicker assessments, and a nationally consistent system. Most of all, we demand that EHCPs remain protected in law. They may not be perfect, but scrapping them would be catastrophic.

Children in Farnham, Bordon, Haslemere and surrounding villages deserve a SEND system that works and supports, not sidelines. Until that day comes, the legal protections EHCPs provide must be defended with everything we’ve got.

Labour may be wavering, but we’re not. The Liberal Democrats will stand with families for fairness, for inclusion, and for every child.