Three of my four children have had full EHCPs. These are education, health and care plans, which means each child’s needs have been assessed and documented. They guarantee that appropriate provision to meet those needs has been agreed and must now be delivered by law. Well-written EHCPs are invaluable, particularly the legal part. Without it there would be no rigour, no meaningful challenge and, ultimately, no power to ensure that the right educational support is provided.

Naturally, then, I was worried when earlier this year the government began discussing reforms, with the possibility of scrapping EHCPs. Ministers said they had inherited a system on its knees, with local authorities struggling to cope with the rising demand for support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send). The government’s plans are due to be published in October, and I fear where they will leave children like mine.

One of my children was diagnosed as autistic at the age of seven. They struggled in school for years, hitting academic targets but withdrawing into an isolated, fear-filled, friendless space, with daily meltdowns on their return home. The school failed to understand what was happening and as my child reached their teens, with pressure mounting, my husband and I began to fight on every front, attempting to get an EHCP, facing a tribunal, battling with a school that seemed to lack compassion and desperately trying to access therapy.

As a result of societal pressure and our abject fear of the school attendance officer, we demanded more of our child – ordering, cajoling and begging them to come out of their bedroom and go to school. This went on for months until one day, they simply refused to go. A pattern of........

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