Minister won’t rule out support cuts for children with EHCPs amid Send overhaul

Good morning. Less than a week after the government had to abandon the main pillar of its welfare reform plans 90 minutes before a vote it was otherwise likely to lose, the government is now facing another revolt over plans to scale back support available to disabled people. But this row affects children, not adults – specifically pupils with special educational needs who have education, health and care plans (EHCPs) that guarantee them extra help in schools.

As Richard Adams and Kiran Stacey report, although the plans have not been announced yet, campaigners are alarmed by reports that access to EHCPs is set to be restricted.

Guardian splash Photograph: Guardian

The Times has splashed on the same issue.

Times splash Photograph: The Times

The Times quotes an unnamed senior Labour MP saying: “If they thought taking money away from disabled adults was bad, watch what happens when they try the same with disabled kids.”

Stephen Morgan, the early education minister, was giving interviews this morning. He was supposed to be talking about the government’s Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life strategy being announced today, but instead he mostly took questions on EHCPs.

On Times Radio, asked if he could guarantee that every child who currently has an EHCP would continue to keep the same provisions, Morgan would not confirm that. Instead he replied:

We absolutely want to make sure that we deliver better support for vulnerable children and their parents and we’re committed to absolutely getting that right. So it’s a real priority for us.

When it was put to him that he was not saying yes, he replied:

Well of course we want to make sure that every child gets the support that they need. That’s why we’re doing the wider reform and we’re publishing the white paper later this year.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Nigel Farage attends a meeting of Kent county council where his party, Reform UK, is in power.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

11.30am: Keir Starmer and other leaders attend a memorial service at St Paul’s Cathedral in London to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 attacks.

2.30pm: Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

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Updated at 09.40 BST

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Average worker could gain up to £29,000 by time they retire from reforms in pension schemes bill, minister says

Working people saving into a pension pot “could benefit by up to £29,000 by the time they retire” under proposals in the pensions schemes bill which is getting its second reading in the Commons today, the Department for Work and Pensions has said.

In a news release, the DWP said:

Reforms in the bill, which have received wide-spread support from the pensions industry and consumer groups, will support 20 million pension savers to get more from their pension pots and be better prepared for retirement.

The bill will bring together small pension pots worth £1,000 or less into one pension scheme that is certified as delivering good value to savers, making pension saving less hassle and more rewarding. At present many people struggle to keep track of multiple small pensions as they move jobs and can pay high fees as a result.

Torsten Bell, the pensions minister, said:

The measures in our pension schemes bill will drive costs down and returns up on workers’ retirement savings – putting more money in people’s pockets to the tune of up to £29,000 for an average earner and delivering on our Plan for Change.

Conservatives call for welfare bill to be amended to tighten eligibility for Pip and universal credit

The Conservatives will try to change the government’s welfare Bill to tighten up access to personal independence payments (Pip) and universal credit, PA Media reports. PA says:

Kemi Badenoch will pledge that the Tories are “now the only party committed to serious welfare reform” after Keir Starmer shelved plans to restrict eligibility for Pip in the face of a backbench revolt this week.

The Tories will look to lay amendments to the legislation – set to be renamed the universal credit bill – and party leader Badenoch is due to deliver a speech on welfare on Thursday.

Among the amendments the Conservatives will propose is a requirement for eligibility for Pip to be determined by a face-to-face meeting, rather than virtually.

As part of the government’s reforms, the Department for Work and Pensions has proposed a new “severe conditions criteria” for universal credit. Claimants in this category will be entitled to a higher rate of the benefit, and will not be routinely reassessed to receive money.

Another of the Conservatives’ amendments would prevent somebody from being classed as having a severe condition for the purpose of universal credit only by having anxiety, mild depression, or ADHD.

The third amendment would block the increase in universal credit and restrict Pip for some people who are not British citizens.

In her welfare speech, Badenoch is expected to say that the Conservatives are “the only party that is prepared to take the tough decisions to get spending under control”.

Labour must keep EHCPs in Send system, says education committee chair

Helen Hayes, the Labour chair of the Commons education committee, has said that the government should commit to retaining education, health and care plans (EHCPs) to keep the trust of families who have children with special educational needs, Peter Walker reports.

Charity prepares legal challenge after NHS trust pauses ADHD referrals for over-25s

A charity supporting people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is preparing a legal challenge against an NHS trust that has temporarily stopped accepting referrals for adults over 25, Rachel Hall reports.

ShareKeir Starmer arriving at St Paul’s Cathedral this morning for the service to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 attacks. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/ReutersShare

Unison and Usdaw join other unions in urging Labour to consider introducing wealth tax

As Peter Walker reports, Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, said the government should consider a wealth tax, in an interview with Sky News.

Today the Daily Telegraph has splashed on the proposal.

Telegraph splash Photograph: Telegraph/Daily Telegraph

In their story, Ben Riley-Smith, Dominic Penna and Hannah Boland quote five trade unions also supporting a wealth tax.

Some of them them are leftwing unions long associated with calls for wealth taxes. Unite told the paper it had “led the campaign for a wealth tax inside and outside the Labour party”. Steve Wright, general secretary of the FBU, told the paper that “introducing a wealth tax to fund public services, a generous welfare state, and workers’ pay must be a priority in the second year of a Labour government. And Matt Wrack, the former FBU general secretary who is now acting general secretary of Nasuwt, called for an “immediate introduction of a wealth tax”, which he said had “very significant public support”.

But two unions seen as less militant and more aligned with the Labour leadership (which is wary of ‘tax the rich’ rhetoric) have backed the idea. Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, told the Telegraph: “A wealth tax would be a much fairer way of raising revenue to invest in public services and grow the economy.”

And Paddy Lillis, the general secretary of Usdaw, said: “We know wealth in this country is with a small number of people. [A wealth tax] is one way of raising money quickly.”

Government plans to overhaul Send provision will be about ‘strengthening’ the system, minister says

Stephen Morgan, the early education minister, told LBC that the government proposals to overhaul special educational needs and disabilities (Send) provision would be about “strengthening” the system.

Asked if he could say parents of children with Send had nothing to fear from the plans, which are due to be announced in the autumn, Morgan replied:

Absolutely. What we want to do is make sure we’ve got a better system in place as a result of the reform that we’re doing that improves outcomes for children with additional needs.

But, asked if the plans would involve scrapping ECHPs, Morgan replied:

We’re looking at all things in the round. I’m not going to get into the mechanics today, but this is about strengthening support for the system.

ShareKeir Starmer and Sadiq Khan laying wreaths at the 7 July Memorial in London today. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty ImagesThe note on the wreath left by Keir Starmer. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty ImagesShare

Here is the letter to the Guardian, signed by dozens of special needs and disability charities and campaigners, that is covered in our splash story about opposition to proposals to restrict access to education, health and care plans (EHCPs). (See 9.34am.)

Here is John Harris’s column on the topic.

And here is an extract.

Since Labour won the election, rising noise has been coming from Whitehall and beyond about drastically restricting the legal rights to dedicated provision that underpin the education of hundreds of thousands of children and young people. Those rights are enforced by the official Send tribunal, and embodied in education, health and care plans (EHCPs), which set out children’s needs and the provision they entail in a legally binding document. Contrary to what you read in certain news outlets, they are not any kind of “golden ticket”: parents and carers used to unreturned phone calls and long waits still frequently have to fight their local councils for the help their plans set out. But – and as a special needs parent, I speak from experience – they usually allow stressed-out families to just about sleep at night.

For about 40 years, such rights have been a cornerstone of the Send system. But their future is now uncertain: councils, in particular, are frantically lobbying ministers to get parents and their pesky rights out of the way. Late last year, a government source quoted in the Financial Times held out the prospect of “thousands fewer pupils” having access to rights-based provision. Despite the fact that EHCPs are most sorely needed in mainstream schools, a senior adviser to the Department for Education recently said that a consideration of whether EHCPs should no longer apply to children in exactly those settings is “the conversation we’re in the middle of”. There are whispers about families who currently have EHCPs being allowed to keep them, while in the future, kids with similar needs would be waved away, something that threatens a stereotypical two-tier model, another element with worrying echoes of the benefits disaster.

Consumer confidence rising, survey suggests

The majority of UK households are feeling financially secure, with 70% of people confident enough to plan a summer holiday, according to a survey. PA Media reports:

The number of people feeling financially secure has risen this quarter by three percentage points to 58%, while confidence that the UK economy is improving has risen to 17% from one in 10 three months ago, the KPMG Consumer Pulse poll found.

The survey of 3,000 UK adults, taken in early June, found 50% feel able to spend freely, although 14% say they are still having to actively cut their discretionary spending to pay for essentials, and 3% of are incurring debt to do so …

Despite the quarterly improvement in economic confidence, half of people (51%) feel that the economy is still worsening – although this is down from 58% in the previous quarter.

Those saying that the economy is getting worse cite the cost of their groceries (79%), utilities (74%), and the general state of public services where they live (42%).

Linda Ellett, head of consumer, retail and leisure at KPMG UK, said: “Consumer confidence has rallied over the last quarter and only a fifth of consumers now feel insecure about their financial circumstance. Businesses will be hoping that this improvement brings about increased spending confidence during the summer months.

“But macroeconomic confidence still looms large, with half of consumers still to be convinced that the economy isn’t worsening.”