Nine in 10 respondents to a survey of school and trust leaders representing more than half a million pupils in England believe the government’s proposed special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms will add to their workload.

Some 76% of those who took part in UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson’s spring 2026 School Leaders Survey claim proposed changes will cause significantly increase, while 13% believe there will be a slight increase.

SEND reforms – published as part the Department for Education’s schools white paper, Every child achieving and thriving – will largely shift responsibility over provision from local authorities to schools.

Meanwhile, only 4% believe the government’s intention for every school to be part of a trust is highly achievable as loss of autonomy and identity were cited alongside financial barriers with seemingly no prospect of additional funding to support academy conversions.

SEND reforms supported by inadequate funding

Other key findings in the School Leaders Survey include:

• Leaders are split on SEND reforms – 54% have some, or serious, concerns while 25% are supportive.
• 68% don’t believe the additional £7bn funding for SEND support by 2028-29 – alongside a separate £4bn to prepare schools for reforms – is enough to bring the government’s ambitions to life in their school or trust, with only 3% believing it is.
• There’s an overwhelming agreement that being part of a trust would help schools offer better SEND provision, with 62% saying it would significantly or somewhat help, only 10% not agreeing and the rest neutral.
• Although, perhaps unsurprisingly, there is less confidence outside of academy leaders with only 25% of maintained participants agreeing that being part of a trust will help offer better SEND provision.

Philip Wood, Partner at Browne Jacobson specialising in supporting schools with SEND matters, said: “SEND is an area that has needed reform for some time with many reports showing the difficulties for all stakeholders in the system. 

“There is real concern among school leaders over workload increases and the lack of sufficient funding to bring the reforms to reality, given schools will play a more prominent role. 

“A key aspect of the proposed reform is more pupils educated in mainstream schools and a more inclusive school system. This will require work that school leaders are prepared to do but they need the support from government – principally, sufficient funding – to achieve it.” 

Doubts over how every school joins a trust

The vast majority of respondents to the School Leaders Survey believe the government will need to make at least some changes if the vision for a sector where all schools are members of a trust is to be achieved.

When asked about how achievable this ambition is, only 4% felt that it was highly achievable, with most saying it was achievable with some challenges (34%) or achievable only with significant changes (39%).

The main barriers cited were persuading governing boards of maintained schools to relinquish autonomy (62%), loss of identity in a trust (53%) and financial pressures (37%) as being a significant barrier.

Lydia Michaelson-Yeates, Partner specialising in academy conversions, said: “School leaders identified significant barriers to conversion to academy status. Chief among these were concerns that joining a school trust could lead to an erosion of a school’s ethos, identity and cultural values. Alongside this, there was notable reluctance among maintained school governing bodies to relinquish autonomy.

“These concerns reflect a tension between the potential benefits of trust membership and a desire to preserve local accountability, institutional independence and a clearly defined sense of school identity.

“With the government now sharing a clear direction of travel for all schools to be part of a school trust, there’s work for school trusts in overcoming these challenges if they want to grow their organisations.”