26th June 2026 • My Family Our Needs

After outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday, Makerfield MP Andy Burnham remains the front-runner to become the next Labour leader. But how would his policies differ and what would he mean for SEND?

As the former Mayor of Greater Manchester and recent winner of the by-election in Makerfield for the Labour party, Burnham’s victory speech saw him call for changes to the education system so that it ‘offers a path for everybody’.  

In exclusive interviews with The I Paper and PoliticsHome, Burnham discussed what he could do for SEND as the new PM. 

Burnham made clear his wishes to overhaul support for SEND. Whilst talking with The I Paper, he warned that children ‘find their needs are not met and they drift away from the labour market’. 

He told PoliticsHome that the SEND system should start moving away from the use of education, health and care plans (EHCPs), in a way that ‘doesn’t destabilise or frighten’ those in the system, arguing that they add ‘much greater fragmentation to an already fragmented landscape’.

In contrast, Keir Starmer’s Government announced their proposed reforms to EHCPs due to rising costs and inefficiencies in the existing system, in February. This overhaul stated that EHCPs would be reserved for the most complex cases.

Burnham has also been supportive of ministers trying to boost inclusion and have more children with SEND in mainstream schools.  

Regarding funding SEND provision, Burnham stated that SEND reforms ‘cannot clearly be cost-driven’ but argued that the funding the system currently has ‘could be spent much better’.  

He also criticised the secondary-to-university pipeline and how other routes to employment are neglected.

Burnham went on to claim that young people with SEND have little support when looking for employment after they leave school. In his victory speech, he expressed his desire to create an educational system for everyone, where both academic and technical education are seen as equal.  

Burnham, whilst in discussion with PoliticsHome last year, said that the Government should ‘focus relentlessly on the voices of those young people, their families and what they are looking for, and just follow that and proceed with care’. 

Burnham’s wishes to make changes to the education system, especially when it comes to SEND education, are clear.

With no other opponents currently running for leadership of the Labour party, in just over three weeks time, Burnham could become Britain’s new PM, when his proposed changes and approaches to the SEND system will be closely observed.

In other news, a new independent report states that SEND reforms can improve children’s outcomes but the existing system remains ‘vulnerable’.

Featured image by European Committee of the Regions under the Creative Commons License.