After last week, UK ministers should know this: a huge rebellion is coming we will fight for our children's rights | John Harris

"There are more than 1.7 million children and young people in England's schools who are recognised as having special educational needs and disabilities (or Send). When you factor in their parents and carers, it highlights the huge number of people who anxiously watch this area of policy. All of them know that the systems those kids depend on are dysfunctional and broken. And they are also keenly aware of something else: that whereas their experiences once tended to be ignored and overlooked, they have now crossed from the online world into Radio 4's Woman's Hour, The One Show, Good Morning Britain and all the rest, as a huge conversation about the politics of all this gets louder and louder."

"Which brings us to another big figure. Around 640,000 children and young people with Send currently have an education, health and care plan (endless acronyms are an in-built part of the special needs universe these are known as EHCPs). These documents are the responsibility of local authorities and, in theory, they set out the specific help and support individual kids need as a matter of legally enforceable rights: their numbers have gone up in recent years chiefly because, in an endlessly squeezed school system, they are often the only way of securing dependable help. Getting an EHCP is usually a grind"

More than 1.7 million children and young people in England are recognised as having special educational needs and disabilities, and their parents and carers form a large, anxious constituency. Many families view the systems those children depend on as dysfunctional and broken. Media coverage has expanded from online forums to national outlets, intensifying public debate. Rumours and anticipation of a legislative white paper have heightened concern. The education secretary expresses aims for greater mainstream inclusion and more timely, effective support, but vagueness and worrying signals unsettle families. Around 640,000 children hold EHCPs, which are local-authority documents meant to guarantee legally enforceable support, and obtaining them is often arduous.

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