More from this theme Recent articles Councils will be given top marks by the government if their SEND reform proposals include “little to no” plans to increase special school or alternative provision capacity, it has emerged. Documents seen by Schools Week also reveal the Department for Education’s threat to revoke council SEND powers if they “persistently fail”, including unprecedented action of transferring responsibilities to a trust. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson will sign off on councils’ “local SEND reform plans”, which they must submit in exchange for the government writing off 90 per cent of their historic SEND deficits. These plans will help to drive forward the DfE’s SEND reforms to make mainstream schools more inclusive. Documents sent to councils this week reveal the government will use a “quality assessment” framework to judge the plans, with four ratings from “requirements not met” to “exceeds requirements”. The best areas have to go beyond “minimum expectations” with a “comprehensive, well-articulated” response that “demonstrates a strong understanding and effective development of the reform strategy”. To achieve top marks on …