Ministers believe that too many children in England are being classed as having special needs. They are proposing a new system which they say will help those in need but not muddy the waters with false and misleading classifications driven by schools' efforts to raise their positions in league tables.

Val Rudd, head teacher at Rosebrook Primary School in Stockton on Tees, told the Today programme that although 27% of the pupils at the school are on the register, they would still be able to meet the needs of the students under the government's changes.

They don't want to "label" children, she explains. "What we're doing is meeting the needs of each individual child".

Her concerns lay with smaller schools with smaller budgets, who might be affected by changes in the system.

Professor Sonia Blandford, chief executive of the education charity Achievement For All said that her charity will work at "bringing together smaller schools" so that they will be able to cope when the current system is scrapped.

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