The government has today published its much-awaited Schools White Paper - Every Child Achieving and Thriving. The headline funding is positive and there is just as much to be celebrated in the detail.

This is an ambitious plan to put inclusion at the heart of education - something which we have long been calling for and which will bring much needed change for children and families.

£7bn over three years is a fair package to tackle the scale of the problem and set the government, schools, local authorities and families back on the front foot.

£1.6bn for universal support through schools, backed by national inclusion standards and accountability is absolutely spot on and chimes with our recent briefing paper's recommendations. Coupled with Individual Support Plans for all children with SEND on a statutory footing, and £1.8bn for Experts at Hand, this is a robust package to ensure children no longer have to rely on their parents' ability to fight the system to get basic support in school.

Estimates from DfE suggest this won't help to reduce the role of EHCPs until 2033/34 - a rightly staggered pace of reform that should reassure parents and demonstrates a brave commitment to invest now to save later.

And while much of the attention has been on SEND reform, the ambition to halve the disadvantage gap and to reform the way that funding is targeted to disadvantaged pupils are positive - though we will continue to push for Pupil Premium to be restored.

The paper rightly acknowledges that the solutions to the SEND crisis don't just sit with schools. Investment in an Inclusive Early Years Fund and a further £200m for SEND support in Best Start Family Hubs will be invaluable - and brings the running total for this national network of hubs to £900m, even closer to the £1.2bn we called for ahead of the Spending Review.

While the White Paper could have gone further in reforms to accountability, there is big potential in the new proposed model of local partnership and shared accountability. We called for a stronger emphasis on local/regional accountability and partnership in our Everyone Included report last year - calling for partnerships to stop children falling through the gaps, and recognising that children living in deprivation in London still get far better outcomes in education than their peers across the country. There will be much to learn from the place-based models planned with Mission North East and Mission Coastal.

We would have welcomed a stronger role and plan from DHSC for the mental health crisis that holds many kids back in schools - and while there is scope to push this further through the Experts at Hand funding, we hope to see stronger plans from DHSC following the SEND consultation.

Overall this is a package worth waiting for and strong enough, if implemented well, to command the trust of schools, local authorities and families alike.

Read the Centre for Young Lives' briefing paper "Making sure every child can achieve and thrive in education" here.

Access the White Paper and SEND consultation here.