Dad warns SEND reforms are pushing already-stretched carers to breaking point

As proposed SEND and EOTAS reforms dominate conversation among families of children with special educational needs, a Hampshire father is warning that one of the most urgent consequences is going almost unspoken of: the toll all this uncertainty is adding on carers themselves who already live under chronic stress.

Ricky Du Plessis, from Overton, says the reform debate has piled a whole new layer of stress and anxiety onto parents, teachers and carers who were already carrying a heavy, largely invisible, but life-changing load. "These families, like mine, live with chronic, inescapable stress every day," he said. "The reforms have stacked acute panic and uncertainty on top of that, and sustained stress like this is a serious risk factor, not just for burnout, but also declining physical health and even mental illness - we're talking about the wellbeing of the very people every child with special needs depends on and it’s under siege."

Ricky speaks from experience. He is dad to a young boy with a level-3 autism diagnosis and who struggles with associated sensory, social and communication challenges. Ricky describes caregiving as the most relentless stress he has faced, but rather than burning out, he found he was unexpectedly able to carry the load and traced the difference to the years spent improving his own metabolic health before his son's needs emerged – an unlikely but increasingly evidence-based advantage.

He now points to metabolic psychiatry, an emerging scientific field exploring the link between physical and mental health, as a genuinely different way of thinking about the mind-body connection and a revolutionary new way to build resilience even under chronic stress.

The idea, he explains, is that when you can't remove or escape the source of stress, the most powerful lever left is building your own biological capacity to withstand it – it’s the difference between breaking or becoming anti-fragile.

On Tuesday 11 August 2026, Ricky explored this as the keynote speaker at Mind Circles Talks in London, in a session titled "Why the Same Stress Breaks One Person and Builds Another." He is now hoping to bring the message to SEND families and professionals across Hampshire.

Ricky, who is also the author of Conquering King Stomach, added: "I'm not advocating from the outside - I'm living it and it helps."