Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage the (a) provision and (b) use of (i) accessible and (ii) free CPR training resources in schools in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All state funded schools, including those in Yeovil, are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education curriculum in relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) education. This includes how to deal with common injuries, call the emergency services and administer CPR and understand the purpose of defibrillators.
Schools have the autonomy to decide how they teach CPR and which resources to use, often choosing to use expert organisations to deliver additional content. The department does not monitor this as schools decide what to adopt in their local areas, choosing lesson plans and materials that are relevant to them.
Ofsted are responsible for inspecting schools’ RSHE provision as part of their personal development judgement.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of CPR training in schools in (a) Yeovil constituency (b) Somerset.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All state funded schools, including those in Yeovil, are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education curriculum in relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) education. This includes how to deal with common injuries, call the emergency services and administer CPR and understand the purpose of defibrillators.
Schools have the autonomy to decide how they teach CPR and which resources to use, often choosing to use expert organisations to deliver additional content. The department does not monitor this as schools decide what to adopt in their local areas, choosing lesson plans and materials that are relevant to them.
Ofsted are responsible for inspecting schools’ RSHE provision as part of their personal development judgement.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support (a) schools and (b) Somerset Council to encourage the recruitment and retention of Special Educational Needs Coordinators.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special and alternative provision schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
The funding announced at the last Spending Review means a significant investment in the support available for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) pupils within mainstream schools. This will support the government’s plan to deliver an excellent, inclusive education for every child, with a world class curriculum and highly trained, expert teachers.
The special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) must be a qualified teacher, or the head teacher, working at the school. On 1 September 2024, the government introduced a new mandatory leadership level National Professional Qualification (NPQ) for SENCOs. The NPQ ensures SENCOs receive high quality, evidence-based training and equips them with the knowledge and skills to work with other leaders to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome, safe and that they belong. Since going live, over 10,500 members of the school workforce have started their SENCO NPQ journey.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help schools in (a) Yeovil constituency and (b) Somerset Council maintain external specialist (i) educational psychologists and (ii) therapists.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Educational psychologists play a critical role in the support available to children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). That is why we are already investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts, starting their studies in 2024 and 2025. This is in addition to the £10 million currently being invested in the training of over 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.
As these trainees complete their studies, they will join the workforce to support local authority educational psychology services, including contributing to statutory assessments.
The department is also working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to ensure that a child's legal right to special educational needs support will be included in the upcoming whitepaper.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
We will build a system which is grounded in evidence, identifies and supports need at the earliest opportunity, and ensures families can secure support swiftly without a fight. There will always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with SEND.
We are continuing to engage closely with children, parents and experts as we develop plans to ensure all children and young people get the outcomes and life chances they deserve.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve the quality of special educational needs and disabilities provision in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department continues to support improvements in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision in Somerset, including in Yeovil.
This financial year, Somerset Council received £8.4 million through the High Needs Provision Capital Allocation to expand specialist provision and improve accessibility in mainstream schools.
Six primary schools in Yeovil are also participating in the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme. This initiative brings together health and education professionals, and expert parent carers, to strengthen whole school SEND provision, upskill staff, and improve outcomes for neurodivergent pupils.
The department and NHS England continue to engage with the Somerset SEND partnership and are occasional observers to their SEND partnership board to support system-wide improvement.
We also support educational outcomes through academy trust oversight and regional improvement for standards and excellence initiatives.
The government’s ambition is that all children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to fund inclusive education in England beyond the funding allocated in (a) the Autumn Budget 2024 and (b) March 2025.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
In the 2025 Spending Review, we announced that funding for schools is increasing by £4.2 billion by 2028/29 compared to 2025/26. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase on the core schools budget, which will take per-pupil funding to its highest ever level and enable us to transform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.
The funding announced at the Spending Review means a significant investment in the support available for pupils with SEND within mainstream schools. We are continuing to engage closely with children, parents and experts as we develop plans to ensure all children get the outcomes and life chances they deserve. We will be setting out further steps later this year.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to draw on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to define inclusive education.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special and alternative provision schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
The department is continuing to engage closely with children, parents and experts as we develop plans to ensure all children get the outcomes and life chances they deserve.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to publish a definition of inclusive education.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special and alternative provision schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
The department is continuing to engage closely with children, parents and experts as we develop plans to ensure all children get the outcomes and life chances they deserve.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support (a) schools and (b) local authorities to provide education, care and health plans for children with special educational needs in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The duty to conduct education, health and care (EHC) needs assessments, and to issue EHC plans if required, rests with the local authority.
The department monitors and works closely with local authorities that have issues with the EHC needs assessment and plan process. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make improvements, we ensure that the cause of problems is identified and an effective recovery plan is implemented.
A joint local area inspection of Somerset’s special educational needs and disabilities services, undertaken by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) in March 2020, identified nine areas of significant weakness. Following actions taken, the CQC and Ofsted revisited in November 2022 and confirmed that sufficient progress had been made in seven areas, including the timeliness and quality of EHC plans. Somerset produced an Accelerated Progress Plan to address the two remaining areas. With specialist support from special educational needs and disabilities advisors, sufficient progress was made on these areas and the plan was stepped down in February 2025.