Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to update the SEND Code of Practice to in relation to the duties of schools supporting children with SEND to include Ofsted's terminology in a definition of off-rolling.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data his Department collects on outcomes achieved by disabled children, including those who have not been formally identified as having a special educational need.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The department collects data, via the school census, on pupils identified with a special educational need. This will include some pupils who have a disability, but the department does not collect data on pupils who have a disability but have not been identified with a special educational need.
The department collects and publishes a range of data on outcomes achieved by children, and the published data is generally broken down by a range of characteristics, including pupils identified with special educational needs. A summary of the data published by special educational needs is available in the following publication:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sen-analysis-and-summary-of-data-sources.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, where a local authority has failed, following a revisit by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, to make sufficient progress in improving its provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities, what steps his Department will take to involve local parents in decision-making on next steps.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
If a local area has failed to make sufficient progress following a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) revisit by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, local area leaders must, as a minimum, submit an updated action plan to the Department for Education, NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care. The action plan must be co-produced with partners and state how the local area will report on progress and impact, as well as how partners, including families, will be kept fully aware and informed of progress. The action plan will be published and a formal progress review meeting will take place within six months of the revisit report being published. The key partners involved, including the Parent Carer Forum, will be invited to attend this meeting.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, makes a case-by-case assessment regarding which actions to take following a local area SEND inspection. The outcomes of inspection reports – and particularly where local areas have not made sufficient progress following their revisit by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission - are key criteria in the Secretary of State’s consideration of the use of intervention powers.
The Secretary of State has asked Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission to design a programme of further local area SEND inspections to follow the current 5-year round. Discussions around the design and delivery of a possible second cycle are underway but no final decisions have yet been made.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether local area inspections of provision by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission for children with special educational needs and disabilities will continue beyond 2021.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
If a local area has failed to make sufficient progress following a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) revisit by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, local area leaders must, as a minimum, submit an updated action plan to the Department for Education, NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care. The action plan must be co-produced with partners and state how the local area will report on progress and impact, as well as how partners, including families, will be kept fully aware and informed of progress. The action plan will be published and a formal progress review meeting will take place within six months of the revisit report being published. The key partners involved, including the Parent Carer Forum, will be invited to attend this meeting.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, makes a case-by-case assessment regarding which actions to take following a local area SEND inspection. The outcomes of inspection reports – and particularly where local areas have not made sufficient progress following their revisit by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission - are key criteria in the Secretary of State’s consideration of the use of intervention powers.
The Secretary of State has asked Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission to design a programme of further local area SEND inspections to follow the current 5-year round. Discussions around the design and delivery of a possible second cycle are underway but no final decisions have yet been made.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria he will use in deciding whether to use his powers of intervention where a local authority has failed to make sufficient progress in improving its provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
If a local area has failed to make sufficient progress following a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) revisit by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, local area leaders must, as a minimum, submit an updated action plan to the Department for Education, NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care. The action plan must be co-produced with partners and state how the local area will report on progress and impact, as well as how partners, including families, will be kept fully aware and informed of progress. The action plan will be published and a formal progress review meeting will take place within six months of the revisit report being published. The key partners involved, including the Parent Carer Forum, will be invited to attend this meeting.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, makes a case-by-case assessment regarding which actions to take following a local area SEND inspection. The outcomes of inspection reports – and particularly where local areas have not made sufficient progress following their revisit by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission - are key criteria in the Secretary of State’s consideration of the use of intervention powers.
The Secretary of State has asked Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission to design a programme of further local area SEND inspections to follow the current 5-year round. Discussions around the design and delivery of a possible second cycle are underway but no final decisions have yet been made.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a bursary scheme to fund the training costs of new Teachers of the Deaf.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
I am determined that all children and young people, including those who are deaf or have a hearing impairment, receive the support they need to achieve the success they deserve.
Local authorities are best placed to judge local priorities and to make local funding decisions. It is therefore for local authorities, in consultation with local people and having regard to the range of statutory responsibilities placed on them, to determine the exact nature of provision in their areas, including services for supporting children and young people with hearing impairment.
The Whole School Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Consortium is being funded by the department to embed SEND into school improvement in order to equip the workforce to deliver high quality teaching across all types of SEND, including children and young people with hearing impairment.
I have met with the National Deaf Children’s Society and asked my officials to consider their proposal for a central bursary scheme for teachers of the deaf. They will report to me once they have collected all the relevant information.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to ensure that there are adequate numbers of teachers of the deaf to support deaf children, their families, and their education settings.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
I am determined that all children and young people, including those who are deaf or have a hearing impairment, receive the support they need to achieve the success they deserve.
Local authorities are best placed to judge local priorities and to make local funding decisions. It is therefore for local authorities, in consultation with local people and having regard to the range of statutory responsibilities placed on them, to determine the exact nature of provision in their areas, including services for supporting children and young people with hearing impairment.
The Whole School Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Consortium is being funded by the department to embed SEND into school improvement in order to equip the workforce to deliver high quality teaching across all types of SEND, including children and young people with hearing impairment.
I have met with the National Deaf Children’s Society and asked my officials to consider their proposal for a central bursary scheme for teachers of the deaf. They will report to me once they have collected all the relevant information.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in the (a) Scottish and (b) Welsh Governments on the adequacy of school fire safety standards.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department will engage with the devolved administrations, as appropriate, when developing policy areas. Officials have been in contact with the relevant school specialists in the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Governments to alert them to the review of Building Bulletin 100 (fire safety in schools).
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the loss of school facilities used by the wider community as a result of fire.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not assess the impact of the loss of school facilities on the wider community. The majority of fires in schools are restricted to the room of origin, with very few leading to the loss of facilities.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to prevent school fires breaking out as a result of hot works.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has produced guidance to assist schools in the safe management of maintenance activity that creates a significant risk of fire (hot works). These activities include plumbing activities using blow torches, and roof repair activities that use liquefied petroleum gas and bitumen burners.
This guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fire-risk-from-school-maintenance-or-building-works.