Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on early intervention for neurodivergent children with emerging mental health needs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department regularly engages with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to ensure children and young people, including those who are neurodivergent, can access the support they need.
We are working with the NHS to expand access to specialist support and are providing £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and integrated care boards, to develop an Experts at Hand offer in every area. This will give settings access to advice, training and expertise from professionals such as speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, educational psychologists and specialist teachers, helping staff identify needs earlier and respond effectively so children receive support without unnecessary delays.
Alongside this, Mental Health Support Teams will be expanded to every school and college in England by 2029 supported by £13 million pilot to enhance staff training for neurodivergent and social/emotional needs.
We continue to work closely with DHSC on the forthcoming mental health strategy, due later this year.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of access to swimming and water safety education for primary school pupils.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Swimming and water safety are vital life skills, and every child should have the opportunity to learn to swim and know how to keep themselves safe around water before they leave primary school.
The PE national curriculum makes specific reference to swimming and water safety, stating that all primary pupils must learn to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres, use a range of strokes effectively and perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.
Our reforms to the PE curriculum will ensure there is a clear emphasis on swimming and water safety, and our new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network will bring the expertise of national governing bodies, including Swim England, directly into schools.
In addition, we have made changes to statutory requirements for relationships, sex and health education in both primary and secondary to ensure all pupils are taught about the water safety code, supporting them to be safe in different types of water.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions her Department has had with Ofqual on ensuring that grade boundaries fairly reflect variations in the difficulty of A Level examination papers.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Each year, exam boards review a range of evidence when setting ground boundaries, including how students performed and the level of difficulty of the paper. If a paper is found to be more difficult than in previous years, grade boundaries will be set to reflect that. This established process is designed to ensure that students receive results that fairly reflect their knowledge and skills and that standards remain comparable across different exam series.
Ofqual, as the independent regulator, oversees exam boards to ensure that, over time, it is no more difficult to achieve a given grade in a subject from one year to the next, or between exam boards.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to provide local authorities with funding for the training and capacity required by SEND Information, Advice and Support Service.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, all local authorities are legally required to provide a special educational needs and disabilities information, advice and support service (SENDIASS). SENDIASS services provide impartial, confidential, and legally based information, advice and support across education, health and social care. The department currently funds the training and network support and wellbeing programme for SENDIASS across England through our participation contract. We also fund a free national helpline offering independent advice and guidance to parents and carers, working closely with local SENDIASS.
We are increasing investment in the national helpline and, recognising the importance of local provision, we are also increasing investment in local information and advice services to improve service quality through enhanced training and better support families over the next three years.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what processes her Department has put in place to monitor the use of funding intended to improve SEND inclusion in mainstream school settings.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
In February, we announced the £1.6 billion Inclusive Mainstream Fund which will provide mainstream education settings over £500 million funding per year over the next three years to support them to become inclusive by design.
We will place conditions on this funding to make sure schools spend it on improving inclusion for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This will include publishing an Inclusion Strategy that reports on how they are deploying their resources for SEND.
We will publish guidance for school leaders on how to develop an Inclusion Strategy in due course.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Specialist Provision Packages are co-produced with (a) children and young people and (b) families.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Specialist Provision Packages will be nationally defined, evidence-based packages of support for children and young people whose requirements cannot be met in mainstream settings, even with enhanced special educational needs (SEN) support. Packages will support local authorities to commission provision and placements more strategically and will provide the basis for the legal guarantee of provision set out in an education, health and care plan.
An independent expert panel will oversee development, drawing on evidence from academics, practitioners, and health and care professionals.
The panel will also engage with stakeholders to make sure their recommendations are informed by a wide range of views and lived experience, including a parental engagement group.
Packages will be developed by sector experts, including specialist and mainstream headteachers, multi-academy trust leaders, local authority commissioners, and specialist practitioners such as educational psychologists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists.
The department will actively involve parents and families in testing and refining the packages.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Education Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS) is available as part of the continuation of SEND support where a child cannot be educated in school.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s consultation, “SEND reform: putting children and young people first”, proposes the introduction of Specialist Provision Packages for all children and young people with complex needs, including those children and young people whose needs are currently met through Education Other Than At School (EOTAS) packages of support.
After a 12-week consultation period, including over 200 engagement events, meetings and roundtables, the department’s consultation has now closed. We are carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation and continuing to engage widely on our proposals.
As part of that continued engagement, we intend to publish a consultation on the use of EOTAS provision in the coming weeks. It is crucial that we get support for EOTAS children and young people right, particularly given their often complex needs. This consultation will seek views to ensure we meet those specific needs, and that these children and young people benefit from the inclusive education we want for all.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what processes her Department will put in place to ensure children, young people and families remain involved in SEND decision-making where responsibility is assumed by the Department from a local authority.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, local authorities are statutorily responsible for decisions relating to special educational needs (SEN), both in managing the ‘Local Offer; of services and provision for SEN and in decisions relating to individual children and young people’s Education, Health and Care plans (EHCP). Local authorities must work in co-operation with children, young people and their parents in fulfilling their statutory duties.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans for decisions on Individual Support Plans to be within the scope of (a) the First-tier Tribunal (SEND) or (b) another independent adjudication route.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Individual Support Plans (ISPs) will provide a record of need and provision for all children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). They will allow settings to work alongside parents, providing a single, consistent record of what support has been tried, what has worked and what needs to change.
Under our proposals, ISPs will not be in scope for the SEND Tribunal nor for any other independent adjudication route. Where there are concerns about provision, parents and young people would be able to raise these directly with the setting, including through the improved schools complaints process where necessary.
We will seek to strengthen the school complaints system with the inclusion of an appropriate, independent SEND specialist such as a SENCO, MAT inclusion director, or senior school manager, on a panel, if the complaint cannot be resolved by the school’s senior management team or head teacher.
The SEND Tribunal remains an important legal backstop for the most important Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan decisions. Families will be able to appeal the most important decisions around needs assessment, eligibility for a specialist provision package, the type of package, the placement and outcome of an EHC plan review.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what arrangements will be in place to provide expert advice on children’s mental health alongside Experts at Hand for SEND.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is investing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and Integrated Care Boards, to develop a new Experts at Hand offer. This offer is designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings by providing access to support from key services and health and specialist education practitioners.
The government is expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to cover 60% of schools this year and we will continue to expand until we reach universal coverage by 2029/30. These teams will be coordinated with Experts at Hand, and should together form a ‘team around the setting’, ensuring timely access to the right support through a coordinated, multi-agency approach.
Where appropriate, local areas are also expected to commission specialist settings, including special schools and alternative provision, to provide outreach and share their expertise, drawing on existing specialist support including mental health provision.
The department is expanding MHSTs to provide early mental health support. As of March 2025, 52% of pupils (70% in secondary schools) were supported, with further data for 2025–26 to be published.
The government has further delivered its manifesto commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers three years ahead of schedule, increasing capacity across services.