Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure continuity of (a) assessments and (b) support across local authorities for children of service personnel with special educational needs and disabilities when families relocate.

All those with statutory responsibilities towards children of service personnel with special education needs and disability (SEND), should ensure that the impact of their policies, administrative processes and patterns of provision do not disadvantage such children when families relocate.

Statutory guidance is clear that when a child moves home across local authority boundaries, the education, health and care plan must be transferred from the ‘old’ local authority to the ‘new’ local authority on the day of the move or within 15 working days from when the old local authority first becomes aware of the move. Upon receiving the plan, the new local authority must arrange the special educational provision set out in it, although a child may have to be placed in a school other than the one named on the plan if the distance of the move makes it impractical to send the child to the named school.