Special Educational Needs

(asked on 3rd November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure SEND specialists are available to schools to support pupils who require additional help through (a) the national tutoring programme and (b) other programmes.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 11th November 2020

The COVID-19 outbreak, and consequent disruptions, will have both long and short-term impacts on the education and wellbeing of children and young people. However, for some groups, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), we recognise that this impact is likely to be greater, and that additional support may be required.

We introduced a COVID-19 ‘Catch Up Premium’ worth £650 million to support mainstream and special schools in making up for lost teaching time. There is additional weighting for specialist settings, in recognition of the significantly higher per pupil costs they face. Headteachers will decide how this premium is spent. For example, this might be on educational psychologists, speech and language therapy or other activities required to support children in catching up. All schools should use the catch-up premium funding available to them as a total from which to prioritise support for particular pupils, including children with SEND or education, health and care plans (EHCPs), according to their needs. The Education Endowment Fund has published the National Tutoring Programme Guidance on effective interventions to support schools, which is available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/index.php?/covid-19-resources/national-tutoring-programme/.

Additionally, since 2018, the department has funded the National Association for Special Educational Needs on behalf of the Whole School SEND Consortium, for a programme of work to embed SEND into school practice. During the COVID-19 outbreak specifically, the Whole School SEND Consortium have run training sessions and developed resources for teachers and professionals supporting pupils with SEND to enable them to successfully return to and engage in school, and to support their wellbeing. Further information on the Whole School SEND Consortium can be found here: www.sendgateway.org.uk/whole-school-send.

More widely, where a pupil has provision specified within their EHCP, it remains the duty of the local authority and relevant health bodies to secure or arrange the delivery of this provision in the setting that the plan names. The department has been closely monitoring the provision of services and support for children with SEND during the COVID-19 outbreak and engaging with local authorities where there appear to be issues.

Reticulating Splines