Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that young disabled people are able to participate in work experience.

We want all young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to be able to access high quality external work placements. This is so they can benefit from real life work experience in the same way as any other student.

The Government is aware that SEND students may require more support when embarking on a work experience placement. We have recently launched a work placements Capacity and Delivery Fund which will receive £74 million in additional funding from April 2018. This will help providers boost their capacity to provide work placements from 2018/19.

We expect providers to use some of this fund, alongside other available funding (e.g., High Needs Funding), to provide additional support and any reasonable adjustments within the workplace. This will enable students with SEND to access the same quality of provision as their peers.