Special Educational Needs

(asked on 16th December 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve health and social care services' (a) engagement with and (b) support for children and families as part of the SEND reforms.


Answered by
Claire Coutinho Portrait
Claire Coutinho
Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
This question was answered on 23rd December 2022

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper looks at the full range of the SEND system, spanning early years provision through to further education and encompassing education, health and care.

Underpinning the proposals is the creation of a new set of national SEND and AP standards. The proposal aims to improve clarity and drive national consistency in how needs are assessed, identified and met across education, health and care.

We are committed to better understanding the support that children and young people need from the specialist workforce, to support effective workforce planning. In the Green Paper, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) made a commitment to work with the Department for Education, NHS England and Health Education England to build the evidence base to assess the demand for the diagnostic and therapeutic workforce from children and young people with SEND.

We will provide further detail about how we plan to improve health and social care services when we publish our response to the Green Paper through our Improvement Plan early in 2023.

In February, we announced a new £30 million investment to provide short breaks over the next three years. Local areas can bid for a share of £30 million for the next three years to set up additional short break placements, helping to provide positive opportunities for disabled children and young people and to give family carers a break so they can look after vulnerable children better in the long-term.

The Care Quality Commission and Ofsted have jointly inspected areas since 2016. In 2023 they will begin an updated inspection framework with a renewed focus on whether local areas are delivering improved outcomes for children and young people.

We are committed to publishing an ambitious and detailed implementation strategy for children’s social care early in the new year. Our plans for children’s social care and SEND reform are being drawn up in parallel and we will continue to work closely with DHSC, so that reforms resulting from these reviews lead to a coherent system that works for all vulnerable children.

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