Special Educational Needs: Disability

(asked on 8th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Let Us Learn Too and the Disabled Children’s Partnership’s SEND Money Survey, published on 7 February 2022, what steps he is taking to prevent families with disabled children from having to pay for essential support for their children’s development privately.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 21st February 2022

In July 2021 the government published the National Disability Strategy, setting out a range of commitments over supporting children and young people with disabilities in their education and preparation for adulthood.

The department is providing over £42 million during this financial year 2021-22 to continue funding projects to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This investment will ensure that specialist organisations around the country can continue to help strengthen local area performance, support families and provide practical support to schools and colleges. It will strengthen participation of parents and young people in the SEND system, ensuring they have a voice in designing policies and services and have access to essential support. This also includes £27.3 million in the financial year 2021-22 to support families on low incomes raising disabled or seriously ill children.

Additionally, councils will be funded £30 million for the next three years to set up more than 10,000 additional respite placements, helping to provide positive opportunities for disabled children and young people.

The department is conducting a review of the SEND system and looking at ways to make sure the system is more consistent, high quality, and integrated across education, health and care. The outcome of that review will be published as a green paper for full public consultation in the first quarter of this year.

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