Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the document entitled Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, published on 2 March 2023, whether she plans to provide additional funding to support services to deliver the National Special Educational Needs and Alternative Provision Standards.

In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, the department set out the mission for more children and young people to have their needs met effectively in mainstream settings, reducing reliance on education, health and care plans to access support.

We will improve mainstream education through setting standards for early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will include clarifying the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings, who is responsible for securing the support, and from what budgets. This will give parents confidence and clarity on how their child’s needs will be met.

The department wants to ensure National Standards are evidence-based, deliverable, and support financial sustainability. We will test our work with a wide range of stakeholders across education, health, and social care, including to consider the resources required to deliver the National Standards.

The department will embed development of standards in our £70 million Change Programme to ensure the standards can be tested, iterated, and set up for success. We will publish a significant proportion of the National Standards by the end of 2025.