Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the impact of relaxing staff to pupil ratios for early years education on children with Special Educational Needs.

The department is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for all children and as part of the ratio consultation it was important for the department to consider the possible impact proposals would have on different groups. Any potential impacts identified by respondents on people who share protected characteristics including children with Special Education Needs were considered.

The government trusts that setting managers know their children and their staff best, and fully supports the judgement of setting managers and practitioners to work at the ratios that are right for the individual needs of their staff and children. The changes to ratios will continue to be a statutory minimum requirement for settings, and there will be no obligation on providers to operate at the statutory minimums.

To support providers in meeting the needs of their children, the department is also investing an additional £204 million in 2023/24 to increase the hourly funding rate to providers, and £4.1 billion by 2027/28 to deliver a significantly expanded free hours offer. This sits alongside offer an Early Years Pupil Premium, through which providers can get up to £342 per year extra funding to support eligible children, including the most disadvantaged.

A full response to the consultation can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1142987/Childcare_regulatory_changes_government_consultation_response.pdf.