Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to communicate with local authorities and parents in areas where National Standards for SEND provision are being trialled to make it clear that existing legislation including the (a) Equality Act 2010, (b) Children and Families’ Act 2014 and (c) SEND Code of Practice still apply.

The new National Standards will build on the comprehensive legal framework relevant to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) by clarifying what good evidence-based provision looks like, who is responsible for securing it and from what budgets.

Through the SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper, the department has identified how important it is that National Standards are evidence-based and that children, young people and their families are able to feed into the development process. We are setting up a steering group of cross sector representatives, that will include parent-carer representatives, to oversee the development of standards. We will test the National Standards in the context of our £70 million Change Programme to ensure they are iterated and set up for success.

The development of the National Standards may require updates to both the legislation on SEND and to the SEND Code of Practice. The department will publish the National Standards in full for consultation.