Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that there are sufficient qualified staff to deal with Education, Health and Care Plans.

As part of the reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, the department is currently testing measures to deliver a nationally consistent Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan system and improve the quality and speed with which support is put in place. The department is taking steps to increase the capacity of the workforce supporting children and young people with SEND, but it is the responsibility of individual employers, including local authorities, schools and healthcare settings, to plan their staffing levels in line with their local service priorities.

Educational psychologists have a critical role, providing statutory input into EHC plan assessments and advising the school workforce on how to support children and young people with SEND. The department is investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from 2024.

Since 2020, the department has increased the number of educational psychologist trainees that we fund to over 200, from 160 per year. As these larger cohorts complete their studies, they will join the workforce to support local authority educational psychology services, including contributing to EHC plan assessments.

Local authority caseworkers play a vital role in supporting families to navigate the system and ensuring they have good experiences, including through the EHC plan process. To build capacity, the department is providing legal training for local authority caseworkers this year and will consider new guidance to deliver a responsive and supportive casework service.

The department is committed to a joint Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care approach to SEND workforce planning. The departments aim to complete this by 2025. This will build on the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan published in June 2023 which sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years.

To support the supply of more speech and language therapists and occupational therapists to the NHS, since September 2020 all eligible undergraduate and postgraduate degree students have been able to apply for a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year, with further financial support available for childcare, accommodation, and travel costs.