Special Educational Needs

(asked on 14th October 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department is making on improving public accountability of services for children with special educational needs through published performance data.


Answered by
Edward Timpson Portrait
Edward Timpson
This question was answered on 21st October 2014

The Department for Education publishes a range of performance and attainment data from:

  1. Local authorities
  2. Early years settings
  3. Schools and colleges on children and young people with special educational needs and disability
  4. Local and national levels

Local authorities and their partners across education, health and social care are implementing the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms which came into force on 1 September this year. The Department is working closely with local authorities and local Parent Carer Forums to understand how local implementation of the Children and Families Act is progressing. Summary findings of an autumn implementation survey will be published before the end of the year. The Department will also publish local authority data on an annual basis, starting in summer 2015. This will include, for example, the number of conversions from statements to Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans and the number and percentage of new EHC Plans delivered within twenty weeks.

From September 2015, we expect local authorities will have made significant progress in embedding the reforms, and our focus will increasingly be on whether the new systems are leading to improved outcomes for children and young people.

We have asked Ofsted to consider what more needs to be done to ensure good quality delivery of the new system. Ofstedā€™s recommendations will be published shortly.

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