Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has considered ensuring that Inclusion Bases have access to appropriately trained specialist staff to meet the needs of the children and young people they support.

The department’s guidance on inclusion bases in schools sets the expectation that curriculum content and interventions should be led by a teacher. Where specialist input is required, such as therapeutic, pastoral or medical support, this should be led by an appropriately qualified professional.

We are providing around £1.8 billion over the next 3 years to enable local area partnerships, including local authorities and integrated care boards, to work together to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer. This will support inclusion bases and strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings by improving access to universal and targeted support from key services, healthcare professionals and specialist education practitioners.