Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the impact of the covid-19 outbreak on the on the attainment of SEND pupils.

Understanding the impact of COVID-19 disruption on the attainment and progress of all pupils, is a key research priority for the government. The Department have commissioned Renaissance Learning to provide a baseline assessment of lost learning for pupils in schools in England and monitor progress over the course of the 2020/21 academic year. The latest interim findings from this research were published on 4 June and are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupils-progress-in-the-2020-to-2021-academic-year-interim-report.

In Autumn 2020, primary aged special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) pupils experienced a learning loss of 14.8 scaled score points in reading, compared with 17.1 points for pupils without an identified SEND. There was no significant difference in learning loss between pupils with and without SEND in reading for secondary aged pupils, or maths for primary aged pupils. The Department will be using the research to further understand the continued impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on lost learning and education recovery. The next phase of the analysis will allow us to assess the impact of disruption to education between Autumn 2020 and Summer 2021 by pupil characteristics. The full report will be published once the study is completed in October 2021.