Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department will take steps to help ensure that the proposed increase in the timescales following an Education, Health and Care plan annual review will not have a negative impact on the support a child with complex needs receives.

From June to August 2022, the department consulted on proposals to improve the processes for reviewing education, health and care (EHC) plans.

The department proposed changes to the statutory duties, including a longer deadline for the issue of draft proposals to amend a plan. This was so that children and young people whose EHC plan is to be amended receive proposed amendments of the right quality, within a flexible and realistic deadline. This would help ensure that the needs of these children or young people continue to be met well, whilst allowing parents or the young person to appeal, in a timely way, the content of the final plan if need be.

The department is currently considering the responses to the consultation and will publish a response in due course.