Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the performance of local authorities in moving children with special education needs (SEN) statements onto Education, Health and Care plans under the new SEN Code of Practice.

From September 2014 local authorities in England were required to implement the Special Educational Need and Disability reforms.

The Department for Education’s advice to local authorities on Transition to the new 0 to 25 special educational needs and disability system (March 2015) sets out the groups of children and young people whose statements must be reviewed and transferred where appropriate to Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans during 2014/15. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/414952/SEND_Reforms_transitional_advice_March15.pdf

Every local authority has published an individual Local Transition Plan setting out the timings for transfers to the new system. Figures returned by local authorities and published in the Special Educational Needs in England Statistical First Release in May 2015. This information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen

The department expects that young people who are currently receiving support as a result of a Learning Difficulty Assessment (LDA) and who remain in further education or training during the transition period will be issued with an EHC plan if they request and need one.

The department has provided extensive support to local authorities over the preparation of EHC plans, including the publication of guidance and the provision of training. As part of this we commissioned the Council for Disabled Children (CDC), to work with relevant professionals to produce guidance and training material on the transition to adult social care. CDC published ‘The role of social care in implementing the Children and Families Act 2014’ in March 2015. This can be found here: http://www.councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/resources/the-role-of-social-care-in-implementing-the-children-and-families-act. The department is monitoring progress of transition in local areas closely, to determine what further support local authorities may need in order to undertake transfers effectively and to produce good quality EHC plans.

The Children and Families Act 2014 requires all local authorities to publish a Local Offer of the services and support available to children and young people in their area with special educational needs and disabilities. Detailed requirements are set out in chapter 4 of the relevant statutory guidance, the 0-25 SEND code of practice (January 2015). This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25

All local authorities have published a Local Offer. An important requirement of the Local Offer is that it should include the institutions offering provision for children and young people with SEN which the local authority would expect to draw upon. This will include specialist provision such as special schools, non-maintained special schools, independent special schools and specialist post-16 institutions which are either within the local area or where the local authority would expect to make placements. In addition, there is a statutory requirement to refer to the list of independent special schools and independent specialist colleges approved by the Secretary of State under Section 41 of the 2014 Act: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/section-41-secretary-of-state-approved-list

Responsibility for publishing and maintaining Local Offers lies with each local authority. The department is supporting local authorities to help make sure they meet all statutory requirements for their Local Offer, and that quality continues to improve.

In addition to producing their Local Offer, local authorities are under a statutory duty to provide children, young people and parents with information, advice and support. The government has boosted the support available to families by investing £30 million over two years to ensure there are independent supporters available in every local authority area.