Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to (a) support and (b) protect inclusive education strategies for high needs pupils.

The recent funding settlement means a significant investment in the support available for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) pupils within mainstream schools, as well as protecting support currently in place. It will enable us to transform the SEND system to make mainstream more inclusive, improve outcomes and stop parents having to fight for support.

To support this, we have created an Expert Advisory Group (EAG) for inclusion, led by Tom Rees, to provide advice and expertise to the department on how to improve the mainstream education experiences for children and young people with special educational needs.

In developing advice, the EAG have drawn from a wide range of inputs from across the sector, including a survey which has now closed, to gather insights from teachers and school leaders on best practices for inclusion in mainstream education.

Additionally, the department has established a neurodivergence task and finish group, chaired by Professor Karen Guldberg from Birmingham University, to make recommendations on how to best meet the needs of neurodivergent children and young people within mainstream education settings.