Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of SEND services in Sutton Coldfield constituency.

The constituency of Sutton Coldfield falls under Birmingham City Council.

A recent inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of the Birmingham Local Area Partnership’s arrangements for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) took place from 23 June 2025 to 27 June 2025. The report is not yet published.

The Ofsted and CQC inspection in June 2018 identified 13 areas of weakness. A revisit in May 2021 deemed that sufficient progress had been made in one area of weakness. The department issued a statutory direction in October 2021, requiring the local authority to take specific actions to improve their SEND provision and appointed a SEND commissioner to work with the local area. A SEND advisor has also been deployed to drive improvement.

Departmental officials continue to work closely with Birmingham City Council, and the commissioner reports that progress is evident and measurable.