Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the capacity of local authorities to meet the workforce requirements for the implementation of the SEND and Alternative Provision strategy.

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, published in March 2022, set out proposals for consultation, to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND and those who need alternative provision.

The Department for Education has been having regular meetings with Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) officials to discuss the findings from the SEND and AP green paper consultation. We continue to work with them to develop our policy proposals.

Department officials also work closely with DLUHC officials regarding the government’s work to support local authorities to manage their high needs systems sustainably in the immediate future. We have already made 14 Safety Valve agreements with local authorities to support the sustainable management of their high needs budgets for the benefit of children and young people and will work with up to a further 20 local authorities in the 2022/23 financial year. We are also currently working with 55 local authorities to address immediate pressures in their local systems, taking a diagnostic approach to helping them improve delivery of SEND services for children and young people, while ensuring services are sustainable.