Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures her Department is implementing to improve support for children in mainstream schools who have special educational needs and disabilities.

The government has been clear that a more inclusive education system is needed to give children and young people opportunities they need to achieve and thrive. All schools have a duty to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Our new RISE teams will work with mainstream schools to help them become more inclusive places as one of four priority areas for improvement. Settings will be held to account for their support for pupils with SEND through Ofsted, who are focusing on inclusion in their new approach to inspection. Their renewed education inspection framework sets out how leaders should be aware of and responsive to some pupils’ increased likelihood of needing help, including those with SEND, and should ensure appropriate reasonable adjustments for pupils with disabilities.