Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has the Department made of how the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities will be met where those needs do not align with one of the proposed Specialist Provision Packages.

The Specialist Provision Packages will provide comprehensive, evidence-based support for children and young people with the most complex needs. The special educational needs and disabilities consultation includes a draft outline of seven Specialist Provision Packages, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-first/specialist-provision-packages. There is now an independent expert group in place, led by education and health co-chairs, to advise on what approaches, strategies, and tools should be included in the National Inclusion Standards and Specialist Provision Packages.

Once introduced, the Packages will be reviewed regularly by the independent panel.

The proposal is that, once introduced, the Packages will be based around the provision needed to support children and young people who share a similar profile of need, but broad enough to ensure that each individual child or young person will have their specific needs met through the provision they receive from the Package. This individualisation will be captured in their education, health and care (EHC) plan.

The Packages are designed to create a consistent, high-quality offer for children and young people with the most complex needs, wherever they live, ending the postcode lottery in support. They will support local authorities to commission provision and placements more strategically, and will provide the basis for the legal guarantee of provision set out in an EHC plan. Where children and young people have low-incidence needs, we will consider more specialist packages which might be delivered through regional commissioning arrangements.