Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) targeted funding, and (2) specialist training, they intend to provide to enable multi-discipline health teams and mainstream school staff to deliver tailored support and interventions for children with cerebral palsy.

The department wants every child to have the best start in life, with help available earlier and locally when families need it.

Children with the most complex needs will receive support through education, health and care (EHC) plans backed by Specialist Provision Packages. We are appointing an independent expert panel to develop the full packages in discussion with families and professionals working across education and healthcare.

We are investing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and integrated care boards, to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer. This is designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings by providing access to support from key services and health and specialist education practitioners including speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, educational psychologists (including assistant or trainees) and specialist teachers, both local authority based and those in specialist or Alternative Provision settings. This will benefit many children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including some children with cerebral palsy attending mainstream settings, by improving the support available within those settings.

Alongside this on 16 January the department announced a new training package, backed by £200 million of new funding, to ensure that all teachers, educators, teaching assistants, support staff and leaders across early years, schools and post-16 settings can be trained to support pupils with SEND.