Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that local authorities comply fully with the Children and Families Act 2014 in the cases of children with education, health and care plans; and what action they are taking to ensure that there are no disincentives, both in terms of funding and concerns over their position on league tables, for schools to be inclusive and to accept children with special educational needs.

To ensure local authorities comply fully with their obligations under the Children and Families Act (2014), including on education, health and care plans, we introduced new local area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspections by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in 2016. All local areas will be inspected by 2021. These inspections do not give a pass/fail judgement. They instead identify areas of strength and where improvement is required, including asking an area to produce a Written Statement of Action if there are significant concerns. Where we have concerns with a local area’s performance, we work with partners, including NHS England, to support and challenge the area to improve.

The inspection reports have proved a catalyst for local change, both where Written Statements of Action have been required and where they have not. Local authorities and their health partners have embraced the process and used inspection findings to prioritise areas for improvement.

In terms of ensuring schools are inclusive, the Children and Families Act (2014) reinforced the presumption of mainstream education for children with SEND. The attached SEND Code of Practice provides detailed guidance to schools about how to support children with SEND. The new Ofsted common inspection framework, introduced from September 2019, emphasises the need for leaders to offer high-quality, inclusive education and training to all.

We launched a call for evidence on how the special educational needs funding system operates in May 2019 to help us understand how the current available funding is distributed, and what improvements to the financial arrangements could be made in future.