Special Educational Needs

(asked on 2nd March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to address the concerns raised by the report by Special Needs Jungle Education, Health & Care Plan annual review, published 10 December 2019, and in particular the findings relating to the low completion rates of statutory Education Health and Care Plan annual reviews by local authorities.


Answered by
Baroness Berridge Portrait
Baroness Berridge
This question was answered on 13th March 2020

The annual review process for Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 and the special educational needs and disability (SEND) Code of Practice, requires local authorities to ensure reviews are conducted within twelve months from the final EHC plan being in place, or within 12 months of the last review of the plan.

The department has sought to strengthen local area’s knowledge and understanding of their duties in relation to the completion of annual reviews. Between January and April this year, a series of regional workshops have been planned. A number of have already been delivered, with good levels of attendance from local authority education and social care teams, health teams from clinical commissioning groups, and parents. Part of the workshops include planning for improvements and this will be followed up through the department’s team of SEND advisers.

More broadly, we recognise that there are a range of concerns with the SEND system. We announced the SEND Review in September 2019 to ensure the system is working best for all families, and that support in different areas is consistent, available and joined up across health, care and education services.

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