Fund additional support for children who may have SEND
- Final Signatures: 32
We want the Government to fund additional support for families with children who may have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND), and are waiting for or going through an assessment process.
Found: Families whose children are being assessed for, or awaiting assessment for, special educational needs
Correspondence Sep. 19 2023
Committee: Education Committee (Department: Department for Education)Found: Correspondence to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing on
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to help ensure that new school buildings are designed so as to enable students with (a) physical disabilities, (b) mental disabilities and (c) autism spectrum conditions to be included in the (i) curriculum and (ii) life of the school; and what steps her Department has taken to assist schools to adapt existing buildings.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s ambition is for all children and young people, no matter what their special educational needs and disabilities are, to receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
All school building projects that are delivered by the department must meet the requirements set out in the department’s school building specification. The department publishes a range of guidance specifically for the construction of special schools, which support the provision of inclusive learning environments including access, acoustics and specialist Special Educational Needs provision. These are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/school-design-and-construction.
More generally, all new school buildings must meet the requirements of the Building Regulation’s Approved Document: M, which sets out the details on access to and use of buildings. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/access-to-and-use-of-buildings-approved-document-m.
The department does not publish specific guidance on how to adapt existing schools. Under the Equality Act 2010, schools must make reasonable adjustments to prevent pupils with special educational needs and disabilities being put at a substantial disadvantage. Additionally, under the Children and Families Act 2014, mainstream schools must use their best endeavours to make sure a child or young person who has special educational needs and disabilities, including those who are autistic, get the special educational provision they need.
To support the adaptation of existing buildings, the department has allocated over £1.5 billion of High Needs Provision Capital for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. This funding forms part of the department’s transformational investment of £2.6 billion in new high needs provision between 2022 and 2025. Local authorities can use this funding to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress her Department has made on implementing the policies in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, CP 800, published on 31 March 2023.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Backed by over £10.5 billion in 2024/25, which is an increase in the high needs budget of 60% over five years, the department’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan will ensure children and young people across England with SEND or in AP get high-quality, early support wherever they live in the country.
The department has a clear plan to ensure children and young people enjoy their childhood and achieve good outcomes. The department is delivering on this plan. The department has completed the following:
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure a smooth transition for students with special educational needs and disabilities from (a) key stage 2 to key stage 3 and (b) key stage 4 to key stage 5.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people have access to a world-class education that sets them up for life and supports them to achieve positive outcomes.
Mainstream schools and colleges should use their best endeavours to make sure a child or young person with special educational needs gets the special educational provision they need. This might include tailored support to prepare for transitions.
In addition, for those with an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plan, there must be a focus from year 9 onwards on preparing the young person for transitions as part of their plan’s annual review. Planning for the transitions should result in clear outcomes being agreed that are ambitious, stretching, and which are tailored to the needs and interests of the young person.
The department is developing good practice guidance to support consistent, timely, high-quality transitions for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and for those in alternative provision (AP). This will ultimately look at transitions between all stages of education from early years and will focus initially on transitions into and out of post-16 settings. This includes transitions into higher education, employment, adult services, and, for young people leaving AP at the end of key stage 4, building on learning from the recent Alternative Provision Transition Fund.
The department is working with the Department for Work and Pensions and key partners from the SEND and post-16 sectors, including the Association of Colleges and Natspec, to develop the guidance. The department is working with young people with different types of need, including those with and without EHC plans, to co-produce the guidance to ensure it improves experiences and outcomes. The department will also involve parents and carers.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to work with (a) schools and (b) local authorities to help (i) ensure adequate funding for SEND provision and (ii) promote inclusion in mainstream schools in London.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Mainstream schools in London are being allocated a total of £7.15 billion in the 2023/24 financial year. Of that, local authorities have identified £869 million as notional budgets, which act as a guide to how much schools might need to spend on their pupils with special educational needs (SEN). Where SEN support costs for an individual pupil are in excess of £6,000, schools can additionally access local authorities' high needs budgets, which are for children and young people with more complex needs. Local authorities in London have been allocated high needs funding amounting to £1.9 billion in 2023/24. This is set to increase to £2 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, meaning a cumulative increase of 29% per head over the three years from the 2021/22 allocations. By 2024/25, high needs funding will have increased by 60% over the five years since 2019/20, to a total of over £10.5 billion nationally.
As of March 2024, the department has published just under £850 million of further investment in places for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision. Spread over the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years, it forms part of the £2.6 billion the department has committed to investing in high needs capital between 2022 and 2025 and represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision. Between 2021/22 and 2024/25, London has been allocated just over £542 million. This is 20% of the total funding provided to local councils to support the provision of new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities or requiring alternative provision.
In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published in March 2023 following extensive consultation with schools and local authorities, the department set out its mission for more children and young people to have their needs met effectively in mainstream settings. To bring together local authorities, health and education partners across local systems to strategically plan and commission support for children and young people with SEND, the department is working with local authorities to create or strengthen local SEND and AP partnerships. To support authorities, the department is investing £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists and introducing a National Professional Qualification (NPQ) for special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) at leadership level.
School and multi-academy trust leaders should promote collaborative working and drive inclusive practices across local areas. The department’s expectations for high-quality, inclusive education are set out in the ‘High Quality Trust Framework’ and enforced through the inspections under Ofsted’s 2019 Education Inspection Framework.
The department is also investing in specific programmes designed to help schools develop their inclusive practice. For example, the Universal Services Programme helps the school and FE workforce to identify and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, earlier and more effectively. As part of the Programme, over 135,000 professionals have undertaken autism awareness training. And to support schools to create calm, safe and supportive environments for all pupils, the department has invested £10 million in the Behaviour Hubs programme.
Supporting children and young people with SEND is embedded in Initial Teacher Training (ITT) and the professional standards that teachers are expected to adhere to throughout their careers. The Teachers' standards define the minimum level of practice expected of all teachers This includes Teachers Standard 5, which requires all teachers to adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils, including those with SEND.
The government does not prescribe the curriculum of ITT courses. However, the mandatory ITT Core Content Framework (CCF) (2019) sets out the minimum entitlement of knowledge, skills and experiences that all trainees need to enter the profession in the best position possible to teach and support their pupils. This core content must be covered in full for all ITT courses leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
Once they have been awarded QTS at the end of their ITT course, all early career teachers are entitled to a new two-year induction underpinned by the Early Career Framework (ECF).
Following the ITT CCF and Early Career Framework (ECF) review in 2023, the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF), which was published in January 2024, contains significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND. The adaptive teaching content includes, for example, developing an understanding of different pupil needs, and learning how to provide opportunities for success for all pupils.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that children with special educational needs and disabilities have adequate educational support to achieve (a) GCSEs and (b) other qualifications.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department wants all children and young people to be able to reach their full potential and receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, mainstream schools and colleges must use their best endeavours to make sure a child or young person who has Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) gets the special educational provision they need. This includes monitoring the progress of children and young people ahead of formal examinations and providing support where needed, including arranging diagnostic tests where appropriate.
Access arrangements can be agreed with exam boards before an assessment for candidates with specific needs, including SEND, to help them access assessments to show what they know and can do without changing the demands of the assessment. The intention behind an access arrangement is to meet the needs of an individual candidate without affecting the integrity of the assessment.
The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) or equivalent for a school or college must lead on the access arrangements process, fully supported by teaching staff and members of the senior leadership team. SENCos are responsible for taking appropriate steps to gather an appropriate picture of need, demonstrate normal ways of working for candidates, and ensure that approved access arrangements are put in place for internal school tests, mock examinations and examinations.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of services for children with special educational needs and disabilities in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
A joint local area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspection of Lincolnshire was undertaken by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in October 2018. At the time, inspectors identified no significant areas of weakness in SEND services. The inspection covered all of Lincolnshire including South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Ofsted launched a new framework for area SEND inspections in January 2023. This framework introduced a continuous cycle of inspections, where each local area will have at least one full area SEND inspection within five years of the launch of the framework. Lincolnshire will be inspected under this framework in due course.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to introduce mechanisms for students with special educational needs and disabilities to request exemptions from mobile phone bans based on their educational needs.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
All schools should have a behaviour policy which is aligned with the school’s legal duties and standards relating to the welfare of children. As part of this policy, schools should develop a mobile phone policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality to mobile phones.
Exemptions may be required for children with specific special educational needs or disabilities, including users of assistive technology. Schools have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to take such steps as is reasonable to avoid substantial disadvantage to a disabled pupil caused by the school’s policies or practices. Allowing a disabled pupil access to their mobile phone during the school day, where it is necessary due to the nature of their disability, may be considered a reasonable adjustment and a failure to do so may be a breach of the school’s duty.
Headteachers remain responsible for deciding how to implement a mobile phone policy, taking into account the unique context of each school and its pupils. Headteachers should assess each case for adjustments and adaptations on its own merits.
The ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance contains practical advice for schools, including case studies, which consider how to ensure that the needs of all children are met while continuing to remove distractions in lessons and create an environment where children can focus on learning and building friendships.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the guidance entitled Free school meals: guidance for schools and local authorities, published on 31 January 2023, if she will publish revised guidance with information on the provision of free school meals for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
There are many pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) status that meet the eligibility criteria necessary for free school meals (FSM). The latest published statistics show that 41.1% of pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan and 37.5% of pupils on SEND support were eligible for FSM provision in 2023. Similarly, many children with disabilities but not Special Educational Needs will be eligible, and those rates are higher than the overall proportion of pupils eligible for FSM in England.
The standard food offering provided by schools will be suitable to the needs of many of these children. However, some pupils with additional needs may require special food provision or arrangements. All schools have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people, and they must make reasonable adjustments to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage. That means that a school cannot treat a pupil unfairly because of their disability.
The department will update its published guidance on FSM to make reference to the reasonable adjustments duty in order to heighten awareness about reasonable adjustments, such as meal provision, amongst schools, local authorities and families. This guidance will be made available in spring 2024.