Apr. 23 2024
Source Page: I. Universal Credit guidance April 2024 [update of previous guidance, deposited Oct 2023, DEP2023-0791]. 204 docs. II. Letter dated 15/04/2023 from Jo Churchill MP to to the Deposited Papers Clerk regarding documents for deposit in the House libraries. Incl. file list at Annex 1. 9p.Found: • single parents with at least one dependent child living in the same househo ld • adults with special
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support (a) pre-school, (b) primary school and (c) secondary school-aged children living in poverty other than through the provision of free school meals.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Spreading opportunity and ensuring every child can reach their potential no matter their background or where they live remains a key priority for the department. The department has a range of support in place for pupils, families and schools.
Low-income families and children experiencing other forms of disadvantage can qualify for 15 hours free early education for 2 year olds, a year before all children become eligible for 15 hours at ages 3 and 4. These entitlements support children’s development and helps prepare them for school.
Within schools, the department has consistently taken steps to help economically disadvantaged pupils, including improving the quality of teaching and curriculum resources, strengthening the school system and providing targeted support where needed. Underpinning this is pupil premium, worth over £2.9 billion this year. In 2024/25, the department has targeted a greater proportion of schools National Funding Formula towards disadvantaged pupils than ever before; 10.2% (over £4.4 billion) of the formula has been allocated according to deprivation in 2024/25.
To offer children from low-income families a free nutritious breakfast, the department is investing up to £35 million in the National School Breakfast Programme until the end of July 2025. This funding is reaching up to 2,700 primary and secondary schools in disadvantaged areas to better support attainment, wellbeing and readiness to learn.
Since 2021, the department has also provided more than £200 million of funding every year to local authorities across England for holiday provision for school-aged children from reception to year 11 (inclusive) who receive benefits-related free school meals and other families that most need it. The department has also published statutory guidance on the cost of school uniform to ensure uniform is affordable for all families.
Family hubs are a one stop shop for families to get the help they need. They provide services for children of all ages, or between 0 to 19 or 0 to 25 for families with children who have special educational needs and disabilities, with a great Start for Life offer at their core.
To support families with the cost of living in recent years, the government has provided one of the most generous support packages in Europe. The total support over 2022 to 2025 to help households and individuals with higher bills amounts to £108 billion, which is on average £3,800 per UK household.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children with SEND are provided with the (a) educational and (b) wider support required by their education, health and care plan in school.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department shares the ambition that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) should receive the vital support they need across Education, Health and Care (EHC). As set out in the Children and Families Act 2014, the local authority has a legal duty to ensure that the special educational provision specified in an EHC plan is delivered. The department also has a number of measures in place to ensure that children receive the educational and wider support they need.
Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with SEND, the department works with them using a set of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses. The department is also investing heavily in the SEND system, including £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to fund new special and alternative provision (AP) places and improve existing support, including the announcement of 41 new special free schools.
The department is also taking steps to improve the SEND system in the longer term, so that EHC plans can be issued as quickly as possible when needed and enable children and young people to access the support they require. In March 2023, the government set out its plans to reform and improve the SEND system through its SEND and AP Improvement Plan. This plan commits to establishing a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes and are well prepared for adulthood and employment. The department is currently testing measures which it believes will make the biggest improvements to both the quality of plans, the experience of getting a plan and the quality and speed with which support is put in place.
The department is strengthening accountability across the system so that everyone is held to account for supporting children and young people. This includes the new Ofsted and Care Quality Commission Area SEND inspection framework, which gives more prominence to the quality integration and commissioning of EHC services, and a national and local dashboard, which gives parents the opportunity to monitor the performance of their local systems.
If a child or young person does not receive the support detailed in their EHC plan, the young person or parent can raise their concern with the school or local authority directly. Families can appeal to the First-Tier SEND Tribunal if they are unhappy with a local authority’s decision regarding an EHC assessment or plan. The Tribunal can also hear appeals and make non-binding recommendations about health and social aspects of EHC plans.
Apr. 22 2024
Source Page: I. List of ministerial responsibilities. 88p. II. List of non-ministerial departments and executive agencies. 22p. III. Letter dated 19/04/2024 from Alex Burghart MP to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding documents for deposit, and copying them for deposit in the House libraries. 1p.Found: List of non-ministerial departments and executive agencies. 22p. III.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to provide training to teaching assistants on (a) autism and (b) other neuro-diverse conditions.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government values and appreciates the dedication, professionalism and hard work of teaching assistants (TAs), and the department knows the valuable contribution they make to pupils’ education alongside excellent teachers, particularly when supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Reaching over 70% of schools and further education (FE) colleges, the Universal Services programme will help the school and FE workforce to identify and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, earlier and more effectively.
The department’s Universal Services contract brings together SEND-specific continuous professional development (CPD) and support for the school and FE workforce to improve outcomes for children and young people. The contract offers autism awareness training and resources delivered by the Autism Education Trust (AET). Over 135,000 education professionals have undertaken autism awareness training as part of AET's ‘train the trainer’ model since the Universal Services programme commenced in May 2022.
School and college staff have completed over 7,000 online SEND CPD units to support them in delivering an inclusive experience for every learner. The Universal Services contract will run until spring 2025, with a budget of nearly £12 million.
On 22 November 2023, the department announced the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme. This new programme, backed by £13 million of investment, will bring together integrated care boards, local authorities, and schools, working in partnership with parents and carers to support schools to better meet the needs of neurodiverse children.
The programme will deploy specialists from both health and education workforces to upskill school staff including TAs in around 1,680 (10%) mainstream primary schools and build their capacity to identify and meet the needs of children with autism and other neurodiverse needs.
Ultimately, schools are best placed to make decisions on the CPD that best meets the needs of their support staff, as they do for teachers' CPD.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the SEND and alternative provision improvement plan published in March 2023, what steps she is taking to ensure families have confidence in the mediation process set out in that plan.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The reforms set out in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision Improvement Plan are geared towards making families’ overall experience of the SEND system more positive through more collaborative, consistent and transparent decision-making, thereby increasing parental confidence and leading to a less adversarial system.
The department wants to rebalance the SEND system through earlier identification of need and through support provided, where possible, in mainstream settings. The department is currently testing a range of measures through the Change Programme. The department believes the Change Programme will make the biggest improvements to the quality of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, and the experience of getting them. These measures include multi-agency panels to improve the quality of decision making and parental confidence in the EHC needs assessment process, a single national EHC plan template and guidance, advisory tailored lists and measures to resolve disagreements more quickly through the use of strengthened mediation procedures.
Strengthening mediation is key part of the departments proposals. This is because where effective mediation takes place, disputes can be resolved earlier, without the need to appeal to the Tribunal. The department is working closely with the Council for disabled children to develop bespoke mediation guidance for families so that they understand the process, their rights and the benefits of mediation.
Recognising the importance of families receiving high-quality mediation, the department is working with the Civil Mediation Council and the College of Mediators to review and build on their existing professional standards for SEND mediators, first published in 2018, which apply to their joint register of accredited mediators. The department has engaged parents/carers, children and young people in the drafting and testing of the guidance and standards.
The department are also developing and testing a good practice delivery model for SEND mediation to help improve the quality and consistency of mediation provision, as well as gathering more data on the impact and outcomes of mediation.
All of these things taken together should help improve family confidence in the overall SEND system, as well as in the mediation process.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to speech and language therapists in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s vision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), is the same as it is for all children and young people. The department wants them to achieve well in their early years, at school and in further education, to find employment, to lead happy and fulfilled lives and to experience choice and control.
The first response when any child is falling behind in school is good quality teaching. To support with this, the department is developing a suite of Practitioner standards, called ’Practice Guides‘ in the SEND and alternative provision Improvement Plan, which will set out the best available evidence to help professionals in mainstream settings, including early years staff, teachers and teaching assistants to identify and support the needs of children and young people they work with, including for those with speech and language needs.
In some cases, additional, specialist support may be required to meet the needs of a child, including support provided by speech and language therapists. The department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to take a joint approach to SEND workforce planning. The department established a steering group in 2023 to oversee this work, which is intended to be completed by 2025. The government is also backing the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take over the next 15 years to meet the needs of the changing population. This includes increasing the number of allied health professionals such as speech and language therapists.
In addition, working with NHS England, the department is funding the Early Language and Support for Every Child pathfinders within the department’s Change Programme until 2025. The project will fund nine Integrated Care Boards and local areas within each of the nine Change Programme Partnerships to trial new ways of working to better identify and support children with SLCN in early years and primary school settings.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on accelerating the roll-out of mental health support teams in schools and colleges since publication of the SEND and alternative provision improvement plan.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Meeting children’s social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs is a crucial aspect of strong special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision. This is why the SEND and alternative provision Improvement Plan works to facilitate a more joined-up response between the department and NHS England to support children with SEMH needs. Schools and colleges can play a vital role in promoting and supporting pupil and student mental health and wellbeing, both in providing early support and intervention and through liaison with specialist services as required.
Mental health support teams (MHSTs) have achieved their NHS Long Term Plan coverage ambition a year early and more teams are coming. As of March 2023, 3.4 million pupils and learners were covered by mental health support teams in schools and colleges in England, which equates to 35% of pupils and learners in England. The department estimates that 498 MHSTs will be up and running by April 2024, covering at least 44% of pupils and learners. The department further estimates there will be 600 teams covering at least 50% of all pupils across primary and secondary schools by 2025. New coverage data will be published in due course.
Apr. 19 2024
Source Page: The impact of childcare reforms on childcare and early years providersFound: The impact of childcare reforms on childcare and early years providers
Apr. 19 2024
Source Page: Convention of the Highlands and Islands minutes: March 2024Found: Convention of the Highlands and Islands minutes: March 2024