Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average cost was to educate (a) a child and (b) an adult with SEN in each of the last 20 years.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Children and young people with special educational needs are educated in a broad range of settings, most of which do not report their costs in a way that enables the department to isolate the costs of their education. Due to this, the department does not hold the information requested on the average cost.
Through the department’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan, the department is reforming the SEND system so that when a child or young person requires specialist provision, they get access to the support they need, and parents do not face an adversarial system to secure this. To support this, the department have increased the high needs budget to £10.54 billion, which is 60% more than in 2019/20. The department is also investing £2.6 billion to deliver new specialist and AP places and improve existing provision.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help tackle discriminatory language towards neurodiverse students in mainstream education.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has sent a clear message to schools that all forms of bullying, for whatever reason, are unacceptable. Bullying can have a devastating effect on individuals, harm their education and have serious and lasting consequences for their mental health.
All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. Schools have the freedom to develop anti-bullying strategies that are appropriate to their environment and are held to account by Ofsted. More information on the department’s ‘Behaviour in schools’ guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/behaviour-in-schools--2.
The department has provided over £3 million of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. One of the grant holders, the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), delivered a range of targeted programmes based on tackling the bullying of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The ABA provides a free continuing professional development training course to help schools reduce disablist bullying, which can be found here: https://learning.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/course/9155/course-12-%E2%80%93-reducing-disablist-bullying-disabilities-equality-act-and-schools-duties.
The department is currently considering what future support schools might need to tackle bullying.
More widely, a school’s culture should consistently promote high standards of behaviour and provide the necessary support to ensure all pupils can achieve and thrive, both in and out of the classroom. Schools should consider how a whole-school approach meets the needs of all pupils in the school, including those with SEND or neurodiverse needs, so that everyone can feel they belong in the school community and high expectations are maintained for all pupils.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support children with special educational needs in the London Borough of Havering.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to ensuring that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in all areas, including Havering, receive the support they need to realise their potential.
The ‘SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan’ outlines the government’s mission to create a single, national SEND and alternative provision system. The proposal to develop National Standards is a fundamental part of this. The Standards will outline the types of special educational provision that should be available, who is responsible for delivering that support, and will clarify the expectations on mainstream settings and local services.
These standards will help families, practitioners and providers understand what support every child or young person should be receiving from early years through to further education. By the end of 2025, the department will publish a significant proportion of the National Standards. As these Standards will apply nationally, the London Borough of Havering is automatically included.
In addition, high needs funding for children and young people with complex needs is increasing by £440 million, or 4.3%, in 2024/25. This will bring total high needs funding to over £10.5 billion, which is an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND. Additional funding for teachers’ pay and teachers’ pensions is on top of this. Havering will receive an allocation of £43 million through the 2024/25 Dedicated Schools Grant, to support children and young people with complex educational needs and disabilities. This is a cumulative increase of 33% per head over the three years from 2021/22.
Havering is also taking part in the Delivering Better Value in SEND Programme (DBV in SEND). The DBV in SEND Programme aims to help local authorities provide more effective SEND services by meeting the needs of children and young people at an early stage and with the right level of support.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has consulted children and young people on the plan for those in school with SEND.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The consultation on the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) Green Paper ran from 29 March to 22 July 2022. During this time, the department received around 6,000 responses to the online consultation and delivered 175 consultation events hearing from over 4,500 people.
The department designed specific consultation questions for children and young people and consulted children and young people at a significant number of consultation events. Specific consultation events were also delivered with stakeholders such as the Council for Disabled Children’s Friendship, Learning, Achieve, Reach and Empower (FLARE) children and young people’s group to ensure their views were captured in the consultation feedback.
The department continues to engage with children, young people and their families, including stakeholders such as FLARE and the National Network of Parent Carer Forums, as it designs and tests reforms through the Change Programme. This will ensure a wide range of perspectives are considered to improve the outcomes and experiences of children and young people with SEND and in AP.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department’s meeting with Hertfordshire County Council on 18 April 2024 on SEND services, what progress has been made on improving the services provided by that local authority.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the honourable Member for St Albans to my answer of 20 May 2024 to question 25358.
On April 18, departmental officials met Hertfordshire local authority officials to discuss progress with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) improvement and they were satisfied with the local area's progress so far against its improvement plan. For example, the local authority has recruited over 100 new employees and caseloads have reduced. The local authority has also established a SEND Academy to induct and train new employees. However, further improvement is necessary, and the department will continue to monitor progress closely to ensure that services improve for children and families in Hertfordshire.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average annual cost per child of an education, health and care plan was in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold this information.
However, the department is reforming the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system so that, where children require an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan and specialist provision, they get access to the support they need and parents do not face an adversarial system to secure this. Through Multi-Agency Panels, templates and supporting materials for the EHC plan process, tailored lists and strengthened mediation arrangements, the department’s SEND reforms focus on:
The department is also significantly increasing the high needs budget, which is worth £10.54 billion by 2024/25 and worth 60% more than in 2019/20.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on improving SEND services at Hertfordshire County Council.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department issued an improvement notice to Hertfordshire Council in February of this year to ensure that the local area makes improvements quickly and effectively.
The local authority has appointed Dame Christine Lenehan, a former director at the council for disabled children, as the independent chair of the partnership’s multi-agency improvement board.
Departmental officials are continuing to support and challenge Hertfordshire's special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) improvement. The department has appointed a specialist professional SEND adviser to provide additional advice and support to the local SEND leaders, until such time as my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, is satisfied this is no longer required. The department has also procured expert support for the local area partnership from the council of disabled children and the national development team for inclusion.
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission will visit in early 2025 for formal monitoring, with a full reinspection taking place in summer 2026.
Asked by: Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much was spent by each local authority on home to school transport for children with (a) special educational needs and (b) an education, health and care plan in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Section 251 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 requires local authorities to submit information about their education expenditure to the department. They must include information about their expenditure on home-to-school travel for children with special educational needs (SEN), but they are not required to specify whether each child has an Education Health and Care plan.
The information collected from local authorities is published on GOV.UK and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure. Local authority gross expenditure on SEN transport covering the 2012/13 to 2022/23 financial years can be viewed using the create a table function. This is set out in the attached table.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of trends in the special schools eye care service budget on service delivery.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually for the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. This is a new additional budget for providing sight tests and vouchers in these settings, and so represents a recurrent increased investment in sight testing and the sight testing sector. Service delivery will continue within the proof-of-concept settings, to ensure continuity of service, whilst the required regulatory changes are laid in Parliament to underpin wider rollout during 2024/25.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that the budget for the Special Schools Eye Care Service is not reduced so that (a) children with Special Educational Needs can receive free eye care in schools and (b) optometrists can afford to continue providing the service.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually for the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. This is a new additional budget for providing sight tests and vouchers in these settings, and so represents a recurrent increased investment in sight testing and the sight testing sector. Service delivery will continue within the proof-of-concept settings, to ensure continuity of service, whilst the required regulatory changes are laid in Parliament to underpin wider rollout during 2024/25.