Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of universal credit claimants are parents of a child with special educational needs in (a) the UK and (b) Eastbourne constituency.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not available and to provide it would be at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the (a) suitability of and (b) need for a review of Provider Access Legislation for students with SEND to assist them with acquiring employment.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since January 2023, schools have been required to comply with strengthened provider access legislation, offering at least six opportunities for pupils to meet providers of technical education or apprenticeships. These encounters offer insights into the courses and qualifications that different providers offer, supporting pupils to make more informed decisions about their next step.
All pupils should have the same opportunities for meaningful provider encounters. The overwhelming majority of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with high levels of needs, can access fulfilling jobs and careers with the right preparation and support. Schools should involve parents/carers, the Special Educational Needs Coordinator and other relevant staff to identify any barriers and support needed, and tailor each provider encounter appropriately.
Where future pathways are limited for learners due to the nature of their specific learning needs and/or physical ability, for example where they are highly likely to proceed into adult social care, it is recognised that it may be necessary for additional flexibility in how these encounters are delivered.
The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) supports schools, colleges and specialist institutions to meet the requirements of the provider access legislation. The CEC has produced tailored resources for provider access legislation in SEND settings, sharing good practice in developing and delivering tailored encounters within SEND provision. The resources can be found at the following link: https://resources.careersandenterprise.co.uk/resources/provider-access-legislation-pal-send-settings.
Data published by the CEC provides encouraging early evidence that specialist settings are offering more meaningful encounters for their pupils. For example, in the 2022/23 academic year, 69% of schools reported that most young people had been provided with meaningful encounters with Independent Training Providers (up 9% percentage points in 2021/22). This was higher in special schools and alternative provision (90%), an increase of 22% percentage points from the previous year.
2023/24 is the first full academic year that the strengthened legislation has been in place. The department will continue to monitor and review the support in place, the level of compliance, and the impact on young people.
Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help support children with special educational needs in the London Borough of Bexley.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a comparative assessment of the impact of (a) integrating SEND children in mainstream schools and (b) sending SEND children to specialised schools on the (i) educational outcomes and (ii) general wellbeing of those children.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan sets out a vision for a single, national inclusive SEND and AP system where all children, no matter their need, receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. This requires high-quality mainstream provision where children and young people have their needs identified early and can access prompt, evidence-based, targeted support. This should be alongside improved access to timely, high-quality specialist provision, where this is appropriate.
The department continues to monitor the literature and latest research on the impact of inclusion.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of the school age population in England have been designated as having special educational needs in the 2023–24 academic year to date.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department publishes annual figures on special educational needs (SEN) for pupils in state-funded schools in England. The most recent figures are for January 2023, available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england.
These figures show that 4.3% of pupils had an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan and a further 13.0% of pupils had SEN but no EHC plan (SEN support).
Updated information for January 2024 will be published on 20 June 2024.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of parents of children with special educational needs have returned to work due to the provision of Universal Credit in (a) Eastbourne constituency and (b) East Sussex over the most recent 12 months for which data is available.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not available and to provide it would be at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to allocate new (a) funding and (b) resources to support children with special educational needs and disabilities in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
High needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is over £10.5 billion in 2024/25, which is an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. Of this, Sefton Council is due to receive a high needs funding allocation of £47.8 million in 2024/25, which is a cumulative increase of 32% per head over the three years from 2021/22. This funding will help local authorities and schools, both mainstream and special schools, with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND.
In addition, on 22 May the department published 2024/25 allocations of the Teachers’ Pay Additional Grant, which helps schools with the costs of the 2023 teachers’ pay award, and the 2024 Teachers’ Pension Employer Contribution Grant, which helps schools with the increased employer contribution rate from April 2024. This funding totals £1.9 billion in 2024/25 and is to support schools with the costs of their teachers, and therefore contributes to the resources that are available for schools’ pupils with SEND.
In March 2024, the department also published just under £850 million of High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) for 2023/24 and 2024/25. This funding is allocated to local authorities to support them deliver new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision (AP).
This funding forms part of the department’s transformational investment of £2.6 billion in new high needs provision between 2022 and 2025 which, when combined with the department’s ongoing delivery of new special and AP free schools, is creating over 60,000 new specialist places across the country.
In total, Sefton Council has been allocated just over £9.7 million through HNPCA between 2022 and 2025.
This funding can be used 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.
In addition to local authority allocations, 201 special free schools are either open or planned to open in future years. Once at capacity, these schools will provide over 21,000 places for pupils with special educational needs. Over 10,000 of these places have already been delivered.
This includes 56 special free schools being delivered as part of the £2.6 billion of high needs capital funding received in the 2021 Spending Review, plus additional funding announced at the 2024 Spring Budget.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of additional SEND places that each local authority that has received funding under the Dedicated schools grant: very high deficit intervention arrangements has opened since the relevant agreement was put in place.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Safety Valve programme supports the local authorities with the highest Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficits. The programme requires the local authorities involved to develop substantial plans for reform to their high needs systems, with support and challenge from the department, to rapidly place them on a sustainable footing. If the local authorities can demonstrate sufficiently that their DSG management plans create lasting sustainability, including reaching an in-year balance, and are effective for children and young people, then the department will enter into an agreement.
Through the agreements, the local authorities are subsequently held to account for their reform and savings projections via regular reporting to the department. The department will help the local authorities with additional revenue funding over time to contribute to their historic deficits, but this is contingent on delivery of the reforms in the agreements.
Capital funding is a necessary feature of many local authorities DSG management plans, in cases where investment in local infrastructure will result in the availability of more appropriate provision and subsequent revenue savings. Local authorities with safety valve agreements are therefore invited to apply for additional high needs capital funding, to be provided as a one-off ‘top-up’ to their high needs provision capital allocations.
In order to receive additional capital funding, local authorities must demonstrate how investment would align to the reform plans and savings projections in their safety valve agreements. Proposals also need to show how capital plans will meet identified gaps in provision and improve the local provision offer.
The department has allocated additional capital funding to 26 local authorities through this route, totalling £175 million.
Once funding is allocated, local authorities have appropriate flexibility to make sensible adjustments to their plans, reflecting that the statutory duty to provide sufficient school places remains with the local authority.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total expenditure on special educational needs in England in 2023–24; and what is their forecast expenditure for 2024–25.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Local authorities spent £7.9 billion on education for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the 2022/23 financial year. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) also allocated a further £1.0 billion on funding for SEND places directly to providers in that financial year. The outturn data for expenditure in the last financial year (2023/24) is not yet available but is due to be published later in 2024. Planned expenditure reported by local authorities for that year was £9.4 billion and the ESFA’s expenditure was £1.1 billion.
These figures do not include the amounts spent by mainstream schools and colleges from their budgets on children and young people with lower level SEND. The department does not collect this expenditure information from individual schools and colleges.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to increase the availability of auditory verbal therapy for deaf children.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Audiology services are locally commissioned, and responsibility for meeting the needs of non-hearing children lies with local National Health Service commissioners. Commissioning Services for People with Hearing Loss: A Framework for Clinical Commissioning Groups, was published in July 2016. This framework supports clinical commissioning groups, and now integrated care boards, to make informed decisions about what good value for the populations they serve would be, and to provide more consistent, high quality, integrated care. It also addresses inequalities in access and outcomes between hearing services. Additionally, in 2019, NHS England, with input from the National Deaf Children’s Society, produced a guide for commissioners and providers who support children and young people with hearing loss.
NHS England met with Auditory Verbal UK (AVUK) last year and discussed the need for more high-level research evidence for intervention, and to develop evaluations of impact. AVUK were also invited to join the Chief Scientific Officer’s Audiology stakeholder group. The Government is committed to improving outcomes and experiences for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, including children with hearing loss, and we recognise the need to improve access to therapies generally. Since September 2020, all eligible nursing, midwifery, and allied health profession students have received a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year.