Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 9 of the document entitled SEND and alternative provision improvement plan, published on 2 March 2023, when her Department plans to publish guidance to support effective transitions between (a) all stages of education and (b) into employment and adult services.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published on 2 March 2023, outlines the government’s mission to establish a single, national SEND and AP system. Alongside this, the department published a roadmap which summarises the actions set out in the Improvement Plan to improve the SEND and AP system in England. The SEND and AP improvement plan can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-alternative-provision-improvement-plan. The roadmap can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-alternative-provision-improvement-plan/send-and-alternative-provision-roadmap.
As part of this roadmap, the department committed to publishing this guidance by the end of 2025.
Asked by: James Morris (Conservative - Halesowen and Rowley Regis)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities to reduce the time taken to process special educational needs and disabilities applications for education, health and care plans.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department wants to ensure that education, health and care (EHC) plan applications are processed promptly and, where required, plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need. In March 2023 the government set out its plans to reform and improve the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system through its SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan. The SEND and AP Improvement 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.
As part of these reforms, the department is currently testing measures to deliver a nationally consistent EHC plan system to improve the quality and speed with which support is put in place. The department is also considering the skills and training which local authority caseworker teams require and is offering some short-term legal training to local authority caseworker teams.
Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with SEND, we work with them using a range of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses.
The department is monitoring Sandwell’s EHC plan performance and is offering specialist support through a specialist SEND Advisor. Following the Ofsted and CQC visit in July 2023, three areas for improvement were identified. The local area has published its Sandwell Local Area Partnership Inclusion (SEND and AP) Plan 2023/2026 and progress on improvement will be continuously monitored by the department and NHS England.
Following the Ofsted and CQC re-visit to Dudley in February 2022, an Accelerated Progress Plan (APP) was put in place to address six areas of weakness. EHC plan timeliness was not identified as an area of weakness, although through the APP, the department, along with a specialist SEND Advisor and NHS England, works closely with the local area to ensure they are supported in addressing issues and driving improvements to services, including continuous improvement in EHC plan timeliness.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, what progress she has made on developing digital requirements for Education, Health and Care Plans.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is working with local authorities and suppliers to deliver a digital project to digitise the Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan process for England. The department started this project in summer 2023 to understand what role digitisation should play in the EHC plan process, and the potential longer-term benefits of digital solutions.
The department launched a second project phase in October 2023. This helped the department to understand the benefits, barriers, and limitations of the digitisation of the EHC plan process. This phase resulted in recommendations.
The department launched a third project phase in February 2024 to test the recommendations, which are due to be shared with local authorities and the wider sector this month.
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for SEND teaching assistants in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Many teaching assistants who support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are partly or wholly funded from local authorities’ high needs budgets, as a result of assessments and consequent decisions about the additional support that those individual pupils need.
The department is increasing high needs funding nationally by £440 million (4.3%) in the 2024/25 financial year. This will bring the total of high needs funding to over £10.5 billion next year, an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. Bradford Council is due to receive a high needs funding allocation of £42.2 million through their 2024/25 dedicated schools grant, which is a cumulative increase of 37% per head over the three years from 2021/22.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the progress that has been made since the publication of the SEND and AP Improvement Plan; how many additional education psychologists have been employed by local authorities and; how many additional teachers have undertaken SENCO training since the publication of that plan.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) frequently require access to additional support from a broad specialist workforce across education, health and care. To support this, the department has completed the following:
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 she is taking to ensure an adequate provision of SEND services for children in the future.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Through delivery of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan, the department will establish a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND and in AP so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes and are well prepared for adulthood and employment.
The department will give families greater confidence that their child will be able to fulfil their potential through improved mainstream provision in their local setting.
For those children and young people with SEND who do require an Education, Health and Care plan and specialist provision, the department will ensure they get access to the support they need, and that parents do not face an adversarial system to secure this.
To ensure adequate provision of SEND services for children in the future, the department has already completed the following:
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 she is taking to (a) fund and (b) ensure adequate provision of (i) facilities and (ii) childcare for children with SEND.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government provides high needs funding for children aged 0-25 with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those in their early years who need childcare. The department is increasing high needs revenue funding, nationally, to over £10.5 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, which will be an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations of high needs funding. The City of York Council is due to receive an allocation of £28.5 million in 2024/25, which is a cumulative increase of 27% per head through the high needs national funding formula, over the three years from 2021/22.
In addition, specifically for those in the early years, the government provides the Disability Access Fund. In the 2024/25 financial year, this will increase to £910 per eligible child per annum, and will be extended to children aged 2 and under. Children aged 2, 3 and 4 years old who are in receipt of Disability Living Allowance or have an Education, Health and Care plan are also eligible for 15 hours free childcare a week.
The department is also funding training for up to 7,000 early years Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs), resulting in an accredited Level 3 early years SENCO qualification. Some 5,000 practitioners have already registered for the training.
The The SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, sets out how an effective single national SEND and AP system will be delivered. Many of the proposals in the Improvement Plan will have an impact on early years education, and young children with SEND. There will be new national practitioner standards for meeting the needs of children with SEND and identifying their individual needs. There will also be new local SEND and AP Partnerships, strengthened accountability and dashboards, and funding reforms to ensure all settings are able to deliver an inclusive practice for all.
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils with SEND, sits with local authorities. The department allocates funding to support authorities to meet this duty and has provided over £1.5 billion of High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. 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.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that (a) school leavers and (b) adults with SEND are given prioritised access to apprenticeships.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Apprenticeships provide a fantastic opportunity for school leavers and adults with special educational needs and disabilities to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to progress in their chosen careers. So far, in the 2023/24 academic year, 15.9% of all starts were by learners declaring a learning difficulty and/or disability (LDD), an increase from 14.7% for the same period last year. The department is also increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024/25, supporting more employers across the country to recruit new apprentices.
The department is investing £3.2 million annually in the ‘Apprenticeship Support & Knowledge’ programme, which ensures students in schools and colleges are aware of the benefits of apprenticeships. Young people can also now access apprenticeships vacancies on UCAS, and later this year they will also be able to use the service to apply for apprenticeships.
The department provides £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19 to 24 year old apprentices who have an Education, Health and Care plan or have been in care. The department also provides additional funding to support those apprentices who require reasonable adjustments to undertake learning.
As part of the work to remove barriers for people starting an apprenticeship, the department has launched a pilot to consider how the department determines apprentice eligibility for flexibilities to English and maths requirements. The department is also currently delivering another pilot to test whether offering expert support, advice and training to the people providing mentoring to apprentices with a LDD results in a positive impact on the cohort, both in terms of satisfaction and achievement for these apprentices.
The department will continue to work closely with the Apprenticeship Diversity Network and the Disabled Apprentice Network to better understand and remove barriers so everyone can access the benefits of an apprenticeship.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with relevant stakeholders on assessing the adequacy of the national curriculum for supporting children with SEND to achieve good qualifications.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to delivering an education system that works for all children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The National SEND and Alternative Provision Implementation Board, chaired by Ministers, meets regularly to consider a range of issues relating to SEND.
As the department made clear in the SEND code of practice, all pupils should have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. The code states:
“The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement states that teachers should set high expectations for every pupil, whatever their prior attainment. Teachers should use appropriate assessment to set targets which are deliberately ambitious and potential areas of difficulty should be identified and addressed at the outset. Lessons should be planned to address potential areas of difficulty and to remove barriers to pupil achievement. In many cases, such planning means that pupils with SEND will be able to study the full National Curriculum”. The SEND code of practice can be read in full here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 availability of placements at (a) specialist colleges and (b) residential specialist colleges for children with SEND (i) nationally and (ii) in North Yorkshire.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sits with local authorities. The ‘Children and Families Act 2014’ requires local authorities to keep the provision for children and young people with SEND under review (including its sufficiency), working with parents, young people, and providers.
The department allocates funding to support local authorities to meet this duty and has published over £1.5 billion of High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. North Yorkshire has been allocated a total of nearly £8.5 million through HNPCA for financial years 2022/23 and 2023/24.
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. Local authorities can spend the funding across the 0 to 25 age range, including in special post-16 institutions or other further education settings. The need for investment across this age range will differ between different local authorities, dependent on local circumstances, and it is therefore for local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their available funding to address their local priorities.
Starting from Summer 2023 the department has, for the first time, collected data from local authorities on available capacity in special schools, SEND units and resourced provision, along with corresponding forecasts of demand for these places.
This data will help the department to effectively support local authorities to fulfil their statutory duty to provide sufficient specialist places.
The department anticipates this being an annual data collection, forming part of the existing School Capacity Survey.