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<p>In January 2022, the High Court declared the National Disability Strategy (NDS)
was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held to be a
voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public
consultations.</p><p>In the NDS, the department committed to providing an additional
£730 million of ongoing revenue funding for children and young people with complex
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and this has now been fully implemented.
In the 2022/23 financial year, there have been further increases to the department’s
high needs funding, which has risen by 24% in two years to over £10 billion this financial
year. This goes further than our NDS commitment of £8 billion per year and represents
an increase of over 50% in the four-year period since the 2019/20 financial year.
In the NDS, the department committed to opening 59 new special free schools for children
with complex SEND. The department has gone further than this. As of 1 April 2023,
there are 93 open special free schools and 51 open Alternative Provision (AP) free
schools. There are a further 48 special schools in the pipeline.</p><p>The department
also committed to increasing capital investment to support the provision of high needs
places. On 2 March 2023, as part of the announcement of the SEND and AP Improvement
Plan, the department announced 33 new special free schools in phase 1 of the latest
special free school wave.</p><p>In November 2022, the department announced funding
worth £21 million to go towards training 400 more educational psychologists. Being
partially implemented, this new funding from 2024 builds on the £9.3 million stated
in the NDS.</p><p>The department’s Participation Contract supports the continued improvement
of co-production at a national, local, and international level. As part of this, we
empower children and young people with SEND and their families to influence SEND Policy.
This contract is a three-year contract running from April 2022, ending in March 2025.
The total cost of the contract is £18 million which includes consortium, grant, and
the strategic reform partnership contract. Being partially implemented, this goes
further than the department’s commitment in the NDS, where we said we would provide
£8.6 million in the 2021/22 financial year to support involvement of families.</p><p>As
per our commitment in the NDS to improve supported internships in England, this is
being partially implemented. The government is committed to supporting pathways to
employment for disabled learners, including through strengthening the Supported Internship
Programme. The department is investing £18 million until 2025 to build capacity in
the Supported Internships Programme and support more young people with Education,
Health and Care Plans into employment. Furthermore, in the NDS, the department committed
creating an Access to Work Adjustments Passport, which will help to smooth the transition
into employment and support people changing jobs, including people with SEND. This
is now partially implemented, as the Department for Education works with the Department
for Work and Pensions to pilot this scheme.</p><p>The department remains fully committed
to supporting disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting
their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect
of our society. To support this, the department will be providing further details
of our recent achievements to improve disabled people’s lives in the forthcoming Disability
Action Plan consultation, due for publication in the summer.</p><p>Ahead of this,
my hon. Friend, the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, will write providing
a list of these achievements and will place a copy in the House Library.</p><p> </p>
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