We have given £252 million to local authorities to support implementation of the new duties under the Children and Families Act (2014). We have also funded a consortium of partners, including the Council for Disabled Children, to work with health and social care services, including producing guidance on improving education, health and care (EHC) plans; and funded a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) leadership programme and legal training for all local authorities and their health partners to ensure they are clear on their statutory responsibilities.<\/p>
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We have strengthened the National Health Service (NHS) Provider Contract for NHS Trusts to include a requirement to report on meeting the six-week deadline for health input into EHC plans; established a national network for Designated Medical Officers and Designated Clinical Officers, funded a local authority led regional network and developed resources to support joint self-assessment and peer review.<\/p>
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We monitor implementation on the ground, for example, looking at the time it takes for local authorities to issue EHC plans. The Ofsted/Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections of SEND services we introduced in 2016 have also shone a light on strengths and weaknesses in the delivery of EHC plans and have proved a catalyst for local change. Where significant concerns have been identified, written statements of action (WSOA), setting out the actions the local area will take to improve services, are supporting local areas to improve their services. Ofsted and the CQC will re-visit each area with a WSOA to assess the progress they are making; and where sufficient progress is not being made, we will take appropriate action.<\/p>
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64.9% of new EHC plans (excluding exception cases) were issued within 20 weeks in 2017, up from 58.6% in 2016.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4113", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Stratford-on-Avon"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Nadhim Zahawi"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-11-27", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-11-27T17:29:33.427Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "60"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Education"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Education"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-11-22", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Special Educational Needs"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to support the delivery of Education and Health Care Plans for children with special educational needs and disabilities.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4649", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Thelma Walker"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Colne Valley"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Thelma Walker"} ], "uin" : "194746"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }