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1385223

registered interest
date	06/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment the Government has made of the capacity of local authorities, educational settings and health and care services to provide a high level of support and choice for families, as set out in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.
tabling member constituency	Bristol West
tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
uin	87723
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2021 answer text <p>The department closely monitors a range of data and intelligence to assess the operation and delivery of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system. This includes data on:</p><ul><li>special educational needs in schools via the annual collection of data from schools</li><li>the numbers of new assessments, plans and placements</li><li>local authority expenditure and dedicated schools grant assessment on spend/financial sustainability including Section 251 returns</li><li>feedback from local authorities and the Parent and Pupil Panel survey</li><li>inspection or revisit reports from the local area SEND inspections undertaken by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC).</li></ul><p> </p><p>The government recognises that the current SEND system does not deliver the outcomes we want or expect for children and young people with SEND, their families or the people and services who support them. The SEND Review is seeking to improve the outcomes for children, with high expectations and ambitions. We need to build a financially sustainable system, where there is clear accountability. The Review will publish as a green paper for full public consultation in the first three months of 2022.</p><p>The department, with SEND advisers and NHS England advisers, provides support and challenge to 89 local authority/health/social care areas who, following their Ofsted and CQC inspection or revisit, were required to produce a written statement of action (71 local authorities) or accelerated progress plan (19 local authorities) to improve the local areas’ ability to meet their statutory duties as set out in the SEND Code of Practice. In addition, the department commissions specialist support from delivery partners and delivers training programmes to local authorities, health and social care staff across the country on their statutory assessment duties.</p><p>We recognise that pressures on high needs budgets have contributed to some local authorities finding it difficult to manage their dedicated schools grant funding.</p><p>By financial year 2021-22, annual funding allocations to local authorities for high needs will have increased by more than £2 billion, or one third, since 2019-20. As a result of the recent Spending Review, overall funding for the core schools budget, from which high needs funding is drawn, will increase by a further £4.7 billion by financial year 2024-25, compared to previous plans, representing further real terms per pupil increase each year. We will announce how that increase will be split between mainstream schools and high needs in due course.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 09/12/2021 17:59:10 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385224

registered interest
date	06/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of returning to a 26 weeks from the request for assessment for local authorities to finalise Education and Health Care Plans, as was the case for the previous statementing process.
tabling member constituency	Bristol West
tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
uin	87724
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2021 answer text <p>The education, health and care plan (EHCP) needs assessment system was introduced as part of the new special educational needs and disability (SEND) Regulations in 2014 and is different from the assessment for a statement of special educational needs that had previously been in place.</p><p>The time limit of 20 weeks was set to reflect the changed process of assessment as well as responding to the need to ensure a smoother and swifter system for determining special educational provision for children and young people.</p><p>The department is currently looking at the EHCP process as a whole as part of the SEND Review.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 09/12/2021 18:17:25 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385225

registered interest
date	06/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Young People
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional support he has made available to local authorities following the increased age range eligible for support from 19 to 25 brought in under the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.
tabling member constituency	Bristol West
tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
uin	87725
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/12/2021 answer text <p>When the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) was created in financial year 2013-14, it included the extension to age 25. The expected additional cost to local authorities was considered by:</p><ul><li>Moving all funds previously allocated to supporting young people aged 16-25 with high needs through the previous funding system, into the high needs block of the DSG; and</li><li>Increasing the high needs block further to reflect the likely increase in numbers of young people requiring high needs funding.</li></ul><p>£272 million was added to the DSG in the financial year 2013-14, and £390 million in the financial year 2014-15, to take account of the extended age range to 25 covered by the DSG. The difference between the two years is mainly because some of the changes post-16 started in August 2013 rather than at the start of the financial year in April 2013.</p><p>These increases in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years were consolidated into the funding baseline that informed the 2015 Spending Review settlement reached between the department and HM Treasury. Local authorities’ increased spending, including on 16-25-year-olds, was also considered in subsequent baselines used for allocations of high needs funding through the DSG, and for informing overall Spending Review settlements.</p><p>The autumn 2021 Spending Review delivers an additional £4.7 billion for the core schools' budget by financial year 2024-25. This settlement includes an additional £1.6 billion for schools and high needs in the financial year 2022-23, on top of the funding we announced in the summer of 2021, following the previous Spending Review. We will confirm in due course how this additional funding for the financial year 2022-23, and the two subsequent years, will be allocated for schools and high needs.</p><p>In 2017 the department produced guidance for local authorities about education, health and care (EHC) plans for 19 to 25-year-olds with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This non-statutory guidance is primarily for local authorities. It aims to support them in making fair and consistent decisions about when they should maintain an EHC plan beyond the age of 19 or issue an EHC plan to a young person aged 19 or over, in line with their duties under the Children and Families Act 2014, and as described in the SEND Code of Practice.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 10/12/2021 10:05:35 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385226

registered interest
date	06/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Educational Psychology: Higher Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking with universities to increase the number of places on training courses for educational psychologists.
tabling member constituency	Bristol West
tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
uin	87726
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2021 answer text <p>Since 2020, we have increased the number of educational psychologists whose training we fund, from 160, to over 200 per academic year. This is delivered through contracts with two consortia, led by the University of Manchester, and University College London.</p><p>The department funds trainees’ bursary payments for the first year of their training course, while bursaries for the second and third years are funded by the local authorities where the trainees are deployed. We do not have plans to introduce a centralised system for this.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 87727 question first answered 09/12/2021 18:04:22 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385227

registered interest
date	06/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Educational Psychology: Higher Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a centralised system that pays for bursaries for trainee educational psychologists.
tabling member constituency	Bristol West
tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
uin	87727
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2021 answer text <p>Since 2020, we have increased the number of educational psychologists whose training we fund, from 160, to over 200 per academic year. This is delivered through contracts with two consortia, led by the University of Manchester, and University College London.</p><p>The department funds trainees’ bursary payments for the first year of their training course, while bursaries for the second and third years are funded by the local authorities where the trainees are deployed. We do not have plans to introduce a centralised system for this.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 87726 question first answered 09/12/2021 18:04:22 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385228

registered interest
date	06/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to make non-local authority maintained schools accountable for providing support for children with Education and Health Care Plans additional to the support set out in those plans.
tabling member constituency	Bristol West
tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
uin	87728
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/12/2021 answer text <p>Local authorities are statutorily responsible for securing the provision specified in the education, health and care (EHC) plans they maintain, working with their relevant health partners. Where an EHC plan names a local authority maintained school, an academy, a non-maintained special school, a maintained nursery school, a general further education college or an independent special school or specialist post-16 institution on my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education's approved list, it is statutorily required to admit the child or young person. The local authority remains responsible for securing the provision and monitoring its effectiveness, for example through the annual review process.</p><p>An EHC plan must identify the special educational needs of the child or young person, with any relevant health and social care needs, must set long-term outcomes and must specify provision to deliver them. A child or young persons EHC plan should therefore identify all the additional special educational provision which they require over and above that ordinarily available in the school.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 10/12/2021 10:11:44 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385229

registered interest
date	06/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Academies
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support the Government provides for parents who wish to pursue complaints with academy schools about their provision of support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
tabling member constituency	Bristol West
tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
uin	87729
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/12/2021 answer text <p>Local authorities must make disagreement resolution services available to parents and young people for matters relating to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These services can be used for disagreements between parents or young people and schools, including academies, about the SEND provision made for a child or young person, whether they have education, health and care plans or not. Further information about these services can be found on the local authority’s local offer website.</p><p>All academies must have a complaints procedure, which complies with Part 7 of the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014. If a complainant has completed the school’s complaints procedure, or if they feel they have been prevented from doing so, they can complain to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). The ESFA will consider whether an academy has followed the correct process in handling a complaint, but the ESFA cannot change an academy’s decision about a complaint. Further information on the ESFA’s remit in considering complaints more fully is available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/complain-about-an-academy/complain-about-an-academy" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/complain-about-an-academy/complain-about-an-academy</a>. Guidance on taking forward complaints about SEND support is available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-school/sen-complaints" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-school/sen-complaints</a>.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 10/12/2021 12:07:36 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385230

registered interest
date	06/12/2021
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Health Services: Children and Young People
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Government has made of (a) the adequacy of the provision of therapeutic support for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and (b) the impact of any gaps in that provision on the education of young people.
tabling member constituency	Bristol West
tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
uin	87730
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/12/2021 answer text <p>No specific assessment has been made. However, we are working with the Department for Education and NHS England and NHS Improvement to improve the provision of health services, including therapies to disabled children. On 5 March 2021 we announced that as part of the £500 million for mental health recovery, £79 million will be used to expand mental health services for children, including disabled children. We have provided over £34 billion support for health services in response to COVID-19 in 2021/22. This includes £2 billion to tackle the elective backlog and reduce waiting times for patients, including disabled children. We have also invested £4.9 billion in the 2020/21 academic year to support the recovery of children and young people’s education.</p> answering member constituency Chichester answering member printed Gillian Keegan question first answered 14/12/2021 13:48:23 answering member 4680 label Biography information for Gillian Keegan
tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385231

registered interest
date	06/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Standards
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government plans to replace Local Authority Monitoring and Brokerage Grant funding by increasing the money allocated to schools directly in the event that the grant funding is withdrawn.
tabling member constituency	Bristol West
tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
uin	87731
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/12/2021 answer text <p>The department has consulted on plans for reforming how local authorities fund their school improvement functions and will publish a government response early in the new year. The department is continuing to deliver year on year, real term per pupil increases to school funding. We are investing a further £4.7 billion by financial year 2024-25 for the core schools budget in England, over and above the Spending Review 2019 settlement for schools in financial year 2022-23.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker question first answered 10/12/2021 16:35:49 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire

1385232

registered interest
date	06/12/2021
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Department of Health and Social Care: Written Questions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to answer Question 70280 tabled by the hon. Member for Bristol West.
tabling member constituency	Bristol West
tabling member printed	Thangam Debbonaire
uin	87732
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/12/2021 answer text <p>I refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-11-05/70280" target="_blank">70280</a>.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 16/12/2021 13:17:59 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4433 label Biography information for Thangam Debbonaire