Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the average age at which neurodivergent conditions are identified among children.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold data on the average age children are identified with neurodivergent conditions.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government is taking steps to ensure that (a) teachers and (b) other education professionals receive training in the early identification of neurodivergent conditions in children.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department wants all children and young people, no matter what their Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), to be able to reach their full potential and receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. Under the Children and Families Act 2014, mainstream schools and colleges must use their best endeavours to make sure a child or young person who has Special Educational Needs (SEN) gets the special educational provision they need. The SEND Code of Practice is clear that meeting the needs of a child with SEN does not require a diagnostic label or test. Instead, we expect teachers to monitor the progress of all children and young people and put support in place where needed, including arranging diagnostic tests where appropriate.
To support all teachers in meeting these expectations, we are implementing high-quality teacher training reforms, which begin with initial teacher training and continues throughout their career progression. These reforms are designed to ensure teachers have the skills to support all pupils to succeed, including those with SEND. Since 2020, the Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework (CCF) has included content on adapting teaching to the strengths and needs of all pupils. The department is conducting a review of the CCF and Early Career Framework, which will consider further opportunities to improve how the frameworks support new teachers to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.
The department’s Universal Services (US) contract brings together SEND-specific continuous professional development and support for the school and further education workforce to improve outcomes for children and young people. This includes autism awareness training and resources. Over 100,000 professionals have undertaken autism awareness training since the US programme launched.
The 2023 SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan set out our vision to improve mainstream education through setting standards for early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will clarify the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings and practice guides will be developed to support frontline professionals. The first three practice guides will be published by the end of 2025 and will include one on autism.
To inform this, analysts and policy officials keep under review all evidence-based good practice, including international evidence.
The 2021 Autism Strategy sets out the government’s ambition to make significant progress on improving early identification, reducing diagnosis waiting times and improving diagnostic pathways for all people, including children and young people. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is taking steps to improve access to assessments for autism. In 2023/24 DHSC allocated £4.2 million to improve services for autistic children and young people including assessments, pre-and post-diagnostic support and the continuation of the Autism in Schools programme. Additionally, in April 2023, NHS England published a national framework to support the local NHS to commission and deliver autism assessment services for children, young people, and adults.
The department has not undertaken an assessment of the effectiveness of universal screening for neurodivergent conditions. From 2019 the department’s Opportunity Area programme invested £600,000 in a pilot to deliver earlier identification and faster assessment of autism, by connecting teachers and health professionals in schools. The pilot began in Bradford and was subsequently adopted by four other Opportunity Areas. The University of Manchester has been commissioned to evaluate the Early Identification of Autism Projects, and their report is due by the end of November. Bradford’s Centre for Applied Education Research is drawing on the learning from the pilot to build and test a new digital tool to help Key Stage 1 teachers to identify and respond to learning and support needs of neurodivergent children in the classroom.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils in state schools have a specific learning difficulty according to the latest data available.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Department publishes annual figures on Special Educational Needs (SEN) for pupils in England. The most recent figures are for January 2023 and are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england. 170,062 pupils at state funded schools in England had a specific learning difficulty as their primary type of SEN out of a total of 1,453,576 pupils with SEN.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take reduce the number of (a) schools, (b) hospitals and (c) other buildings containing asbestos.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is the responsibility of those who run schools and who work with their schools day to day to manage the safety and maintenance of their buildings. This includes academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary aided school bodies. The Department provides support on a case by case basis if it is alerted to a serious safety issue which responsible bodies cannot manage independently.
The Department takes the issue of asbestos in schools seriously, and is committed to supporting schools, Local Authorities, and academy trusts to fulfil their duty to manage asbestos safely. Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Government. That is why the Department has allocated over £15 billion for improving school buildings since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed for the 2023/24 financial year. On top of this we are also transforming 500 schools over the next decade through our School Rebuilding Programme. To date the Department has announced 400 schools, with 100 more to come. The Department prioritises schools based on their condition need.
The Department provides detailed guidance for responsible bodies in line with expert advice from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE are clear that asbestos-containing materials that are in good condition, well protected either by their position or physical protection, should not usually be worked on, as it is usually safer to manage them in place.
Hospitals are the responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Care. They state that while much of the NHS estate dates from a time when asbestos was widely used, asbestos is considered safe if it is undisturbed. When building or other work is carried out which would disturb any asbestos, experts are brought in to safely dispose of it. NHS England continues to work with trusts to ensure their estates are a safe environment for patients and staff.
NHS organisations manage their asbestos locally in line with legislation and regulation. Where appropriate, it will be removed. Where work is undertaken on NHS facilities, including new build and refurbishment, the removal and disposal of asbestos will be considered.
NHS trusts have duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. They are committed to the effective management of asbestos containing materials. Responsibilities to contractors and others involved in building and maintenance projects are established through the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and its duties as the ‘Duty Holder’ of Trust owned buildings as defined by Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
Unlike other estates areas of risk, such as, medical gases, there is no NHS specific risk from asbestos. Specific guidance to the NHS is not provided as that from other sources, e.g., HSE, applies without amendment. Where judged safe, asbestos does not need to be removed. Where removal is required, this is a specialist responsibility normally carried out by specialist consultants. The NHS Premises Assurance Model includes a section on managing asbestos in the ‘hard facilities management safety’ section.
All public bodies, including Local Authorities, are responsible for how they manage asbestos in their buildings and are expected to comply with relevant legal requirements. The HSE publishes a range of guidance about working with asbestos and how to comply with relevant legislation. This requires duty holders to assess whether asbestos is present, what condition it is in, and whether it gives rise to a risk of exposure, which is set out under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. Further guidance is available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/index.htm.
Plans to manage the risk associated with asbestos must include removal of the asbestos if it cannot be safely managed where it is located. Removal of asbestos from buildings is already happening across Great Britain through planned refurbishment and demolition with, on average, around 35,000 removals taking place each year. The Government could only advocate a more proactive course of action in this area if there was compelling evidence that the increase in exposure to asbestos workers is justified, in terms of reducing the possible risk to building users.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will make an estimate of the number of deaf children in England who could potentially benefit from auditory verbal therapy; and if his Department will make an assessment of the (a) accessibility of that therapy to the families of deaf children, (b) educational outcomes for deaf children who have received at least two years of that therapy and (c) potential merits for educational outcomes in England of embedding 300 trained practitioners in that therapy, as recommended by Auditory Verbal UK.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department does not hold data on the number of deaf children in England who could potentially benefit from Auditory Verbal therapy.
In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Green Paper, the Department of Health and Social Care committed to work with Health Education England, NHS England and the Department for Education to build on existing evidence and build a clearer picture of demand for support for children and young people with SEND from the therapy and diagnostic workforce. This will allow workforce planning to focus on the areas of the health workforce that are a priority for meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in state schools have (a) an EHC plan and (b) SEN but no EHC plan.
Answered by Will Quince
In January 2021, there were 325,600 pupils in state schools with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. There were a further 1,083,100 pupils with special educational needs (SEN) but no EHC plan (also referred to as SEN support). The data is published in the ‘Special Educational Needs in England’ National Statistics publication available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils in state schools have a specific learning difficulty.
Answered by Will Quince
In January 2021, the number of children attending state schools where their primary special educational need was recorded as a specific learning difficulty is 156,797, and those where it was recorded as a secondary need is 27,237.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils in private schools have a specific learning difficulty.
Answered by Will Quince
The department does not hold data on the type of special educational need (SEN), including specific learning difficulties, of pupils attending independent schools.
The number of pupils with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan attending independent schools, as of January 2021, was 21,887. The number of pupils with SEN, but with no EHC plan, attending independent schools was 80,386.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools have signed up to the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme; and what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of that programme.
Answered by Will Quince
Since the programme was introduced as part of the department’s education recovery response during the COVID-19 outbreak,11,100 schools (over two thirds of all primaries) have signed up to the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme over the academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22. The majority of these schools have free school meal rates above the national average. The full list of schools taking part will be published shortly.
The NELI programme has been extensively trialled, with three randomised control trials demonstrating its effectiveness in raising language and literacy outcomes for reception age children.
The Education Endowment Foundation plans to provide an independent evaluation of the second year of the scale up of the NELI. The research project plans to gather and share useful lessons about the programme itself, as well as broader lessons about offering educational programmes at scale to English schools.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total number of pupils is in (a) state and (b) private schools; and what the total number of positive assessments for dyslexia is in (a) state and (b) private schools.
Answered by Will Quince
The total number of children in state schools is 8,342,521, as of January 2021. The total number of children in independent schools is 569,332, as of January 2021.
The department does not hold the information requested about the number of children with dyslexia in state schools or independent schools. However, state schools report the number of pupils who have a specific learning difficulty, which usually includes dyslexia, as their primary need as being 156,797, and those for whom it is a secondary need as 27,237 pupils.