Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan

Thursday 2nd March 2023 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Claire Coutinho)]

Today, I am proud to announce publication of the “Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan”. This is a joint publication with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. This plan sets out the next steps we will take to deliver a more positive experience for children, young people and families.

Our “Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Green Paper”, published in March 2022, set out proposals to deliver a more inclusive system. What we heard through the consultation on the proposals set out in the Green Paper—particularly from parents and families—gives us confidence to establish a new national SEND and alternative provision system with the mission to:

fulfil children’s potential: children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities or attending alternative provision will enjoy their childhood, achieve their goals and be well prepared for adulthood and employment;

build parents’ trust: parents and carers experience a fairer, easily navigable system (across education, health and care) that restores their confidence that their children will get the right support, in the right place, at the right time;

provide financial sustainability: local leaders make the best use of record investment in the high needs budget to meet children and young people’s needs and improve outcomes, placing local authorities on a stable financial footing.

The improvement plan sets out that we will establish a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with special educational needs and disabilities from birth to age 25 so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes, and are well prepared for their next step, whether that is employment, higher education or adult services.

To deliver consistent experience regardless of the school a child attends, where they live or their family background, we will develop new national special educational needs and disabilities and alternative provision standards, covering early years, school, and post-16 provision, setting out what types of support should be available and who should be responsible for making sure this happens, based on the best possible evidence. This will include clarity on the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings. This will give families confidence and clarity on how their children’s needs will be met.

New practice guides, based on the best available evidence, will equip frontline professionals to identify needs early, accurately, and consistently so that the right support can be put in place. We will give families greater confidence that their child will be supported to fulfil their potential through improved mainstream provision in their local setting.

A few weeks ago I launched “Stable Homes, Built on Love”, an implementation strategy and consultation which sets out our plans to transform children’s social care. We have worked closely to ensure that these two sets of reforms lock tightly together, putting families at the heart of the system of help and support.

We are building a confident, expert workforce across education, health and care to ensure children get the early support they need to fulfil their potential. We will introduce a new special educational needs co-ordinator national professional qualification for schools to give these vital staff with the knowledge, training and practical skills to support children with special educational needs. We are also already offering training for up to 5,000 new early years special educational needs co-ordinators.

We are also investing £21 million to train 400 educational psychologists to provide expert advice on supporting individual needs. We will extend funding, by up to an additional £6 million, for specialist taskforces which work directly in alternative provision schools and include for example mental health professionals, family workers, and speech and language therapists.

We are delivering a new approach to alternative provision, so it is used as an intervention for young people to stay in or return quickly to mainstream, instead of being a destination. Alternative provision settings will need to follow the new national standards, which will set out how the new approach should be delivered, and will form a critical part of local partnerships and inclusion plans.

We want children and young people who need an education, health and care plan or specialist provision, to get prompt access to the support they need, within a less adversarial system. We will reduce bureaucracy through new standardised education, health and care plans and promoting the use of digital technology.

I appreciate how crucial it is to have the right school places within the local area. To that end we are investing £2.6 billion between now and 2025 to fund new special and alternative provision places and improve existing provision. I can now announce we are opening 33 new special free schools, with a further 49 in the pipeline, and we will shortly be launching competitions to run those schools.

To support young people into employment, we will invest £18 million to double the capacity of the supported internships programme and continue to work with the Department for Work and Pensions on the introduction of the adjustments passport so that employers know what support young people require. New guidance to support effective transitions, including into employment, will mean that young people are supported from day one.

I know how important it is that accountability is strengthened across the system so that everyone is held to account for delivering for children and young people with special educational needs or who require alternative provision. My Department will have a role in reviewing new local inclusion plans and will offer support and challenge where necessary. New Ofsted and Care Quality Commission Area SEND inspections, launched in January of this year, will have a greater focus on the outcomes and experiences of children, young people and families.

We will test our key reforms, such as national standards, through the creation of up to nine regional expert partnerships through our £70 million Change Programme. This will help build a strong evidence base to inform future funding and legislation and allow us to guard against unintended consequences.

Oversight of reform will be provided through a new National Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Implementation Board jointly chaired by me and the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Maria Caulfield), who is the Minister responsible for mental health and the women’s health strategy.

[HCWS595]