Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce mandatory Children’s Rights and wellbeing impact assessments for all policy development and decision-making across Government to promote the needs and best interests of children and young people.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are a valuable tool in ensuring children’s rights are considered when developing new policy and legislation. Whilst the department does not intend to give these impact assessments a statutory basis, it encourages the use of them across governmental departments when developing policies.
The government takes steps to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policy such as consulting with internal policy teams, as well as the relevant external experts, organisations, and representative groups. Much of the government’s policy is targeted at helping those that need help most, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The government also operates within the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places a duty on government to consider the impact of policies on people who share protected characteristics, including age.
In line with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury requirements, the department produces an annual plan to ensure delivery of my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s, priorities. This sets out the department’s priority outcomes and ensures that they are embedded across government in relevant departmental strategies.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to adopt a cross-Government strategy and outcomes framework to drive improvements for children and young people.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are a valuable tool in ensuring children’s rights are considered when developing new policy and legislation. Whilst the department does not intend to give these impact assessments a statutory basis, it encourages the use of them across governmental departments when developing policies.
The government takes steps to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policy such as consulting with internal policy teams, as well as the relevant external experts, organisations, and representative groups. Much of the government’s policy is targeted at helping those that need help most, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The government also operates within the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places a duty on government to consider the impact of policies on people who share protected characteristics, including age.
In line with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury requirements, the department produces an annual plan to ensure delivery of my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s, priorities. This sets out the department’s priority outcomes and ensures that they are embedded across government in relevant departmental strategies.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they take to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policies across Government.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are a valuable tool in ensuring children’s rights are considered when developing new policy and legislation. Whilst the department does not intend to give these impact assessments a statutory basis, it encourages the use of them across governmental departments when developing policies.
The government takes steps to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policy such as consulting with internal policy teams, as well as the relevant external experts, organisations, and representative groups. Much of the government’s policy is targeted at helping those that need help most, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The government also operates within the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places a duty on government to consider the impact of policies on people who share protected characteristics, including age.
In line with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury requirements, the department produces an annual plan to ensure delivery of my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s, priorities. This sets out the department’s priority outcomes and ensures that they are embedded across government in relevant departmental strategies.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to address the gaps in learning for disabled children who need to be absent from school more often than their peers.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Disabled children often face greater barriers to attending school than their peers, but the government is clear that the attendance ambition for these pupils should be the same as for any other pupil.
The department’s new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance (attached) sets expectations on schools to be mindful of the barriers that disabled children face and put in place additional support where necessary to access full-time education, including making reasonable adjustments (for example, to uniforms or school routines). The department’s attendance hubs, mentors and advisor programmes will help schools to meet these expectations.
Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of health reasons including long-term illness, would otherwise not receive suitable education. The department’s statutory guidance, ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ (attached), sets out clear expectations of local authorities to meet this duty including that the education provided is of good quality.
The attached Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, detail commitments to providing stronger support for disabled children. This includes a Law Commission review of children’s social care legislation for disabled children and a £30 million investment in innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children. Improved attendance will be a key outcome in the new SEND and AP inclusion dashboards and in the new performance framework for AP. Information on the implementation strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the provision of education for disabled children who have long periods of absence from schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Disabled children often face greater barriers to attending school than their peers, but the government is clear that the attendance ambition for these pupils should be the same as for any other pupil.
The department’s new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance (attached) sets expectations on schools to be mindful of the barriers that disabled children face and put in place additional support where necessary to access full-time education, including making reasonable adjustments (for example, to uniforms or school routines). The department’s attendance hubs, mentors and advisor programmes will help schools to meet these expectations.
Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of health reasons including long-term illness, would otherwise not receive suitable education. The department’s statutory guidance, ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ (attached), sets out clear expectations of local authorities to meet this duty including that the education provided is of good quality.
The attached Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, detail commitments to providing stronger support for disabled children. This includes a Law Commission review of children’s social care legislation for disabled children and a £30 million investment in innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children. Improved attendance will be a key outcome in the new SEND and AP inclusion dashboards and in the new performance framework for AP. Information on the implementation strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Children’s Commissioner report Beyond the labels: A SEND system which works for every child, every time, published in November 2022, which found that “children with SEND are overrepresented in terms of low attendance at school”, what plans they have to reform approaches to school attendance to incorporate the needs of disabled children.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Disabled children often face greater barriers to attending school than their peers, but the government is clear that the attendance ambition for these pupils should be the same as for any other pupil.
The department’s new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance (attached) sets expectations on schools to be mindful of the barriers that disabled children face and put in place additional support where necessary to access full-time education, including making reasonable adjustments (for example, to uniforms or school routines). The department’s attendance hubs, mentors and advisor programmes will help schools to meet these expectations.
Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of health reasons including long-term illness, would otherwise not receive suitable education. The department’s statutory guidance, ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ (attached), sets out clear expectations of local authorities to meet this duty including that the education provided is of good quality.
The attached Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, detail commitments to providing stronger support for disabled children. This includes a Law Commission review of children’s social care legislation for disabled children and a £30 million investment in innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children. Improved attendance will be a key outcome in the new SEND and AP inclusion dashboards and in the new performance framework for AP. Information on the implementation strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relative work and pay conditions of employees (1) with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and (2) without SEND.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The post-16 education and labour market activities, pathways and outcomes report, published in May 2021, uses the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) administrative data set to explore the pattern and nature of the pathways that people take from completing school, through their education and into the labour market. This is broken down by a number of key characteristics including special education need. The report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-16-education-and-labour-market-activities-pathways-and-outcomes-leo, and the dashboard can be found here: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/leo-post16education-labourmarket/.
The dashboard provides information on educational and labour market activities, including earnings, employment rates and out-of-work benefits uptake, for up to 15 years after leaving school.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many supported internships there are; and what is the target number of supported internships during 2023.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In January 2022, local authorities reported that there were 2,477 young people with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan enrolled on a supported internship.
In February 2022, the department announced that we are investing up to £18 million over the next three years to build capacity in the Supported Internships programme. We will aim to double the number of Supported Internships to around 4,500 per year by 2025 to give more young people with an EHC plan the skills to secure and sustain paid employment.
In the Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced up to £3 million to pilot extending Supported Internships to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities without EHC plans, to support more young people into employment.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan are in employment at (1) 18 years, (2) 21 years, and (3) 25 years, old.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Published evidence cannot directly answer the exact wording of the question. The government has published multiple pieces of analysis that examine employment outcomes for people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Taken together, this evidence shows that there is an employment gap between those with SEND and those without.
Note that for children and young people with more complex needs, the education, health and care (EHC) plan replaced statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments (LDAs) in 2014. This replacement took some years to rollout. Details are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/398815/SEND_Code_of_Practice_January_2015.pdf. There are therefore limited cohorts of pupils where it is possible to assess long-term employment rates for individuals with EHC plans.
The most relevant published evidence assesses the outcomes of young people that took their GCSEs exams between 2002 and 2007. The 2021 report is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1122775/Research_report_-_Post_16_education_and_labour_market_activities_pathways_and_outcomes_LEO.pdf. The report covers cohorts that took their GCSEs before special educational needs (SEN) statements were replaced by EHC plans. This analysis shows that of the 2001/02 key stage 4 GCSEs, usually taken at age 16, cohort used in the analysis, 39% of people that had a SEN statement were in employment[1] fifteen years later. For comparison, 50% that had SEN without a statement were estimated to be employed, versus 63% of students with no identified SEN.
There are multiple other pieces of published evidence that assesses the labour market outcomes of those with a SEN, a learning difficulty and/or a disability captured below:
[1] Employment is defined here as “the individual has been in paid employment for at least one day in each of the 12 months of the tax year. If the individual has a spell of employment but no income in the tax year (e.g. career break) then the individual is not counted as being employed.”
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of participants in the supported internship program have an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to providing all young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) with good opportunities to allow them to transition from education into a fulfilling adult life.
On 2 March 2023, we published the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, in response to the SEND and AP Green Paper published in March 2022. This outlines the government’s mission for the SEND and AP system to fulfil children and young people’s potential, build parents’ trust, and provide financial sustainability.
In the Improvement Plan, the department committed to developing good practice guidance to support consistent, timely, high-quality transitions for children and young people with SEND and in AP. This will ultimately look at transitions between all stages of education and will focus initially on transitions into and out of post-16 settings, including into employment.
We are also supporting the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to develop and pilot an Adjustments Passport that will help to smooth the transition into employment and support people changing jobs.
Schools and colleges are expected to develop and improve their careers provision for young people in line with the world-class Gatsby Benchmarks, addressing the individual needs of each pupil, and seeking to raise the career aspirations of students with SEND.
Supported internships are a study programme for young people aged 16 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan, want to move into employment and need extra support to do so. All young people completing a supported internship have an EHC plan. We are investing approximately £18 million until 2025 to build capacity in the Supported Internships Programme and support more young people with EHC plans into employment.
The department also wants to ensure people of all ages and backgrounds can undertake apprenticeships that offer excellent career development and progression opportunities. In recent years, we have seen an improved representation of learners who have declared a Learning Difficulty or Disability (LDD) starting apprenticeships. We have improved our ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ service to allow people to identify Disability Confident Employers offering opportunities. Training providers will conduct an assessment for people with an LDD to identify if they require a reasonable adjustment to undertake and continue with their apprenticeship.
To ensure that employers are supported to create new apprenticeship opportunities, the department provides targeted financial support directly to training providers to help remove barriers for people with a LDD. Employers could receive £1,000 towards the costs of workplace support when they take on an apprentice aged 16-18 or 19-25 with an EHC plan, as well as help to cover the extra costs working individuals may have because of their disability, through the DWP’s Access to Work scheme.