Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to assess unmet needs among children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities as part of their planned reforms set out in their primary schools white paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, published on 23 February.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The early identification of special educational needs and disabilities is critical to improving outcomes for children and young people.
Our consultation proposed that we will introduce clear statutory duties on schools to identify and meet needs as early as possible, enabling timely and effective intervention for pupils with special educational needs (SEN).
To support delivery, we are strengthening the evidence base on what works in early identification and assessment across education settings.
We will also introduce National Inclusion Standards, equipping educators with evidence informed tools and strategies to identify, assess and support pupils with SEN, while sharing best practice nationally. This is backed by £1.8 billion of investment to expand capacity and expertise, ensuring every community can access Experts at Hand.
In parallel, government backed research led by UK Research and Innovation will develop and scale new approaches to early identification, strengths‑and‑needs assessment, and support, for integration into education settings by 2028.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that national price bands for independent school placements distinguish between profiteering and the legitimate costs of high-cost provision, including provision delivered by non-profit specialist schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government will develop a national cost framework for specialist provision packages, and we expect local authorities to commission provision based on that framework, whether that is within a specialist base in a mainstream school, or a special school, including those in the independent sector.
We will undertake a period of evidence gathering and stakeholder engagement to ensure that the framework is appropriately supporting high quality provision whilst tackling excessive prices and profit making.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of local authority attempts to introduce banding frameworks for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Many local authorities have systems which indicate the range of top-up funding that might be provided for children and young people with a particular type and complexity of need, sometimes referred to as ‘banding frameworks’. These can help determine levels of high needs top-up funding for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. A system which agrees likely levels of top-up funding in advance can also be an efficient, clear and transparent way of allocating funding.
The department has published guidance on how local authorities should allocate this funding. Section 7.4 of the high needs funding operational guidance sets out that top-up funding can reflect the costs of provision for a cohort of pupils at or within a school or college. The operational guidance is available on GOV.UK.
Funding does not need to be tied to the detailed provision that may be required or which is specified in education, health and care (EHC) plans, since schools and colleges have flexibility in deploying resources.
The local authority must be satisfied, however, that the final allocation of funding (both the top-up funding and other elements of funding) is sufficient to secure suitable provision for example, as outlined in an EHC plan.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure families are involved in the assessment of their children's needs and in the development of the children's individual support plans.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department recognises that families play a vital role in identifying and understanding their children’s needs, and we expect education settings to work in partnership with parents and carers as part of early identification, ongoing assessment and the timely provision of support.
We will place a duty on settings to produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for any child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The ISP will be developed by settings together with parents and young people, giving every child or young person with SEND a clear and consistent record of their needs and the help they receive, so that support is joined‑up, timely and genuinely centred on what will help them to thrive. ISPs will be used to communicate provision to parents and actions taken between parents and settings, supporting the relationship between home and setting. ISPs must be reviewed at least annually and may be reviewed more frequently as a child’s needs develop.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have assessed the (1) number, and (2) availability, of trained professionals needed to meet the plan for Experts at Hand included in the schools white paper Every child achieving and thriving, published on 23 February.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is providing substantial, targeted investment to help local areas grow and strengthen their specialist workforce. Over the next three years, £1.8 billion will be made available to local area partnerships to develop and rollout of the Experts at Hand offer.
Local area partnerships will design and implement their own Experts at Hand models, tailored to local needs and workforce capacity, supported by strong national oversight. The department will set the overall framework, provide guidance and tools, and work closely with local areas to ensure consistent quality. We have also announced £15 million for new speech and language therapy advanced practitioner roles, as well as continuing our investment in the educational psychology workforce with £26 million to train at least 200 educational psychologists per year from 2026 and 2027, building on previous investment.
The department knows that continuing to build the specialist workforce is essential. It is working with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, as part of wider long-term workforce priorities such as the 10 Year Workforce Plan, to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that there are legal mechanisms for parents to hold education providers accountable for implementing individual support plans effectively and appropriately.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Individual Support Plans (ISPs) will provide a record of need and provision for any child or young person receiving targeted, targeted plus or specialist support in school or college. They will allow settings to work alongside parents, providing a single, consistent record of what support has been tried, what has worked and what needs to change.
Under the proposals, settings will have a legal duty to produce an ISP for every child with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those who also have an education health and care plan. Where there are concerns about provision within an ISP, parents and young people would be able to raise these directly with the setting. The department’s proposals include strengthening the complaints process through having an independent SEND expert on panels to hear complaints concerning provision for a child with SEND.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied migrant children reported missing have been found in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is shown in the below table. The footnotes for the missing data table should be reviewed as they explain some of the limitations to this data.
Data on looked after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in England is published in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions’. The latest data is for year ending 31 March 2025 and has been available since 20 November 2025.
In these statistics, ‘missing’ is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known. A child may have had multiple missing incidents during a year that may have been resolved only to conclude with a further incident that results in the child being missing again on 31 March. Any missing incident is concerning but the vast majority (91%) of incidents, where a child who is looked after and reportedly goes missing, last for two days or less.
The department holds responsibility for the collection and publication of statistics for children looked after by local authorities in England only. Similar statistics for other countries in the UK are the responsibility of the devolved administrations.
Children missing on 31 March who were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), 2021 to 2025, England
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Children looked after on 31 March who were UASC | 4,150 | 5,680 | 7,410 | 7,440 | 6,540 |
Number of UASC who went missing during | 1,000 | 1,160 | 1,490 | 1,700 | 1,620 |
Number of UASC who were missing on 31 March | 80 | 80 | 60 | 70 | 40 |
Footnotes
1. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Figures exclude children looked after under a series of short-term placements.
2. Historical data may differ from older publications which is mainly due to amendments made by local authorities after the previous publication. However, users looking for a longer time series may wish to check for the equivalent table in earlier releases.
3. Missing is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known.
4. Since 2017 a growing number of local authorities informed the department that they do not record incidents as 'away without authorisation', but instead report all incidents as 'missing' to maintain consistency with local police reporting. We estimate this could mean an overestimate of missing incidents of up to 13% in 2021, 10% in 2022, 11% in 2023, 13% in 2024 and 12% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 9,600, 11,100, 11,500, 11,500 and 11,300. There is a corresponding estimate of an undercount of away without authorisation incidents of up to 32% in 2021, 30% in 2022, 32% in 2023, 36% in 2024 and 32% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 3,800, 3,600, 3,900, 4,300 and 4,300. However some of these local authorities submitted some 'away without authorisation' information and this can be found in the away from placement without authorisation table.
5. Figures for 2021 exclude data for Hackney.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied migrant children are currently reported missing.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is shown in the below table. The footnotes for the missing data table should be reviewed as they explain some of the limitations to this data.
Data on looked after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in England is published in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions’. The latest data is for year ending 31 March 2025 and has been available since 20 November 2025.
In these statistics, ‘missing’ is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known. A child may have had multiple missing incidents during a year that may have been resolved only to conclude with a further incident that results in the child being missing again on 31 March. Any missing incident is concerning but the vast majority (91%) of incidents, where a child who is looked after and reportedly goes missing, last for two days or less.
The department holds responsibility for the collection and publication of statistics for children looked after by local authorities in England only. Similar statistics for other countries in the UK are the responsibility of the devolved administrations.
Children missing on 31 March who were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), 2021 to 2025, England
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Children looked after on 31 March who were UASC | 4,150 | 5,680 | 7,410 | 7,440 | 6,540 |
Number of UASC who went missing during | 1,000 | 1,160 | 1,490 | 1,700 | 1,620 |
Number of UASC who were missing on 31 March | 80 | 80 | 60 | 70 | 40 |
Footnotes
1. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Figures exclude children looked after under a series of short-term placements.
2. Historical data may differ from older publications which is mainly due to amendments made by local authorities after the previous publication. However, users looking for a longer time series may wish to check for the equivalent table in earlier releases.
3. Missing is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known.
4. Since 2017 a growing number of local authorities informed the department that they do not record incidents as 'away without authorisation', but instead report all incidents as 'missing' to maintain consistency with local police reporting. We estimate this could mean an overestimate of missing incidents of up to 13% in 2021, 10% in 2022, 11% in 2023, 13% in 2024 and 12% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 9,600, 11,100, 11,500, 11,500 and 11,300. There is a corresponding estimate of an undercount of away without authorisation incidents of up to 32% in 2021, 30% in 2022, 32% in 2023, 36% in 2024 and 32% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 3,800, 3,600, 3,900, 4,300 and 4,300. However some of these local authorities submitted some 'away without authorisation' information and this can be found in the away from placement without authorisation table.
5. Figures for 2021 exclude data for Hackney.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied migrant children are being cared for in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is shown in the below table. The footnotes for the missing data table should be reviewed as they explain some of the limitations to this data.
Data on looked after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in England is published in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions’. The latest data is for year ending 31 March 2025 and has been available since 20 November 2025.
In these statistics, ‘missing’ is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known. A child may have had multiple missing incidents during a year that may have been resolved only to conclude with a further incident that results in the child being missing again on 31 March. Any missing incident is concerning but the vast majority (91%) of incidents, where a child who is looked after and reportedly goes missing, last for two days or less.
The department holds responsibility for the collection and publication of statistics for children looked after by local authorities in England only. Similar statistics for other countries in the UK are the responsibility of the devolved administrations.
Children missing on 31 March who were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), 2021 to 2025, England
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Children looked after on 31 March who were UASC | 4,150 | 5,680 | 7,410 | 7,440 | 6,540 |
Number of UASC who went missing during | 1,000 | 1,160 | 1,490 | 1,700 | 1,620 |
Number of UASC who were missing on 31 March | 80 | 80 | 60 | 70 | 40 |
Footnotes
1. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Figures exclude children looked after under a series of short-term placements.
2. Historical data may differ from older publications which is mainly due to amendments made by local authorities after the previous publication. However, users looking for a longer time series may wish to check for the equivalent table in earlier releases.
3. Missing is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known.
4. Since 2017 a growing number of local authorities informed the department that they do not record incidents as 'away without authorisation', but instead report all incidents as 'missing' to maintain consistency with local police reporting. We estimate this could mean an overestimate of missing incidents of up to 13% in 2021, 10% in 2022, 11% in 2023, 13% in 2024 and 12% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 9,600, 11,100, 11,500, 11,500 and 11,300. There is a corresponding estimate of an undercount of away without authorisation incidents of up to 32% in 2021, 30% in 2022, 32% in 2023, 36% in 2024 and 32% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 3,800, 3,600, 3,900, 4,300 and 4,300. However some of these local authorities submitted some 'away without authorisation' information and this can be found in the away from placement without authorisation table.
5. Figures for 2021 exclude data for Hackney.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 30 May (HL7545), whether they will meet pupils of Meath School in Ottershaw in respect of UNICEF UK's "Rights Respecting Schools Award"; and whether they plan to provide funding for the scheme in England.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is committed to upholding the principles of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and safeguarding the rights of children, as we continue to do through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
We know that some schools choose to follow the UNICEF scheme ‘Rights Respecting Schools Award’, which puts children’s rights at the heart of school policy and practice, and we welcome that commitment to promoting the rights of children. However, there are no plans to provide funding for the ‘Rights Respecting Schools Award’ scheme in England.
All schools in England have specific duties to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of their pupils and prepare them for the opportunities and responsibilities of adult life.
Schools in England are required to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. Citizenship education is an effective way of doing this, and we expect teachers to reinforce these values as well as to support pupils’ SMSC development.
Ministers welcome the opportunity to meet children and would be grateful for requests to be sent to the office of my hon. Friend, the Minister for School Standards.