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Written Question
Education: Autism
Wednesday 28th February 2024

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 the current level of training on autism that teachers receive; and what consideration they have given to introducing whole school staff training on autism.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

I refer the noble Lord to the answer of 22 February 2024 to Question 14564.


Written Question
Education: Autism
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing national guidance on how to adapt school environments to support the needs of autistic pupils.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

I refer the noble Lord to the answer of 12 February 2024 to Question 11638.


Written Question
Education: Autism
Wednesday 28th February 2024

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 the National Autistic Society's Cullum Centres; and what consideration they have given to rolling out the Cullum model in mainstream schools across the country.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department works closely with the National Autistic Society (NAS) and is aware of the Cullum Centres and the evaluation currently being undertaken by Goldsmiths, University of London, but has made no assessments of the Centres to date. The department engages regularly with NAS and other autism stakeholders to understand the issues faced by autistic children and young people and to understand possible solutions.

The department supports local authorities to provide sufficient school places for all children, including autistic children, through capital funding. The department has published over £1.5 billion of High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. This funding is allocated to local authorities to support them to deliver new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with autism, or who require alternative provision (AP). This funding forms part of the department's transformational investment of £2.6 billion in new high needs provision between 2022 and 2025 and is on top of the department’s ongoing delivery of new special and AP free schools.

Reaching over 70% of schools and further education (FE) colleges, the Universal Services programme helps the school and FE workforce to identify and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND earlier and more effectively. The programme will also help the schools to successfully prepare children and young people for adulthood, including employment.  Universal offers online training, professional development groups, bespoke school and college improvement projects, sector-led research, autism awareness training and an embedded focus on preparation for adulthood, including employer-led webinars for college staff. The programme commenced in May 2022 and runs until Spring 2025, with a budget of nearly £12 million.

The department has begun collecting data from local authorities on available capacity in special schools, SEND units and resourced provision, along with corresponding forecasts of demand for these places. This data will help the department to effectively support local authorities to fulfil their statutory duty to provide sufficient specialist places.


Written Question
Refugees: Children
Tuesday 1st August 2023

Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what specialist support they offer to unaccompanied migrant children who have been arrested, including those who have been trafficked, to enable them to rebuild their lives.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department takes the welfare of unaccompanied migrant children extremely seriously and we are committed to ensuring they are safe and secure. Local authorities have a duty to provide services to all children in need in their area. Under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989, those under the age of 18 arriving as unaccompanied asylum-seekers should enter the care of the local authority in which area they first present.

All unaccompanied children, including those who have been arrested or trafficked, should be safeguarded and have their welfare promoted in the same way as any other looked-after child. Social Workers and other practitioners including police, health, education and youth offender services practitioners, and those who care for looked-after children, are encouraged to consider the full range of support available to looked after children in their areas, including that from community and other organisations.

The provisions under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 ensure that if there is uncertainty over whether a potential victim of trafficking is a child or an adult, then that person is presumed to be a child and receives the appropriate support without delay. If practitioners have concerns that a child may be a potential victim of modern slavery or human trafficking, then a referral should be made to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) as soon as possible. Guidance on making a referral can be found in the attached document. The NRM acts as a formal framework for first responders to identify potential victims of trafficking and assists with the provision of victim support. Like any other child in need, a trafficked child referred through the NRM should be safeguarded by the local authority on which the referral is made. Where it is evident that the child faces a significant risk of harm from the trafficker, appropriate arrangements will need to be put in place to keep the child safe from harm, and the child’s care plan should include such measures.

In addition, the Home Office has rolled out Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) to two thirds of local authorities in England and Wales. In June 2023, the Minister for Safeguarding agreed to extend the current grant agreement to 31 March 2025, alongside working to deliver ICTG national rollout covering all of England and Wales. ICTGs are an additional source of advice and support for potentially trafficked children, and somebody who can advocate on their behalf to ensure their best interests are reflected in the decision-making processes undertaken by the public authorities who are involved in the child’s care. The support they provided is in addition to the statutory support provided to children by local authorities. Statutory guidance on roles and responsibilities of ICTGs is attached.


Written Question
Children Act 1989
Thursday 25th May 2023

Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether section 20 of the Children Act 1989 allows local authorities to delegate their duties under that section for child protection to other public bodies.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Local authorities have a duty to provide services to all children in need in their area. Under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989, local authorities are under a statutory obligation to provide accommodation to children when the criteria in Section 20(1) is met.

It is the responsibility of the local authority to ensure that the duty to accommodate is met. Whilst the local authority can make arrangements with other persons to act on their behalf by providing certain services, including the provision of accommodation, the local authority is still responsible for meeting the duty under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989, and for anything that flows from a child being accommodated by the local authority.


Written Question
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Wednesday 29th March 2023

Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to review their support for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The United Kingdom remains fully committed to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and is dedicated to protecting and promoting children’s rights in all aspects of society.

The department is fully engaged with the UNCRC reporting process. We submitted our UK State Party report in June 2022 and are preparing for the Constructive Dialogue with the UN Committee in May 2023.

Through the use of Children’s Rights Impact Assessments, the government has sought to embed the consideration of children’s rights and compatibility with the Convention at the heart of policy making.

Strengthening children’s rights is a continuous process and we look forward to receiving the Concluding Observations from the UN Committee in June 2023, so we can continue to look for new and better ways of promoting the best interests of children.


Written Question
Children: Safety
Wednesday 29th March 2023

Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to amend the Children Act 1989 to remove the legal duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

His Majesty’s Government do not have any plans to amend the Children Act 1989 to remove the legal duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Appeals
Monday 30th May 2022

Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have they made of the impact of the policy set out in the SEND review which makes mediation mandatory before allowing families to go to the SEND tribunal, on levels of (1) stress, and (2) administration, for families with disabled children.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Throughout the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Review, parents and carers told us how lengthy, stressful, and often expensive, the tribunal process can be.

The department’s proposals set out in the SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper, which is subject to consultation, seek to enable issues to be resolved earlier and improve relationships locally by strengthening mediation, including consulting on making it mandatory.

In the current system, in most cases, families must secure a mediation certificate before registering an appeal with the tribunal, but they do not have to participate in the mediation itself. If the parent or young person does decide to proceed with mediation, then the local authority must ensure that it arranges for mediation between it and the child's parent or young person within 30 days.

Waiting for a SEND tribunal hearing can take significantly longer. The tribunal has a performance measure that 75% of appeals should be brought to a hearing and the decision issued within 22 weeks.

Mediation is effective in most cases. In 2021, 74% of mediation cases were settled without the need to progress to a tribunal. Mediation is free of charge for families.

The department will make sure there is appropriate support available to parents to help them understand the mediation process and how best to engage with it. Parents will still be able to go to a tribunal if necessary.

The green paper is now out for public consultation on its proposals until 22 July.


Written Question
Schools: Standards
Thursday 9th April 2020

Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the use of school league tables.

Answered by Baroness Berridge

The department has no plans to carry out a formal review of the use of school performance tables. The department continually monitors the way the educational performance data we publish is used by parents, schools and those working with schools, such as academy trusts and local authorities.

On 20 March 2020, the government announced that it will not publish any school or college level educational performance data based on tests, assessments or exams for 2020. This follows the government’s decision to cancel the summer 2020 exam series, including GCSEs, A-levels, and other qualifications, and all primary assessments, as we fight to stop the spread of coronavirus.


Written Question
Free Schools: Special Educational Needs
Monday 30th March 2020

Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Berridge on 4 March (HL Deb, col 692), when the 48 special free schools "in the pipeline" are expected to open.

Answered by Baroness Berridge

4 of the 48 special free schools in the pipeline have funding agreements in place and are due to open in 2020; 1 in April 2020 and 3 in September 2020. Up to a further 9 schools are also expected to open in 2020, although these do not yet have funding agreements in place. The remaining 35 schools are at a different stage in their development and we will confirm opening dates for them in due course.