Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish assessments of the impact of the proposed reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities system on workloads of teaching staff in (a) Yeovil constituency (b) Somerset and (c) England.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Through the department’s engagement with the sector, we have heard a clear and consistent message from teachers that the current system is not working and driving unnecessary and bureaucratic processes.
The department’s proposed reforms aim to create a more inclusive, responsive, and sustainable system that ensures all children and young people receive the support they need to thrive in education.
To drive inclusive practice across the workforce, we are investing £200 million of new funding to ensure that all teachers, educators, teaching assistants, support staff and leaders across early years, schools and post-16 settings can be trained to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.
We value the hard work of teachers and educators up and down the country and we have specifically designed our new continuing professional development courses to be flexible to work around their schedules. We know that best practice already exists across the system and the new training package will help take that further.
New National Inclusion Standards will also set out evidence-informed tools, strategies and approaches, which help educators to identify and support children and young people with additional needs.
We are also drawing on user-centred research with schools, settings, families and professionals, to design the Individual Support Plans, so that they serve to reduce workload for teachers and educators by bringing information together in one place and cutting down on duplicated recording.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department will have in place for schools implementing changes to menus under the new School Food Standards before September 2027.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
The government is committed to raising the healthiest generation ever and we have recently consulted on proposed updates to the School Food Standards in England to ensure that all food served at school better reflects current nutritional guidance and support children’s health, wellbeing and learning.
The new School Food Standards will be announced in September 2026 with implementation from September 2027. This will provide schools and caterers sufficient time to plan menus and adapt their supply chains so the changes can be embedded successfully. Additionally, a small number of requirements will be implemented from September 2028 for secondary schools. Over that time, we will continue to engage with schools, caterers and parents to help them prepare for the changes. We will be working with the sector to promote best practice and share different ways in which schools are meeting the new standards.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will publish a costed implementation plan for Special Educational Needs and Disability reform.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s approach to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform, including funding and implementation, is set out in the SEND consultation document and its accompanying annexes which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-first/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-first-html-version.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that the proposed Education for All Bill allows children in Yeovil constituency with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities to receive support from a teaching assistant when required.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s consultation ‘SEND reform: putting children and young people first’ has now closed after a 12-week consultation period including over 200 engagement events, meetings and roundtables. We are carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation and continuing to engage widely on our proposals
Under the proposals, we would place a duty on settings to produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for any child or young person receiving support within the proposed targeted, targeted plus or specialist support layers. The ISP will be developed by settings together with parents and young people, giving every child or young person receiving targeted or specialist support 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
Support in settings will be underpinned by National Inclusion Standards which will set out what ordinarily available provision should be in every setting across the 0 to 25 system, as well as the evidence-based tools, strategies and approaches for educators to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
The national inclusion standards and specialist provision packages will set out what the evidence base tells us about what good provision looks like including where teaching assistant support is an effective way to support a child or young person in mainstream or special schools
We are investing to support the mainstream system to be more inclusive. This includes investing over the next three years:
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that the proposed Education for All Bill does not adversely impact (a) parents and (b) guardians’ legal recourse to challenge the number of hours of occupational therapy for children with Special Educational Needs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
After a 12-week consultation period including over 200 engagement events, meetings and roundtables, the department’s consultation ‘SEND reform: putting children and young people first‘ has now closed. We are carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation and continuing to engage widely on our proposals.
We proposed that the information about a child or young person’s special educational needs (SEN) or special educational provision (SEP) can be considered as part of appeals to the SEND Tribunal about Specialist Provision Packages or placements as appropriate, rather than being separate.
We want the Tribunal to focus on the key questions of the child or young person’s package or placement, recognising that SEN and SEP can frequently be a central part of the evidence for these appeals. At present, the great majority of appeals relating to SEN or SEP are combined with an appeal about the child or young person’s placement. Moreover, detailed information about the child or young person’s specific special educational provision will in future be included in new setting-led Individual Support Plans that are developed following a child being placed on a package and worked-up with the teachers and staff working with the child day-to-day, so are not part of the education, health and care (EHC) plan. For these reasons, the consultation proposed that special educational provision should be included in other appeals to the Tribunal rather than kept separate.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that the proposed Education for All Bill does not adversely impact (a) parents and (b) guardians' legal recourse to appeal the details of a child’s individual Special Educational Needs and Disabilities support.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s consultation ‘SEND reform: putting children and young people first‘ has now closed after a 12-week consultation period including over 200 engagement events, meetings and roundtables. We are carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation and continuing to engage widely on our proposals.
Proposals set out included that we will seek to strengthen local authority-commissioned but independent mediation services for decisions about specialist provision, embedding professional standards for mediators, promoting new guidance and sharing best practice. We expect most disputes to be resolved via this route but the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Tribunal will remain as an important legal backstop for the most important local authorities decisions including:
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that the proposed Education for All Bill does not adversely impact (a) parents and (b) guardians’ legal recourse to challenge the number of hours of speech and language therapy provided for their child.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
After a 12-week consultation period including over 200 engagement events, meetings and roundtables, the department’s consultation ‘SEND reform: putting children and young people first‘ has now closed. We are carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation and continuing to engage widely on our proposals.
We proposed that the information about a child or young person’s special educational needs (SEN) or special educational provision (SEP) can be considered as part of appeals to the SEND Tribunal about Specialist Provision Packages or placements as appropriate, rather than being separate.
We want the Tribunal to focus on the key questions of the child or young person’s package or placement, recognising that SEN and SEP can frequently be a central part of the evidence for these appeals. At present, the great majority of appeals relating to SEN or SEP are combined with an appeal about the child or young person’s placement. Moreover, detailed information about the child or young person’s specific special educational provision will in future be included in new setting-led Individual Support Plans that are developed following a child being placed on a package and worked-up with the teachers and staff working with the child day-to-day, so are not part of the education, health and care (EHC) plan. For these reasons, the consultation proposed that special educational provision should be included in other appeals to the Tribunal rather than kept separate.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she will provide details on how the role of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities tribunal will be reformed.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s consultation ‘SEND reform: putting children and young people first’ has now closed after a 12-week consultation period including over 200 engagement events, meetings and roundtables. We are carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation and continuing to engage widely on our proposals.
Proposals set out included that we will seek to strengthen local authority-commissioned but independent mediation services for decisions about specialist provision, embedding professional standards for mediators, promoting new guidance and sharing best practice. We expect most disputes to be resolved via this route, but the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Tribunal will remain as an important legal backstop for the most important local authorities decisions including:
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve access to respite provision outside of term time for children with complex Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the important role that short breaks provision outside of term time play in supporting children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families.
In February 2026, the department published the lessons learned report from the short breaks innovation programme, a three-year programme which explored approaches to improving the efficiency, effectiveness and accessibility of short breaks provision. The report highlights innovative practice and key learning from participating local authorities and is publicly available on GOV.UK to support local authorities in developing and improving their own offer.
The department is also carefully considering the recommendations made by the Law Commission in its 2025 report on disabled children's social care. The Commission highlighted the importance of short breaks as a key form of support for disabled children and their families and made recommendations relating to their provision. Ministers are considering the recommendations and will publish a response later this year.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the quality of the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills' (Ofsted) training materials that suggest children with autism are at increased risk of being susceptible to extremism.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ofsted are now delivering the renewed education inspection framework, with new training for inspectors, including updates on the Prevent duty, which no longer includes reference to children with autism.