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Written Question
Education: Autism
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of average waiting times for autism assessments on educational attainment.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government recognises that there can be long waits for autism assessments. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is taking steps to improve access to assessments for autism. In 2023/24 DHSC allocated £4.2 million to improve services for autistic children and young people including assessments, pre-and post-diagnostic support, and the continuation of the Autism in Schools programme. Additionally, in April 2023, NHS England published a national framework to support the local NHS to commission and deliver autism assessment services for children, young people, and adults.

The Department for Education wants all children and young people to be able to reach their full potential and receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The SEND Code of Practice is clear that meeting the needs of a child with SEND does not require a diagnostic label or assessment. Instead, the department expects teachers to monitor the progress of all children and young people and put support in place where needed, including arranging diagnostic tests where appropriate.

The 2023 SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan set out the department’s vision to improve mainstream education through setting standards for early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will clarify the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings and practitioner standards will be developed to support frontline professionals, including one on autism.

The department’s Universal Services contract brings together SEND-specific continuing professional development and support for the school and further education workforce to improve outcomes for children and young people, including those with autism, through one programme, which aims to reach 70% of schools and colleges in England per year.

The contract offers autism awareness training and resources: over 135,000 professionals have undertaken autism awareness training provided by the Autism Education Trust through the programme's train the trainer model.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Hertfordshire
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March to Question 17451 on Special Educational Needs: Finance, whether Hertfordshire County Council was one of the local authorities from which her Department received a high-quality application through the most recent special free schools application round.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department received a total of 85 applications from local authorities to open a special free school in a very competitive application round, including an application from Hertfordshire County Council.

The department plans to select a further 15 successful applications. This will remain a competitive process. This approach means we can move quickly to appoint trusts to run these schools.

The department plans to announce those local authorities that have been successful for the additional special free schools later this year.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Finance
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 2.25(3) of the Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, published on 6 March 2024, how local authorities can apply for funding for additional special school places.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The Spring Budget confirmed plans for 15 additional special free schools. An announcement on the location of these schools will be made by May 2024.

The department has received a large number of high quality applications from local authorities through the most recent special free schools application round. Funding available at the time allowed us to approve 33 new special free schools, in March 2023.

The Spring Budget announcement means that the department can now go further, by considering high quality applications that the department was not able to approve at the time. This means that the department does not currently plan to invite new local authority applications.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 25 October 2023 to Question 202520 on Special Educational Needs, on what date he plans to publish additional guidance on school admission for summer-born children with an Education, Health and Care Plan.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department will be publishing additional guidance on school admission for summer-born children with an Education, Health and Care plan in due course.


Written Question
Free School Meals: Finance
Tuesday 13th February 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 June 2023 to Question 189943 on Free School Meals: Finance, whether her Department issues guidance on recouping unspent funds allocated to free school meals.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department spends over £1 billion each year on free meals, which now support over one third of pupils in England. In 2023/24, the Free School Meal (FSM) factor of the National Funding Formula designates £480 per eligible pupil. This is increasing to £490 in 2024/25. Schools are allocated un-ringfenced funding through their core budgets to provide these free meals for disadvantaged pupils. This system recognises that schools are best placed to make decisions about how they use their funding and gives them considerable freedom in how they best deliver educational provision to their pupils.

The department is aware of concerns highlighted in the Hungry for Change report. It is for schools to deliver FSM provision and, in line with their duties, to ensure eligible pupils receive free and nutritious meals every day. Schools have freedom over the way in which they achieve this.


Written Question
Free School Meals: Finance
Tuesday 13th February 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 22 June 2023 to Question 189943 on Free School Meals: Finance, what assessment her Department has made of the report Hungry for Change, published on 27 June 2019 by Northumbria University.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department spends over £1 billion each year on free meals, which now support over one third of pupils in England. In 2023/24, the Free School Meal (FSM) factor of the National Funding Formula designates £480 per eligible pupil. This is increasing to £490 in 2024/25. Schools are allocated un-ringfenced funding through their core budgets to provide these free meals for disadvantaged pupils. This system recognises that schools are best placed to make decisions about how they use their funding and gives them considerable freedom in how they best deliver educational provision to their pupils.

The department is aware of concerns highlighted in the Hungry for Change report. It is for schools to deliver FSM provision and, in line with their duties, to ensure eligible pupils receive free and nutritious meals every day. Schools have freedom over the way in which they achieve this.


Written Question
Free School Meals: Finance
Tuesday 13th February 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether free school meal providers are entitled to keep money allocated to but not spent on free school meals.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department spends over £1 billion each year on free meals, which now support over one third of pupils in England. In 2023/24, the Free School Meal (FSM) factor of the National Funding Formula designates £480 per eligible pupil. This is increasing to £490 in 2024/25. Schools are allocated un-ringfenced funding through their core budgets to provide these free meals for disadvantaged pupils. This system recognises that schools are best placed to make decisions about how they use their funding and gives them considerable freedom in how they best deliver educational provision to their pupils.

The department is aware of concerns highlighted in the Hungry for Change report. It is for schools to deliver FSM provision and, in line with their duties, to ensure eligible pupils receive free and nutritious meals every day. Schools have freedom over the way in which they achieve this.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Hertfordshire
Thursday 1st February 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish a schedule of planned meetings between her Department and Hertfordshire County Council to monitor the progress of its Area Special Educational Needs and Disabilities service improvement plan.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is currently scheduling a series of monitoring meetings with senior representatives from the local area to review progress against the priority action plan at a strategic level. In line with departmental policy, the department does not publish the schedules of meetings but will monitor progress approximately every three months. Following a monitoring meeting, the department will engage with the local area partnership to discuss outcomes and appropriate next steps. Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission will then visit at the 18-month mark for formal monitoring.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Admissions
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many special school places are available in England as of 24 January 2024, broken down by local education authority.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The information requested is not held centrally. The department does not collect real-time data on the availability of school places.

The department has begun collecting annual data from local authorities on available capacity in special schools, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (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.

Local authorities are responsible for providing enough school places for children in their area.

The department supports local authorities to provide sufficient school places through capital funding, and 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 SEND 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.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Hertfordshire
Tuesday 28th November 2023

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 November to Question 1392 on Special Educational Needs: Hertfordshire, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of appointing a Children's Services Commissioner to assist Hertfordshire County Council to deliver their statutory responsibilities to (a) SEND children and (b) their families.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

When an inspection report identifies a local area that has widespread and/or systemic failings, the department’s response follows a tiered intervention model based on a robust assessment of need in that local area. I will consider issuing an improvement notice to the local authority unless there is compelling and strong evidence not to. This is to make sure that they improve their services quickly and effectively.

The department is meeting local leaders in Hertfordshire in early December to scrutinise their plans for rapid improvement and the local area partnership is required to submit a detailed priority action plan to Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission by 19 December 2023. To ensure independent and expert oversight of delivery of this plan, the partnership has appointed Dame Christine Lenehan as the new chair of the partnership’s multi-agency improvement board. The department will monitor progress every three months against the Priority Action Plan and Ofsted will visit after 18 months for formal monitoring. If there is persistent or whole service failure, the department will consider a range of further interventions to bring about fast improvement. These include issuing a statutory direction and appointing a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities commissioner.