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 guidance entitled Summer born children: advice for admission authorities, published on 27 April 2023, whether she plans to introduce additional guidance for summer born children with an education, health and care plan.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department will be considering whether to publish such additional guidance and will confirm its decision in due course.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to hold discussions with the F40 campaign group on SEND funding allocations.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department will take time to consider the high needs national funding formula (NFF) that it uses to allocate funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities. The department is considering the impact of the formula on local authorities, including Hertfordshire County Council and those in the F40 group. It is important that there is a fair education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed.
Budgets for the 2025/26 financial year have not been set, which means that decisions on the high needs and mainstream schools NFF and the publication of allocations for that year will not be to the usual timescales.
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 review the SEND funding formula allocations for pupils in Hertfordshire.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department will take time to consider the high needs national funding formula (NFF) that it uses to allocate funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities. The department is considering the impact of the formula on local authorities, including Hertfordshire County Council and those in the F40 group. It is important that there is a fair education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed.
Budgets for the 2025/26 financial year have not been set, which means that decisions on the high needs and mainstream schools NFF and the publication of allocations for that year will not be to the usual timescales.
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 it her policy to extend free childcare to holders of British National (Overseas) passports working in the UK.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is determined to make early years the department’s top priority, reset its engagement with the sector and set every child on the journey to improved life chances. The government will say more about plans for early education and childcare in due course.
The current position is that families with British National Overseas status can access:
o £26,500 for families outside of London with one child
o £34,500 for families within London with one child
o £30,600 for families outside of London with two or more children
o £38,600 for families within London with two or more children
The entitlements for children of working parents are not within the definition of ’public funds’ in the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 or the Immigration Rules. However, there are requirements in the Childcare (Free of Charge for Working Parents) (England) Regulations 2022 for the parent, or one of the parents, not to be subject to immigration control. This means that where both parents have no recourse to public funds, they will not be eligible for these entitlements. However, if there are two parents and just one of them is subject to immigration control, the family will still be eligible for the entitlements provided they meet the other eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in care are moved more than 10 miles away due to a lack of appropriate local care options.
Answered by David Johnston
The ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions’ 2023 data shows that 70% of children who were looked after on 31 March 2023 were placed within 20 miles of home and 21% were placed over 20 miles from home. This data is published on GOV.UK. Information for the remaining 9% was not known or not recorded. In most cases this will be because the child was an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child but it could also be because the home address was not known or for reasons of confidentiality. Information on reasons why children were placed more than 20 miles from their home is not held centrally by the department.
Sometimes out of area placements are essential to keep a child safe, but the department recognises there are challenges in the children’s social care sector. At the Spring Budget, the government announced a £165 million boost to expand places in secure and open residential children’s homes, on top of the £259 million secured at Spending Review 2021. This takes the total planned investment to over £400 million. This Spring Budget funding is expected to create a further 200 open children’s homes (OCHs) places and rebuild Atkinson and Swanwick secure children’s homes (SCHs). This is in addition to the 95 new OCHs, providing 360 additional placements, and two brand new regional SCHs in London and West Midlands created by the Spending Review funding. This total investment illustrates the department’s commitment to support councils in continuing to deliver high-quality services to vulnerable children and families.
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 her Department’s meeting with Hertfordshire County Council on 18 April 2024 on SEND services, what progress has been made on improving the services provided by that local authority.
Answered by David Johnston
I refer the honourable Member for St Albans to my answer of 20 May 2024 to question 25358.
On April 18, departmental officials met Hertfordshire local authority officials to discuss progress with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) improvement and they were satisfied with the local area's progress so far against its improvement plan. For example, the local authority has recruited over 100 new employees and caseloads have reduced. The local authority has also established a SEND Academy to induct and train new employees. However, further improvement is necessary, and the department will continue to monitor progress closely to ensure that services improve for children and families in Hertfordshire.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on improving SEND services at Hertfordshire County Council.
Answered by David Johnston
The department issued an improvement notice to Hertfordshire Council in February of this year to ensure that the local area makes improvements quickly and effectively.
The local authority has appointed Dame Christine Lenehan, a former director at the council for disabled children, as the independent chair of the partnership’s multi-agency improvement board.
Departmental officials are continuing to support and challenge Hertfordshire's special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) improvement. The department has appointed a specialist professional SEND adviser to provide additional advice and support to the local SEND leaders, until such time as my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, is satisfied this is no longer required. The department has also procured expert support for the local area partnership from the council of disabled children and the national development team for inclusion.
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission will visit in early 2025 for formal monitoring, with a full reinspection taking place in summer 2026.
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 12 July 2023 to Question 192929 on Special Educational Needs: Unpaid Work, how many and what proportion of supported internships have been given to young people without an education, health and care plan under the pilot announced in the Spring Budget 2023.
Answered by David Johnston
Supported internships are a work 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. In 2022, the department invested around £18 million until March 2025 to build capacity in the supported internship programme and double the number of supported internships to 4,500 by March 2025.
In 2022, the SEN2 data collection recorded 2,477 supported internship starts. In 2023, SEN2 recorded 1,526 supported internship starts. However, this was following a change in the data collection to gather individual learner level, rather than aggregated returns, for each local authority. As with any new data collection, there were some quality issues and limitations to the data received, which the department is working with local authorities to address. The SEN2 data collection for 2024 will be published in June.
The charity, DFN Project Search, are contracted as part of the Internships Work consortium to deliver local authority special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Employment Forum training to any local authorities who wish to take up the offer to help them develop their supported internship programmes. DFN Project Search have delivered training to 134 out of 153 local authorities. Moving into the final year of the contract, DFN Project Search will target the remaining local authorities and additional training will remain open to any local authorities that request it.
In the Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the supported internship pilot which extends the programme to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD) without EHC plans until March 2025.
The pilot is being rolled out in 12 local authorities with a strong, existing supported internship offer in a mix of urban and rural areas. Delivery began in September 2023. Through the pilot, the department is hoping to support around 250 young people aged 16 to 24, who have complex SEND and LDD but who do not have an EHC plan, to develop the skills and experience needed to move into sustained, paid employment.
As the delivery is still in its early stages, the department has not yet formally assessed the effectiveness of the pilot. The pilot will be evaluated to inform future policy planning on supported internships. Participating local authorities, employers, providers and interns are engaging with the evaluation partner, CooperGibson Research, who aim to publish their report in the summer of 2026.
Early feedback from local authorities that are delivering the pilot shows that interns have been enrolled on positive and stretching work placements.
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 12 July 2023 to Question 192929 on Special Educational Needs: Unpaid Work, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the pilot extending supported internships to young people without an education, health and care plan.
Answered by David Johnston
Supported internships are a work 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. In 2022, the department invested around £18 million until March 2025 to build capacity in the supported internship programme and double the number of supported internships to 4,500 by March 2025.
In 2022, the SEN2 data collection recorded 2,477 supported internship starts. In 2023, SEN2 recorded 1,526 supported internship starts. However, this was following a change in the data collection to gather individual learner level, rather than aggregated returns, for each local authority. As with any new data collection, there were some quality issues and limitations to the data received, which the department is working with local authorities to address. The SEN2 data collection for 2024 will be published in June.
The charity, DFN Project Search, are contracted as part of the Internships Work consortium to deliver local authority special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Employment Forum training to any local authorities who wish to take up the offer to help them develop their supported internship programmes. DFN Project Search have delivered training to 134 out of 153 local authorities. Moving into the final year of the contract, DFN Project Search will target the remaining local authorities and additional training will remain open to any local authorities that request it.
In the Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the supported internship pilot which extends the programme to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD) without EHC plans until March 2025.
The pilot is being rolled out in 12 local authorities with a strong, existing supported internship offer in a mix of urban and rural areas. Delivery began in September 2023. Through the pilot, the department is hoping to support around 250 young people aged 16 to 24, who have complex SEND and LDD but who do not have an EHC plan, to develop the skills and experience needed to move into sustained, paid employment.
As the delivery is still in its early stages, the department has not yet formally assessed the effectiveness of the pilot. The pilot will be evaluated to inform future policy planning on supported internships. Participating local authorities, employers, providers and interns are engaging with the evaluation partner, CooperGibson Research, who aim to publish their report in the summer of 2026.
Early feedback from local authorities that are delivering the pilot shows that interns have been enrolled on positive and stretching work placements.
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 12 July 2023 to Question 192929 on Special Educational Needs: Unpaid Work, how many supported internships have been given to young people with an education, health and care plan in (a) 2022, (b) 2023 and (c) 2024.
Answered by David Johnston
Supported internships are a work 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. In 2022, the department invested around £18 million until March 2025 to build capacity in the supported internship programme and double the number of supported internships to 4,500 by March 2025.
In 2022, the SEN2 data collection recorded 2,477 supported internship starts. In 2023, SEN2 recorded 1,526 supported internship starts. However, this was following a change in the data collection to gather individual learner level, rather than aggregated returns, for each local authority. As with any new data collection, there were some quality issues and limitations to the data received, which the department is working with local authorities to address. The SEN2 data collection for 2024 will be published in June.
The charity, DFN Project Search, are contracted as part of the Internships Work consortium to deliver local authority special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Employment Forum training to any local authorities who wish to take up the offer to help them develop their supported internship programmes. DFN Project Search have delivered training to 134 out of 153 local authorities. Moving into the final year of the contract, DFN Project Search will target the remaining local authorities and additional training will remain open to any local authorities that request it.
In the Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the supported internship pilot which extends the programme to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD) without EHC plans until March 2025.
The pilot is being rolled out in 12 local authorities with a strong, existing supported internship offer in a mix of urban and rural areas. Delivery began in September 2023. Through the pilot, the department is hoping to support around 250 young people aged 16 to 24, who have complex SEND and LDD but who do not have an EHC plan, to develop the skills and experience needed to move into sustained, paid employment.
As the delivery is still in its early stages, the department has not yet formally assessed the effectiveness of the pilot. The pilot will be evaluated to inform future policy planning on supported internships. Participating local authorities, employers, providers and interns are engaging with the evaluation partner, CooperGibson Research, who aim to publish their report in the summer of 2026.
Early feedback from local authorities that are delivering the pilot shows that interns have been enrolled on positive and stretching work placements.