Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the different ways in which local authorities allocate funding for education, health and care plans.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion. Of that total the City of York Council is being allocated over £30 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £1.7 million on this year’s DSG high needs block.
Local authorities are responsible for allocating funding from their high needs budget to schools and colleges to secure suitable provision as specified in an education, health and care plan. The department is keeping the high needs funding arrangements under review as we progress wider SEND reforms, including those that will support mainstream inclusion.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effectiveness of implementing cohort-based education, health and care plans.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
For too long the education system has not met the needs of all children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with parents struggling to get their children the support they need and deserve. We know that parents have struggled to get the right support for their children, particularly through long and difficult education, health and care (EHC) plan processes.
An EHC plan is a statutory document which is produced following an EHC needs assessment process. An EHC needs assessment ensures that a child or young person’s individual needs are assessed in a joined-up way across education, health and social care services. Under this assessment process the local authority must seek information and advice from a range of partners, including the child or young person and their parents, their school or college (if any) relevant health and social care partners, an educational psychologist and any other relevant professionals. The EHC needs assessment must identify the child or young person’s special educational needs, together with any relevant health or social care needs.
If the local authority then decides it is necessary to issue an EHC plan, it must set long-term outcomes for the child or young person and specify provision which will deliver those outcomes. The content in an EHC plan should be unique to the child or young person.
EHC plans should be used to actively monitor children and young people’s progress towards their outcomes and longer-term aspirations. They must be reviewed by the local authority as a minimum every 12 months. Reviews must focus on the child or young person’s progress towards achieving the outcomes specified in the EHC plan. The review must also consider whether these outcomes and supporting targets remain appropriate. The review process will enable changes to be made to an EHC plan so that it remains relevant to the needs of the child or young person and the desired outcomes.
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is working closely with experts on reforms, recently appointing a strategic advisor for SEND, who will play a key role in convening and engaging with the sector, including leaders, practitioners, children and families as we consider next steps.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to education, health and care plans for children with cerebral palsy in education settings.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to strengthening the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system for all children and young people, including those with cerebral palsy, to ensure they receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
For too long the education system has not met the needs of all children, particularly children and young people with SEND, with parents struggling to get their children the support they need and deserve, particularly through long and difficult education, health and care (EHC) plan processes.
The department is aware that local authorities have experienced increased demand for EHC plans and the subsequent demands on workforce capacity. This government wants to ensure that EHC needs assessments are progressed promptly and plans are issued quickly in order to provide children and young people with the support they need to help them achieve positive outcomes.
Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make the required improvements, the department helps the local authority to identify the barriers and put in place an effective recovery plan.
The department is providing almost £1 billion more for high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding to £11.9 billion. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with complex SEND. The department has also announced £740 million of high needs capital funding for the 2025/26 financial year to invest in places for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision.
The department is working closely with experts on reform, recently appointing a strategic advisor for SEND, who will play a key role in convening and engaging with the sector, including leaders, practitioners, children and families as we consider next steps.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support low-income families to apply for education, health and care plans.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
For too long the education system has not met the needs of all children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with parents struggling to get their children the support they need and deserve. We know that parents have struggled to get the right support for their children, particularly through long and difficult education, health and care (EHC) plan processes.
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision, regardless of socio-economic background, receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
Where families experience challenges with the EHC plan process and the wider SEND system, the department signposts available support from the family’s local Information, Advice and Support Service (IASS). This is independent of the local authority and can provide impartial advice about the law on SEND, local SEND arrangements and support for children’s needs. The service can also help parents prepare for meetings with schools and colleges, local authorities, the Tribunal or other agencies.
In addition, the department also signposts families to Contact, a national charity for families with disabled children, which provides information, advice and support, and brings families together to support each other.
The department is working closely with experts on reforms, recently appointing a strategic advisor for SEND, who will play a key role in convening and engaging with the sector, including leaders, practitioners, children and families as we consider next steps.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) support and (b) improve decision-making in the provision of education, health and care plan assessments.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have special educational needs that require an education, health and care (EHC) plan. Under the EHC needs assessment process, local authorities must seek information and advice from a range of partners, including the child or young person and their parents, their school or college (if any), relevant health and social care partners, an educational psychologist and any other relevant professionals.
Local authority special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) caseworkers are a key part of the SEND system, co-ordinating the assessment process to develop EHC plans and working closely with families, schools and other professionals to support children and young people with SEND.
In March 2024, the department funded a short-term project to train local authority caseworkers, reaching around 260 attendees. The training was aimed at improving understanding of SEND legislation to support more effective decision-making and was delivered by the Independent Provider of Special Education and Condition Data Collection. We are currently considering options for future support for this workforce.
In addition, we recognise the critical role of professionals such as educational psychologists within the SEND system, including their statutory contribution to EHC needs assessments.
To support this, we are investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from 2024, which builds on the £10 million currently being invested in a cohort of over 200 trainees who began their training in September 2023.
As these trainees complete their studies, they will join the workforce to support the capacity of local authority educational psychology services, including in delivering assessments. Trainees who have had their training funded by the department are required to remain in local authority employment for a minimum period. This requirement will increase from two to three years for those trainees beginning their course in September 2024.
This is to support local authority services to recruit and retain their educational psychology workforce, benefiting from the public investment in their training, and supporting the delivery of statutory assessments and wider work.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to provide additional resources to schools for the provision of inclusive education.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to children and young people with the most complex needs.
The department has announced an additional £740 million of capital funding in 2025/26 which can be used to support mainstream inclusion, including through the establishment of special educational needs units and resourced provisions.
In addition, the department is providing local authorities’ an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion. Local authorities have flexibility to use this funding to support mainstream schools in their provision of inclusive education, taking into account the needs of the children and young people for whom they are responsible, and their schools’ and other local circumstances.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the value for money of spending by local authorities on defending SEND tribunal appeals in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The increase in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) tribunal appeals for the last academic year reflects, in part, the increase in the number of children and young people with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. 576,000 had an EHC plan as of January 2024, up 11.3% from 2023.
Although most EHC plans and assessments are concluded without a tribunal hearing, the department recognises that dissatisfaction with the SEND system continues to grow and that too many parents and carers struggle to get their children the support they need and deserve. The department also knows that the tribunal can be costly for both families and local authorities, but we do not collect any data centrally.
The department understands the urgency and the need to drive improvements but also are mindful that there are no quick fixes and want to take a considered approach to deliver sustainable system reform. The department is working closely with experts on SEND reform, recently appointing a strategic advisor for SEND, who will play a key role in engaging the sector, including leaders, practitioners, children, and families, as we consider next steps.
The department has published independently commissioned insight that suggests if the system was extensively improved, using early intervention and better resourcing of mainstream schools, it could lead to tens of thousands more children and young people having their needs met without the need to go through a long and stressful EHC plan and appeals process.
We continue to work with HM Courts and Tribunal Service, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the judiciary to understand the reasons for high appeal rates and to improve the efficiency of the SEND tribunal. The MoJ has recently recruited and trained 50 new tribunal judges who are now conducting appeal hearings, along with increasing funding for extra staff to process appeals. In an effort to settle appeals more quickly, they have also expanded their use of judicial case management powers and are continually developing ways to increase the speed of disposal. The Tribunal Procedure Committee have also just closed a consultation on a rule change to allow more appeals to be heard on paper, without the need for a full oral hearing.
The department is exploring what more we can do to support local authorities to improve their decision-making, particularly those with high appeal rates. As a first step, last year we jointly delivered eight training sessions on SEND and the law for local authority SEND caseworkers with the Independent Provider of Special Educational Advice and the Council for Disabled Children.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the reasons for which there has been an increase in the number of SEND tribunal appeals in the last academic year.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The increase in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) tribunal appeals for the last academic year reflects, in part, the increase in the number of children and young people with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. 576,000 had an EHC plan as of January 2024, up 11.3% from 2023.
Although most EHC plans and assessments are concluded without a tribunal hearing, the department recognises that dissatisfaction with the SEND system continues to grow and that too many parents and carers struggle to get their children the support they need and deserve. The department also knows that the tribunal can be costly for both families and local authorities, but we do not collect any data centrally.
The department understands the urgency and the need to drive improvements but also are mindful that there are no quick fixes and want to take a considered approach to deliver sustainable system reform. The department is working closely with experts on SEND reform, recently appointing a strategic advisor for SEND, who will play a key role in engaging the sector, including leaders, practitioners, children, and families, as we consider next steps.
The department has published independently commissioned insight that suggests if the system was extensively improved, using early intervention and better resourcing of mainstream schools, it could lead to tens of thousands more children and young people having their needs met without the need to go through a long and stressful EHC plan and appeals process.
We continue to work with HM Courts and Tribunal Service, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the judiciary to understand the reasons for high appeal rates and to improve the efficiency of the SEND tribunal. The MoJ has recently recruited and trained 50 new tribunal judges who are now conducting appeal hearings, along with increasing funding for extra staff to process appeals. In an effort to settle appeals more quickly, they have also expanded their use of judicial case management powers and are continually developing ways to increase the speed of disposal. The Tribunal Procedure Committee have also just closed a consultation on a rule change to allow more appeals to be heard on paper, without the need for a full oral hearing.
The department is exploring what more we can do to support local authorities to improve their decision-making, particularly those with high appeal rates. As a first step, last year we jointly delivered eight training sessions on SEND and the law for local authority SEND caseworkers with the Independent Provider of Special Educational Advice and the Council for Disabled Children.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the education, health and care plan appeals system.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The increase in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) tribunal appeals for the last academic year reflects, in part, the increase in the number of children and young people with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. 576,000 had an EHC plan as of January 2024, up 11.3% from 2023.
Although most EHC plans and assessments are concluded without a tribunal hearing, the department recognises that dissatisfaction with the SEND system continues to grow and that too many parents and carers struggle to get their children the support they need and deserve. The department also knows that the tribunal can be costly for both families and local authorities, but we do not collect any data centrally.
The department understands the urgency and the need to drive improvements but also are mindful that there are no quick fixes and want to take a considered approach to deliver sustainable system reform. The department is working closely with experts on SEND reform, recently appointing a strategic advisor for SEND, who will play a key role in engaging the sector, including leaders, practitioners, children, and families, as we consider next steps.
The department has published independently commissioned insight that suggests if the system was extensively improved, using early intervention and better resourcing of mainstream schools, it could lead to tens of thousands more children and young people having their needs met without the need to go through a long and stressful EHC plan and appeals process.
We continue to work with HM Courts and Tribunal Service, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the judiciary to understand the reasons for high appeal rates and to improve the efficiency of the SEND tribunal. The MoJ has recently recruited and trained 50 new tribunal judges who are now conducting appeal hearings, along with increasing funding for extra staff to process appeals. In an effort to settle appeals more quickly, they have also expanded their use of judicial case management powers and are continually developing ways to increase the speed of disposal. The Tribunal Procedure Committee have also just closed a consultation on a rule change to allow more appeals to be heard on paper, without the need for a full oral hearing.
The department is exploring what more we can do to support local authorities to improve their decision-making, particularly those with high appeal rates. As a first step, last year we jointly delivered eight training sessions on SEND and the law for local authority SEND caseworkers with the Independent Provider of Special Educational Advice and the Council for Disabled Children.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for Justice on improving the efficiency of the SEND tribunal system.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The increase in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) tribunal appeals for the last academic year reflects, in part, the increase in the number of children and young people with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. 576,000 had an EHC plan as of January 2024, up 11.3% from 2023.
Although most EHC plans and assessments are concluded without a tribunal hearing, the department recognises that dissatisfaction with the SEND system continues to grow and that too many parents and carers struggle to get their children the support they need and deserve. The department also knows that the tribunal can be costly for both families and local authorities, but we do not collect any data centrally.
The department understands the urgency and the need to drive improvements but also are mindful that there are no quick fixes and want to take a considered approach to deliver sustainable system reform. The department is working closely with experts on SEND reform, recently appointing a strategic advisor for SEND, who will play a key role in engaging the sector, including leaders, practitioners, children, and families, as we consider next steps.
The department has published independently commissioned insight that suggests if the system was extensively improved, using early intervention and better resourcing of mainstream schools, it could lead to tens of thousands more children and young people having their needs met without the need to go through a long and stressful EHC plan and appeals process.
We continue to work with HM Courts and Tribunal Service, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the judiciary to understand the reasons for high appeal rates and to improve the efficiency of the SEND tribunal. The MoJ has recently recruited and trained 50 new tribunal judges who are now conducting appeal hearings, along with increasing funding for extra staff to process appeals. In an effort to settle appeals more quickly, they have also expanded their use of judicial case management powers and are continually developing ways to increase the speed of disposal. The Tribunal Procedure Committee have also just closed a consultation on a rule change to allow more appeals to be heard on paper, without the need for a full oral hearing.
The department is exploring what more we can do to support local authorities to improve their decision-making, particularly those with high appeal rates. As a first step, last year we jointly delivered eight training sessions on SEND and the law for local authority SEND caseworkers with the Independent Provider of Special Educational Advice and the Council for Disabled Children.