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Written Question
Special Educational Needs
Monday 12th June 2023

Asked by: Mark Pawsey (Conservative - Rugby)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of demand for school places in specialist settings.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)

Demand for specialist school placements has grown in recent years, with over 50,000 more pupils placed in special schools compared to 2017.

We have responded to this by developing new specialist provision. We are investing £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to deliver new specialist places in mainstream and special schools. Our Free Schools programme has opened 77 special and 50 alternative provision free schools across the country since 2010, with 67 similar projects in the pipeline.

The recent Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan will give families greater confidence that their child will be able to fulfil their potential through improved mainstream provision in their local setting.

For those children and young people with SEND who do require an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan and specialist provision, we will ensure they get prompt access to the support they need, and that parents do not face an adversarial system to secure this.

Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 28 Nov 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

"15. What assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of school attendance. ..."
Mark Pawsey - View Speech

View all Mark Pawsey (Con - Rugby) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions
Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 28 Nov 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

"I thank the Minister for his answer. We know that following the pandemic there was an increase in persistently absent pupils, but there has also been a recent increase in the number of children being home educated. I know from meeting constituents in Rugby that that can often arise as …..."
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 16 Nov 2022
Male Primary School Teachers

"My daughter is in her second year of training for qualified teacher status, having done her PGCE. I asked her whether she agreed with my hon. Friend’s premise that more men should be encouraged into what is a largely female workforce. She made the point that he just made: many …..."
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 16 Nov 2022
Male Primary School Teachers

"My hon. Friend makes some very interesting points about financial incentives. I think that it is accepted that salaries and careers in secondary education are generally more highly remunerated than in primary education, which does not provide an incentive for male teachers to go into primary teaching. Often in a …..."
Mark Pawsey - View Speech

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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 16 Nov 2022
Male Primary School Teachers

"My daughter thinks the staffroom is a better place from having a mixture of genders in it. Male and female teachers can engage with each other in the workplace. The perspective of a male teacher may be slightly different from that of a female teacher, and the opportunity to share …..."
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 04 Jul 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

"Entirely rightly, we are getting more youngsters and young people into training in technical subjects, but at a recent meeting with Warwickshire College CEO Angela Joyce, I learned that it is a real challenge to find lecturers to teach those subjects. What is my hon. Friend doing to persuade businesses …..."
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 28 Mar 2022
Schools White Paper

"The Secretary of State and I both have excellent Warwickshire grammar schools in our constituencies; will he say a little about the role of grammars in the raising of standards?..."
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 14 Mar 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

"Ashlawn School in my constituency is outstanding, with currently the longest waiting list for secondary places in Warwickshire. There is a need to renovate many of the school’s 1950s buildings but, regrettably, it does not meet the funding criteria for the school rebuilding programme. Do the Secretary of State or …..."
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 05 Jan 2022
Education: Return in January

"I congratulate the Secretary of State on the work that he, his team and the entire teaching profession have done to keep our children in the place that is best for them, which is in the classroom, learning. So many children have fallen back over the past two years. The …..."
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