Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to publish strategic guidance on Regional Expert Partnerships engaging with local partners when refining proposals in the SEND Improvement plan.
Answered by David Johnston
Strategic guidance was issued to all 32 local authorities within the Change Programme Partnerships (CPPs) (formerly Regional Expert Partnerships) on 5 October 2023. The strategic guidance supports the set-up phase of the Change Programme. CPPs will be required to set up a CPP Steering Group which will have representation from all partners including school leaders, Parent Carer Forums, and health leads. Each local authority participating in the Change Programme will also establish a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Partnership and produce a local area inclusion plan. Both SEND and AP Partnerships and local area inclusion plans will be tested and refined through working with the local authorities in the CPPs.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to release the strategic guidance on how Regional Expert Partnerships will engage with local partners on refining proposals in the SEND Improvement Plan.
Answered by David Johnston
The high level strategic guidance and its accompanying strategic delivery plan template will be shared with Change Programme Partnerships (CPPs) ahead of the launch event on 19 September 2023. The event will bring together local authorities and their partners from all nine CPPs to set out expectations for testing the reforms and ensure robust action plans are being put in place. It will also provide access to teams from the Department for Education and the external Delivery Partner who will support CPPs throughout the lifetime of the programme, including helping them to draft their strategic plans.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to publish (a) the feedback from the Regional Expert Partnerships to her Department and (b) discussions on how the proposals within the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plans published in March 2023 are to be refined.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department will be sharing strategic guidance with all Regional Expert Partnerships (REPs) for delivery of the Change Programme, which will include setting out the local partners they must engage with. Engagement with all partners across all local areas involved in the REPs, including schools, health partners and families, is integral to successfully delivering, testing and refining the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) reforms set out in the Improvement Plan.
Throughout the lifetime of the programme, there will be a constant feedback loop between the department and the REPs in order to monitor the findings and share learning and best practice. This will include the REPs feeding back on the progress of delivering the reforms and any barriers they may be facing. The department will be transparent throughout this process and is currently establishing how it will provide public updates as the programme progresses.
The department previously shared that all REPs would be led by a lead local authority, selected through objective criteria based on published SEND performance data. The department used this data to identify a shortlist of local authorities in each Department for Education region, who were subsequently invited to submit an expression of interest to be considered for the role. To be eligible for the shortlist, prospective lead local authorities must not:
They must also be in the top 75% of authorities nationally against:
The department then ranked the remaining authorities based on their Designated School Grant surplus/deficit and shortlisted the top three local authorities in each region.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2023 to Question 180364 on Alternative Education and Special Educational Needs, what objective criteria is to be used when selecting local authorities using published SEND performance data.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department will be sharing strategic guidance with all Regional Expert Partnerships (REPs) for delivery of the Change Programme, which will include setting out the local partners they must engage with. Engagement with all partners across all local areas involved in the REPs, including schools, health partners and families, is integral to successfully delivering, testing and refining the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) reforms set out in the Improvement Plan.
Throughout the lifetime of the programme, there will be a constant feedback loop between the department and the REPs in order to monitor the findings and share learning and best practice. This will include the REPs feeding back on the progress of delivering the reforms and any barriers they may be facing. The department will be transparent throughout this process and is currently establishing how it will provide public updates as the programme progresses.
The department previously shared that all REPs would be led by a lead local authority, selected through objective criteria based on published SEND performance data. The department used this data to identify a shortlist of local authorities in each Department for Education region, who were subsequently invited to submit an expression of interest to be considered for the role. To be eligible for the shortlist, prospective lead local authorities must not:
They must also be in the top 75% of authorities nationally against:
The department then ranked the remaining authorities based on their Designated School Grant surplus/deficit and shortlisted the top three local authorities in each region.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to implement guidance to Regional Expert Partnerships on how many local partners they need to engage with when refining proposals in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plans published in March 2023.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department will be sharing strategic guidance with all Regional Expert Partnerships (REPs) for delivery of the Change Programme, which will include setting out the local partners they must engage with. Engagement with all partners across all local areas involved in the REPs, including schools, health partners and families, is integral to successfully delivering, testing and refining the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) reforms set out in the Improvement Plan.
Throughout the lifetime of the programme, there will be a constant feedback loop between the department and the REPs in order to monitor the findings and share learning and best practice. This will include the REPs feeding back on the progress of delivering the reforms and any barriers they may be facing. The department will be transparent throughout this process and is currently establishing how it will provide public updates as the programme progresses.
The department previously shared that all REPs would be led by a lead local authority, selected through objective criteria based on published SEND performance data. The department used this data to identify a shortlist of local authorities in each Department for Education region, who were subsequently invited to submit an expression of interest to be considered for the role. To be eligible for the shortlist, prospective lead local authorities must not:
They must also be in the top 75% of authorities nationally against:
The department then ranked the remaining authorities based on their Designated School Grant surplus/deficit and shortlisted the top three local authorities in each region.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has taken steps to ensure there is a mental health specialist in every school.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The mental health of children is a priority for this government. We know schools can play a vital role in supporting this, particularly by providing calm, safe and supportive learning environments that promote good mental wellbeing and help pupils who need it to access early targeted support.
It is important to remember it is not the role of schools to diagnose or treat mental health conditions. Schools are best placed to decide what support to provide to respond to the mental health needs of their pupils including, where necessary, through referrals to NHS specialist services.
The department is offering a grant to all schools and colleges in England to train a senior mental health lead, helping schools to put in place effective approaches to mental health and wellbeing. This should include robust processes for identifying pupils or specific groups who need additional mental health support. More than 13,800 schools and colleges have now received a senior mental health lead training grant, including more than 70% of state-funded secondary schools.
To expand access to early mental health support, the department is working with NHS England to increase the number of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) working with schools and colleges. These teams include trained professionals who can offer support to children experiencing common mental health problems and liaise with external specialist services to help pupils get the right support. As of April 2023, MHSTs covered 35% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England. A further 100 teams are expected to be operational by April 2024, when MHSTs will cover an estimated 44% of pupils and learners.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the Regional Expert Partnerships intended to design and test the proposals in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan published in March 2023 will be established.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
Through the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Change Programme, the department will establish up to nine Regional Expert Partnerships (REP) to test and refine our reforms. Each REP will be led by a local authority, selected using objective criteria based on published SEND performance data. An additional two to three local authorities will be included in each REP, based predominantly on their geographical proximity to the lead local authority, so we can test in a wide range of local areas with differing performance, capacity and capability. Wherever possible, each REP will be located within a single Integrated Care Board, to ensure close collaboration with health partners.
REPs will be required to engage with their local partners, including health, social care, Multi-Academy Trusts, mainstream, specialist and alternative provision schools, and parents, children and young people, to involve them in testing and refining the reforms.
Real-time learning from the REPs will be fed back to the department on a regular basis, and will inform discussions at the national SEND and AP Implementation Board.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to plans set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan published in March 2023 to work with a delivery partner and regional expert partnerships to implement a Change Programme, if she will publish tender documents for the appointment of that delivery partner.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
On the 6 March, the department published the invitation to tender for the Delivery Partner to support the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Change Programme, with a closing date of the 17 April. This was done through the department’s Management Consultancy Framework 3, inviting interested organisations to bid for the contract.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is providing additional funding to schools whose budgets fall below the minimum per pupil funding level.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The minimum per pupil funding levels (MPPLs) in the schools National Funding Formula have been set so that, in the 2023/24 financial year, every primary school will receive at least £4,405 per pupil, and every secondary school at least £5,715.
All schools, including schools funded by reference to the MPPLs, will also receive additional funding in the 2023/24 financial year, following the 2022 Autumn Statement. A typical 200 pupil primary school can be expected to receive approximately £28,000, on average. A typical 900 pupil secondary school can be expected to receive £170,000. The Department will announce further details on allocations shortly.
The MPPL values are compulsory in Local Authority funding formulae, which determine actual funding allocations for maintained schools and academies. Academy trusts have flexibilities over how the funding they are allocated in respect of their individual academies is then distributed across academies in their trust. This means that in some cases, an academy could receive a lower per pupil funding amount than the MPPL value. This may reflect, for example, activities that are paid for by the trust centrally, rather than by individual academies.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the additional funding for schools announced in the Autumn Statement will be distributed.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 6 December, the Department confirmed further details on how the £2 billion additional funding for schools announced in the 2022 Autumn Statement will be allocated in 2023/24.
£400 million will be allocated to Local Authorities’ high needs budgets, with the rest allocated to schools through a new grant, and to boost the pupil premium.
Mainstream schools will receive this additional funding through a new grant from April 2023, on top of the core funding allocations they receive via the National Funding Formula. The methodology for calculating allocations for schools via this new grant will largely mirror that of the 2022/23 Schools Supplementary Grant. The Department will publish further details and funding rates for the new grant before the end of December 2022.
For a typical primary school with 200 pupils, this new revenue equates to approximately £28,000 additional funding. It equates to approximately £170,000 for a typical secondary school with 900 pupils.
Local Authorities will be obliged to pass on increases comparable to that for mainstream schools to special and alternative provision schools, from the £400 million that will be allocated to their high needs budgets. The Department will confirm details on how this will work shortly.