Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what enforcement mechanisms will apply to ensure full compliance with Individual Support Plan commitments.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

There will be a legal duty on education settings to produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child or young person receiving targeted or specialist support, ensuring help keeps pace with their development, prevents challenges from escalating, and reduces the risk of them disengaging from learning.

The use and quality of ISPs will be considered in Ofsted inspections, with clear routes for parents to raise concerns. Where there are concerns about provision, parents and young people will be able to resolve this directly with the setting, including making use of the improved schools complaints process if necessary. We will seek to strengthen the school complaints system with the inclusion of an appropriate, independent special educational needs and disabilities specialist (for example, a special educational needs coordinator, multi-academy trust inclusion director or senior school manager) on a panel, if the complaint cannot be resolved by the school’s senior management team or head teacher.

The ISP will be tailored in line with the layers of support, with guidance to support education settings in creating high-quality plans. ISPs will be standardised across settings to facilitate transitions. ISPs will be interactive, accessible, and available in a digital format, supporting consistency across the system.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will publish guidance on quality standards for Individual Support Plans to prevent variation between local authorities and ensure consistent support for children nationwide.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

There will be a legal duty on education settings to produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child or young person receiving targeted or specialist support, ensuring help keeps pace with their development, prevents challenges from escalating, and reduces the risk of them disengaging from learning.

The use and quality of ISPs will be considered in Ofsted inspections, with clear routes for parents to raise concerns. Where there are concerns about provision, parents and young people will be able to resolve this directly with the setting, including making use of the improved schools complaints process if necessary. We will seek to strengthen the school complaints system with the inclusion of an appropriate, independent special educational needs and disabilities specialist (for example, a special educational needs coordinator, multi-academy trust inclusion director or senior school manager) on a panel, if the complaint cannot be resolved by the school’s senior management team or head teacher.

The ISP will be tailored in line with the layers of support, with guidance to support education settings in creating high-quality plans. ISPs will be standardised across settings to facilitate transitions. ISPs will be interactive, accessible, and available in a digital format, supporting consistency across the system.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of pupils that would need to move from the independent to the state sector for VAT revenue from school fees to fall below the additional cost of educating those pupils in the state sector.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

HM Treasury published a tax information and impact note on applying VAT to private school fees: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees/applying-vat-to-private-school-fees. This is a comprehensive assessment of the VAT policy, including estimated revenue and costs of increased pupil numbers in the state sector.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether safeguards will be introduced to help ensure that Individual Support Plans (ISPs) do not become resource‑led documents due to limited specialist provision.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice sets out that the provision made for pupils with special educational needs should be recorded accurately and kept up to date. As a result, many settings already keep records of the needs and provision required by children or young people with SEND and communicate these with parents.

The department is introducing a duty on settings to produce an individual support plan for every child or young person with SEND, ensuring help keeps pace with their development, prevents challenges from escalating, and reduces the risk of them disengaging from learning.

Additional funding through an Inclusive Mainstream Fund will be provided to early years, schools and colleges to boost the existing core funding for SEND, with over £500 million per year over the next three years. This funding, alongside their existing core funding, will help equip settings to invest in high-quality, adaptive teaching, targeted evidence-based support, inclusive pedagogy and decision-making, and create safe, calm and accessible learning environments for all. On 25 March, we published the guidance ‘Inclusive mainstream fund: best practice for schools’, which provides examples and case studies of how settings can use this funding to enhance support for children with SEND. The guidance is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-mainstream-fund-2026-to-2027/inclusive-mainstream-fund-best-practice-for-schools--2.

Our proposed reforms go further to support educators, with easier access to expert advice through Experts at Hand and evidence-based tools and resources through the National Inclusion Standards.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will publish modelling underpinning its projection that EHCP growth will slow by 2029–30 and then fall.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department has made modelling information available in the ‘Background on projections’ annex published alongside the special educational needs and disabilities consultation. These projections are illustrative of our proposed policy approach and updated projections will be published following the consultation.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of when mainstream schools will have the baseline staffing levels required to deliver the universal inclusion expectations set out in the Schools White Paper.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Recruiting and retaining expert teachers is at the heart of the government’s Plan for Change, with good progress already being made: the teaching workforce has grown by 2,346 FTE between 2023/24 and 2024/25, in secondary and special schools; the schools where they are needed most.

We are investing £200 million in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) training to upskill staff in every school, college and nursery over the course of this Parliament. This training will cover children with SEND in their earliest years, through to age 25.

We are providing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), to work together to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer, which will give schools direct access to support, advice, training and specialist expertise from professionals such as speech and language therapists (SaLTs), educational psychologists (EPs) and specialist teachers.

We are investing £15 million to establish new speech and language therapist advanced practitioners in every ICB geographical area, to get more SaLTs working in educational settings.

​In addition, we will continue to train at least 200 EPs per year in 2026 and 2027, backed by £26m.

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Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when further details relating to the Mission North East and Mission Coastal programmes will be published.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Departmental officials are currently engaging school leaders, alongside local and national stakeholders, on the approach for the Missions and we will announce further details in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure adequate careers support in schools, especially for alternative pathways.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Schools are required to offer multiple opportunities for pupils to hear directly from apprenticeship, further education and training providers.

The government has adopted updated Gatsby Benchmarks into statutory guidance. They place greater emphasis on high quality information about alternative pathways. Schools are expected to provide pupils with up-to-date labour market information and information about apprenticeships, T Levels and other technical qualifications across a range of sectors.

The government’s commitment to delivering two weeks’ worth of work experience for every young person will further support awareness of alternative pathways, giving secondary pupils practical insights into a wide range of employers and progression routes.

Through the Careers and Enterprise Company, the department is continuing to invest in support for careers leaders to embed the Gatsby Benchmarks in schools and to improve pupils’ access to meaningful encounters with employers and providers, workplace experiences and personal guidance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help prevent AI-driven plagiarism in schools.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The majority of GCSE and A level assessments are taken as written exams under close staff supervision, without access to the internet or artificial intelligence (AI) tools, which prevents the use of AI-generated material in most assessments.

The department is working closely with Ofqual and the wider sector to understand the risks associated with generative AI and to ensure appropriate mitigations are in place.

Strict rules, set by exam boards, are already in place to ensure that students’ work is their own, and sanctions for malpractice are severe, including the possibility of disqualification. Schools and teachers know their students best and are experienced in identifying their individual students’ work.

To support the sector, the Joint Council for Qualifications has published guidance for teachers and exam centres to help prevent and identify potential malpractice involving the misuse of AI in assessments. The guidance is available here: https://www.jcq.org.uk/knowledge-hub/ai-use-in-assessments-your-role-in-protecting-the-integrity-of-qualifications/.

Ofqual, as the independent regulator, has also published its overall approach to regulating AI use in the qualifications sector. The approach can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ofquals-approach-to-regulating-the-use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-the-qualifications-sector.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) responsibilities and (a) powers SEND practitioners will have in Best Start Family Hubs.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The department is investing over £200 million over three years to strengthen the special educational needs and disabilities offer in Best Start Family Hubs, including funding a family-facing practitioner in every hub to support children with additional needs and families from the earliest stages. The practitioners will offer practical, hands‑on advice about their child’s development and help families identify emerging needs much earlier and guide parents on what those signs mean and the next steps to take. They will also help run, or link families into, early support sessions in Hubs, such as toddler groups that promote speech and language. By joining up support across services, the practitioners will ensure families do not have to navigate services alone.

We have published the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies guidance for local authorities, which sets out the role expectations and funding remit, ahead of April 2026 delivery. This guidance can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c6be4acdfd19de13d0f810/best-start-family-hubs-and-healthy-babies-guidance-for-local-authorities.docx.pdf.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will conduct an Impact Assessment of the SEND reforms on mainstream schools’ workload and resource requirements.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Impact assessments were published alongside the consultation to aid engagement during the consultation period.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will conduct an Impact Assessment of the SEND reforms on early years settings supporting children with additional needs.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Impact assessments were published alongside the consultation to aid engagement during the consultation period.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will conduct an Impact Assessment of the SEND reforms on transport obligations for children with SEND.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The government has published equalities and children’s rights impact assessments alongside SEND reform: Putting Children and Young People First.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will conduct an Impact Assessment of the SEND reforms on children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Impact assessments were published alongside the consultation to aid engagement during the consultation period.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will conduct an Impact Assessment of the SEND reforms on special schools and specialist provision.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Impact assessments were published alongside the consultation to aid engagement during the consultation period.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the Government plans to publish the detailed national SEND standards and how compliance with those standards will be monitored and enforced across local authorities.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The National Inclusion Standards will set out evidence-based tools, strategies and approaches to identify and support children and young people with additional needs. Settings should consider the National Inclusion Standards when planning their Inclusion Strategy. To hold schools accountable for how they plan to deliver inclusive practice and meet the needs of their cohort, they will be required to produce an inclusion strategy outlining their plan to embed inclusive practice and meet the needs of their cohort. There will be a legal duty on settings to produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child or young person receiving targeted or specialist support. Ofsted will draw on settings’ inclusion strategies to assess effectiveness of leaders plans, implementing and delivering inclusive practice, and will consider the use and quality of ISPs in inspections. Local areas have been commissioned to develop local special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform plans setting out how partners across education, health and care will deliver SEND reform locally.