Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to include one or more representatives of providers of home-to-school transport for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities on the SEND Ministerial Development Group.

The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) ministerial development group brings together voices from across the SEND sector. This group considers a range of perspectives and tests potential solutions to the key challenges the SEND system faces to ensure that policy proposals are informed by the knowledge and experiences of children, their families and those working in the system.

Additional participants are invited on a rolling basis according to the topics under discussion. This approach allows the group to include expertise relevant to specific areas as appropriate.

Outside of the group, the department already holds bi-monthly forums to which all local authority home to school travel teams are invited to enable to them to share best practice and so that we understand the challenges they face.