Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of changes to SEND Regulations in 2014.

As part of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) review, the department examined how the SEND system has evolved since 2014 and how the department could ensure it works best for all families with effective and sustainable use of resources.

During the review, the department heard frequently that, whilst the 2014 reforms had high aspirations and were underpinned by principles that continue to be broadly supported, insufficient attention was paid to their implementation which meant their ambitions were never fully realised.

That is why the department has committed in the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, and reaffirmed in the SEND and AP Improvement Plan, to support delivery of the new reforms through a £70 million Change Programme which was launched in September 2023. The department is working through nine Change Programme Partnerships, covering 32 local areas, to test and refine key reform proposals and to support local SEND and AP systems across the country to manage local improvement.