Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to take steps to require schools to make an assessment of the social, emotional and behavioural needs of pupils.

Schools and further education colleges are required to identify and address the special educational needs (SEN) of the children and young people they support. In the case of mainstream settings, they must use their best endeavours to make sure that a child or young person who has SEN gets the support they need.

Schools report on the pupils they identify with social, emotional and mental health needs through the School Census. In 2024, 316,327 pupils were identified as having a social, emotional and mental health need as a primary type of need.