Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, what progress she has made on developing digital requirements for Education, Health and Care Plans.

The department is working with local authorities and suppliers to deliver a digital project to digitise the Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan process for England. The department started this project in summer 2023 to understand what role digitisation should play in the EHC plan process, and the potential longer-term benefits of digital solutions.

The department launched a second project phase in October 2023. This helped the department to understand the benefits, barriers, and limitations of the digitisation of the EHC plan process. This phase resulted in recommendations.

The department launched a third project phase in February 2024 to test the recommendations, which are due to be shared with local authorities and the wider sector this month.