Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will take steps to ensure that local authorities do not reach the same outcome as original decisions where the SEND Tribunal upholds a family's appeal against a school placement and orders a local authority to retake its decision; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of that remedy for families seeking to secure a suitable placement.

The department wants to protect parents' rights to express a preference for a setting, whilst ensuring that local authorities make placement decisions that consider the preference and needs of other children and young people in the area. In the government's proposal, if parents do not agree with a local authority's decision about the setting, they will be able to appeal to the Tribunal. The Tribunal would be able to consider whether the local authority's decision is reasonable. If they found against the local authority, they could order the local authority to reconsider. In the proposals, the Tribunal will not name the placement for the child or young person.

We are carefully reviewing responses to the ‘Special educational needs and disabilities reform: putting children and young people first’ consultation, including those about placement decisions, and considering how placement decisions will work in practice. Our aim is to ensure that families have robust independent escalation routes and to allow local authorities to make decisions in a more holistic way.

We will publish final proposals in due course.