Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department has made available to parents of children with special needs who are having to homeschool without any respite during the covid-19 outbreak.

During periods of national lockdown, settings remained open to vulnerable children and young people, including those with education, health and care plans. From 8 March 2021, pupils in all year groups have been expected to attend their education setting in line with the wider return to face-to-face teaching. Where it is not possible for a child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to attend their education setting, there is a legal duty on schools and colleges to use their best endeavours to meet the special educational needs of their pupils or students.

To support remote learning, the department has made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy, both for the summer term of the 2019-20 academic year and the 2020-21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception to Year 11. This includes specialist content for pupils with SEND, along with therapy-based lessons and resources.

We have recognised that some pupils and students with SEND may not have been able to access remote education without adult support and so have expected settings to work with families to deliver an ambitious curriculum appropriate for their level of need. Further details on delivering remote education for children and young people with SEND are set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/remote-education-good-practice/remote-education-good-practice. These decisions should be considered on a case-by-case basis which takes account of the needs of, and circumstances specific to, the child or young person, avoiding a ‘one size fits all’ approach. All settings should have systems for checking, daily, whether pupils and students are engaging with their work, and work with families to rapidly identify effective solutions where engagement is a concern.

We are also providing £40.8 million for the Family Fund in the 2020-21 financial year to support over 85,000 families on low incomes raising children with disabilities or serious illnesses. This includes £13.5 million to specifically address needs arising from the COVID-19 outbreak, which may include assistive technology to aid remote learning.

Throughout all restrictions to date, children's social care services and early help services have continued to support vulnerable children and young people and their families. Local authorities have been allocated an additional £4.6 billion to help their communities through the COVID-19 outbreak. This funding is un-ringfenced, recognising local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the major COVID-19 service pressures in their local area, including support to children’s services.

Parents and carers may continue to access respite care to support them in caring for their disabled children while the restrictions are in force. This applies to services which care for children in and away from home. We continue to encourage local authorities to prioritise this support for disabled children, and to consider flexible and pragmatic options to deliver that support including using direct payments and carrying out activities virtually. Where parents have a disabled child under 5, we have enabled exemptions so they can establish a support bubble with another household to provide respite care.