Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of SEND support for childcare and the early years on provision in Worcestershire.

Ensuring children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support when they need it is a priority, including those children and young people in Worcestershire.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) re-inspected Worcestershire SEND services on their 12 areas of significant weakness between 1 and 3 November 2021 (letter published 14 December 2021). The inspectors assessed each area of weakness and concluded that the Council had made sufficient progress in addressing eight of the significant weaknesses. Worcestershire Children First produced an Accelerated Progress Plan to address the remaining four areas of significant weakness.

The department is committed to supporting and monitoring progress of the identified areas for improvement and have put in place regular monitoring and challenge meetings with SEND advisers from the department and NHS England.

We are also supporting local authorities through the ongoing delivery of new special and alternative provision (AP) free schools. On 2 March 2023, the department announced a successful bid from Worcestershire County Council to build a new special school that caters for the needs of pupils with autism spectrum disorder in Malvern.

This announcement followed an application that evidenced need for school places for children and involved engagement and support from stakeholders including education providers, health partners, parents and carers and local MPs who have been consistently calling for more provision in the local area.

The new special free school will provide 120 full time places for pupils aged 5-19 with autism, who are able to engage with a mainstream curriculum with extra support and who would also benefit from a specific environment and staff dedicated to a holistic approach.

A final decision on who will run the new school will rest with my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education.

In addition, on 2 March 2023, the department published the SEND and AP Improvement Plan in response to the Green Paper of March 2022. The Improvement Plan sets out how a new, single, national SEND and AP system should deliver consistent, clear, and early support for children and young people with SEND. These new standards aim to make consistent the provision that should be made available across the country for every child and young person with SEND. There will also be new local SEND and AP Partnerships, strengthened accountability and dashboards, and reforms to funding.