Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the Regional Expert Partnerships intended to design and test the proposals in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan published in March 2023 will be established.

Through the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Change Programme, the department will establish up to nine Regional Expert Partnerships (REP) to test and refine our reforms. Each REP will be led by a local authority, selected using objective criteria based on published SEND performance data. An additional two to three local authorities will be included in each REP, based predominantly on their geographical proximity to the lead local authority, so we can test in a wide range of local areas with differing performance, capacity and capability. Wherever possible, each REP will be located within a single Integrated Care Board, to ensure close collaboration with health partners.

REPs will be required to engage with their local partners, including health, social care, Multi-Academy Trusts, mainstream, specialist and alternative provision schools, and parents, children and young people, to involve them in testing and refining the reforms.

Real-time learning from the REPs will be fed back to the department on a regular basis, and will inform discussions at the national SEND and AP Implementation Board.