Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's reason was for the delay in finalising its SEND improvement plan in the context of the announcement of the SEND Review being made in 2019.

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, published in March 2022, set out a bold and ambitious plan to equip children and young people with the skills they need to succeed in later life. The department received almost 6,000 responses to the consultation, 162 from children and young people, and held or attended 175 events during the 16-week consultation period.

We recognise that meaningful and significant change is required to deliver a SEND system that allows every child and young person to reach their potential, regardless of where they live or what their needs are. We know that the pandemic disproportionately impacted children and young people with SEND, exacerbating the challenges that already existed.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and I wanted to take time to listen to children and parents, as well as those working in the system, in order to get our next steps right. We wanted to understand the extensive feedback received through consultation, before publishing our full response to the green paper in the SEND and AP Improvement Plan in March 2023.

The Improvement Plan outlines the department’s approach to building capacity to achieve the behaviours and culture required for the successful implementation of these policy reforms.