Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how his department defines good outcomes for (a) children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and (b) looked after children and young people; and if he will develop guidance on those outcomes for local authorities and providers.

The government wants all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and looked after children, to achieve well in early years, at school, in further and higher education and be prepared for adulthood.

We have put in place a number of programmes to support improved outcomes for children and young people with SEND, including, from September 2014, introducing the largest reforms to the SEND system in a generation.

We assess outcomes for children and young people with SEND through external measures. For example, GSCE exam results (including attainment 8 and Progress 8 measures), the early years foundation stage profile; phonics screening check, key stage 1, key stage 2, numbers of tribunal cases (including the number decided in the appellant’s favour), and destinations data (the numbers going into further and higher education, and employment), absence and exclusions data.

We have also started looking at longer-term outcomes for special educational needs (SEN) pupils. This has been possible through analysis of the longitudinal educational outcomes (LEO) dataset. This dataset, for the first time, brings together information about learners including: personal characteristics such as gender and ethnicity; education, including schools, colleges and higher education institution attended, courses taken and qualifications achieved; PAYE and self-assessed employment and income data from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs; and data on benefits claims from the Department of Work and Pensions.

Initial analysis relating to longer term employment and benefit outcomes of SEN pupils was published in July 2018. This analysis was based on those who completed key stage 4 in academic years 2002/03 and 2003/04. The data can be accessed via: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-and-labour-market-outcomes-by-pupil-characteristics.

The corporate parenting principles, which local authorities must have regard to, require them to secure the best possible outcomes for looked after children and young people. The principles include promoting high aspirations, their health, stability in their homes lives and preparing them for adulthood and independence. Statutory guidance on applying the corporate parenting principles is available via https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/applying-corporate-parenting-principles-to-looked-after-children-and-care-leavers. Data on the outcomes of looked after children and care leavers is available in the statistical first release on ‘Children looked after in England including adoption’ (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2016-to-2017) and on ‘Outcomes for children looked after by local authorities’ in England (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/outcomes-for-children-looked-after-by-las-31-march-2017).