Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many multi-academy trusts have a Special Educational Needs Coordinator with responsibility for more than one school in the chain in (a) Hampshire, (b) Portsmouth and (c) England.

The information requested is not held centrally.

All maintained nurseries and schools (including academies and free schools) are legally required to have a teacher who holds Qualified Teacher Status designated as the Special Educational Needs coordinator (SENCO). Some Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) also employ a director of inclusion to co-ordinate Special Educational Needs (SEND) provision across the MAT. This is a separate role to that of the school level SENCO, and each individual academy must still employ a SENCO who meets the criteria set out in law to ensure the needs of SEND pupils are met effectively.