Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve the outcomes of children with special educational needs and disability.

The department is taking steps to ensure every child and young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can achieve highly in education, find employment and lead happy and fulfilled lives.

We have established a SEND System Leadership Board that will focus on improving how local health, education and social care partners can plan better, commission strategically and work jointly to provide services and improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission continue to inspect local areas to identify strengths and weaknesses in relation to children and young people with SEND. Where there are concerns, the local area is required to produce a Written Statement of Action. The area will be revisited within 18 months to ensure improvements have been made.

To support local authorities, we have provided an additional £250 million in high needs funding up to 2020 on top of the funding increases we had already committed. This brings the total allocation for high needs in 2019-20 to £6.3 billion and will help local authorities to manage the significant pressures on their high needs budgets.