Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to include Pathological Demand Avoidance in reforms to SEND provision.

The government consultation 'SEND reform: putting children and young people first’ has now closed. We are reviewing consultation responses alongside feedback from over 200 engagement events held over 12 weeks.

We will create a new offer for children who need additional support called Targeted and Targeted Plus layers. Children in early years settings, mainstream schools and colleges can benefit from support from education and health professionals without long waits for assessments. For children and young people with complex needs, we are developing new Specialist Provision Packages, designed with experts and tested with parents, to set out exactly what support and resources are required for specific needs.

Access to support should not be dependent on a child or young person having a diagnosis. We are developing National Inclusion Standards that set out evidence-informed tools, strategies and approaches for educators across the 0 to 25 system, to draw on to identify and support children and young people with additional needs, including autistic children and young people and those with profiles of need such as pathological demand avoidance.