Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the Government plans to respond to the Law Commission's review of disabled children's social care.

The government is grateful to the Law Commission for its thorough work and agrees with its central finding that families can find disabled children’s social care confusing, variable and insufficiently joined up with wider services.

The Law Commission’s recommendations are closely linked to the government’s wider reforms to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and children’s social care. The government has therefore decided to delay its response for a short period to ensure it is aligned with the SEND reform consultation response and wider reform programme.

This will enable the government to provide a fuller, clearer and more coherent response, setting out how wider reforms will improve coordination across education, health and social care and support a simpler, more consistent and effective framework for disabled children’s social care. The government is committed to publishing its response to the Law Commission’s review of disabled children’s social care within this calendar year.