Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department made of the adequacy of SEND services in Shipley constituency; and what steps she has taken to support the local authority to improve SEND provisions.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission are jointly responsible for inspecting local area arrangements for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Bradford last received an area SEND inspection in March 2022, during which inspectors identified five areas of significant weakness:

• Poor communication between stakeholders across education, health and care (EHC).
• The variable quality of EHC plans, including plans which do not fully describe the provision that children and young people with SEND need.
• The inconsistent delivery of the 0 to 19 health visiting, school nursing and specialist nursing services.
• Children and young people wait too long for assessments, treatment and diagnosis. There is insufficient support for children and young people with SEND who are waiting for provision, services, diagnosis or equipment.
• EHC services do not work together well. The arrangements for joint commissioning are underdeveloped.

The local area was required to produce a written statement of action to explain, to Ofsted and the department, how they would address these areas of weakness.

Following the inspection outcome, the department has worked closely with its partners in NHS England to monitor, support and challenge the local area partnership in making the necessary improvements. The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council is also receiving additional support from a specialist SEND advisor, and the department will continue to work with the Council and relevant stakeholders to support them in improving SEND services and provision in Bradford.

High needs funding is increasing to over £10.5 billion for the 2024/25 financial year. Of this, through their dedicated schools grant for the 2024/25 financial year, Bradford is receiving a high needs funding allocation of £122.3 million. This funding will continue to help with the costs of supporting children and young people with SEND.