Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve mental health support for children with special educational needs in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

Schools are required to identify and address the special educational needs (SEN) of the pupils they support and, in the case of mainstream settings, to use their best endeavours to make sure that a child or young person who has SEN gets the support they need. All schools should apply the ‘graduated approach’ that is outlined in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) code of practice, which means identifying a child’s needs, planning appropriate support, implementing that support and reviewing it regularly to ensure it continues to meet the identified needs. Through this, schools should develop personalised approaches to supporting the unique needs of individual pupils.

We will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. Further information on the support, as at 31 March 2024, for pupil's provided by NHS-funded mental health support teams in Lincolnshire schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision.

The department will also recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults, and open new Young Futures hubs with access to mental health support workers.