Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of (a) local authorities and (b) health bodies are using the (i) statutory guidance set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 to meet SEND children’s educational and health care and (b) reasonable endeavours duty set out in the Coronavirus Act 2020.

Since 20 March, the majority of children and young people have not been attending education settings. Children with education, health and care (EHC) plans have only been attending education settings where a risk assessment has determined that their needs cannot safely be met at home. This means it may not be possible for local authorities and commissioning health bodies to deliver the special educational provision that would normally be delivered in an education setting (for example, social skills training in small groups, or the delivery of a personalised curriculum with 1-1 support from a teaching assistant).

Because of these exceptional circumstances, some aspects of the law on EHC needs assessments and plans have changed temporarily to strike the right balance between:

• the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities to be protected and receive the right support in a timely way
• managing the demands on local authorities and health bodies to respond to the outbreak

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has issued a notice to modify temporarily the duty on local authorities and health commissioning bodies to secure or arrange the provision specified in EHC plans so that they can discharge this by using their ‘reasonable endeavours’. The modified duty applies to all local authorities and health commissioning bodies in England.

The modified duty relates to the provision for each individual child and young person. Local authorities and health commissioning bodies must not apply blanket policies about the provision to be secured or arranged. Instead, in deciding what provision must be secured or arranged in discharge of its modified duty, the local authority and health commissioning body should consider: specific local circumstances; the needs of and circumstances specific to each child and young person with an EHC plan and the views of children, young people and their parents as to what might be appropriate.

We are continuing to monitor local authorities and health commissioning bodies, including the ways in which they are discharging this modified duty. We know that there are some excellent examples of where local authorities and health commissioning bodies have put alternative arrangements in place to support children and young people with EHC plans – for example, through arranging for therapy sessions to be delivered over video, or providing sensory kits for children with the most profound needs.

We are committed to ceasing this temporary change to the duty on local authorities and health commissioning bodies to secure or arrange the provision specified in EHC plans at the earliest opportunity and will keep these measures under close review.