Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the extent to which unmet support needs related to Special Educational Needs and Disability are considered in assessments of parenting capacity during child protection and pre-proceeding processes.

As a child-centred government, we are taking forward significant reform of children’s social care to rebalance the system towards earlier intervention and ensure that children and families get access to the right help, at the point of need. Our Families First Partnership programme, backed by over £500 million in 2025/26, emphasises the importance of a whole family approach throughout the system of help, support and protection.

The department’s statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ encourages local authorities to consider appointing a Designated Social Care Officer who can help strengthen the links between social care services and the special educational needs and disabilities system, and co-ordinate children’s educational, health and care needs assessments with other social care assessments. The guidance is also clear that practitioners should consider the needs of parents when assessing whether a child is in need of protection. In pre-proceedings, the local authority should work in partnership with families and, where possible, any extra support or services needed to support the family should be identified and put in place.