Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with Buckinghamshire Council on the adequacy of SEND provision in Buckinghamshire.

The department is continuing to support and challenge Buckinghamshire to improve its delivery of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services.

The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for Buckinghamshire was in March 2022, during which inspectors identified three areas of significant weakness:

• The lack of a cohesive area strategy to identify and meet the needs of those children and young people requiring speech and language, communication and occupational therapy.
• Waiting times for assessments on the autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis pathways, and the system-owned plans in place to address this.
• Waiting times to see a community paediatrician.

The local area was required to produce a Written Statement of Action (WSoA) to address these areas of weakness, which was accepted by Ofsted and CQC.

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. This includes regular monitoring meetings with the local area, focussing on the impact of actions taken on improving the lives of children and young people with SEND and their families.

Buckinghamshire are part of the Delivering Better Value (DBV) programme which provides £1 million in grant funding to support local authorities to provide more effective SEND services by meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND at an early stage and with the right level of support. The department monitors Buckinghamshire's progress in the DBV programme through quarterly reporting and meetings with the local authority.