Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support (a) schools and (b) local authorities to provide education, care and health plans for children with special educational needs in Yeovil constituency.

The duty to conduct education, health and care (EHC) needs assessments, and to issue EHC plans if required, rests with the local authority.

The department monitors and works closely with local authorities that have issues with the EHC needs assessment and plan process. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make improvements, we ensure that the cause of problems is identified and an effective recovery plan is implemented.

A joint local area inspection of Somerset’s special educational needs and disabilities services, undertaken by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) in March 2020, identified nine areas of significant weakness. Following actions taken, the CQC and Ofsted revisited in November 2022 and confirmed that sufficient progress had been made in seven areas, including the timeliness and quality of EHC plans. Somerset produced an Accelerated Progress Plan to address the two remaining areas. With specialist support from special educational needs and disabilities advisors, sufficient progress was made on these areas and the plan was stepped down in February 2025.