Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to require educational leaders to take steps to narrow the gap between (a) disabled and (b) nondisabled children’s holistic experience of education.

We have been clear that a more inclusive education system is needed to give children and young people opportunities they need to achieve and thrive. All schools have a duty to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Settings are held to account for their support for pupils with SEND through Ofsted, who are focusing on inclusion in their new approach to inspection. Their renewed education inspection framework sets out expectations for how leaders should be aware of and responsive to some pupils’ increased need for help and protection, including those with SEND.

There remains a crucial role for special schools, not only in supporting children and young people with particularly complex needs, but also in building capability across the system.