Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that every deaf child has access to an education, health and care plan.

Local authorities are statutorily responsible for assessing whether children and young people have special educational needs which require an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. An EHC needs assessment is triggered by a child or young person’s special educational needs, rather than a health or social care need.

There were 354,000 children and young people with EHC plans maintained by local authorities as at January 2019. This is an increase of 34,200 (11%) from 2018.

Parents (or the young person) can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal for Special Educational Needs and Disability if they are not happy with a local authority’s decisions relating to an EHC plan.