Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how the education of disabled children will be tracked in the National Disability Strategy.

The government is committed to transforming the everyday lives of disabled people. We published the National Disability Strategy in July 2021 which sets out a wide ranging set of practical actions to improve the lives of disabled people, including in relation to education.

In the strategy, the Department for Education committed to consulting on improvements to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system through the SEND Review. DfE recognises that the SEND system needs to improve, which is why the Review was established in September 2019, and the department will be bringing forward proposals for public consultation in the first quarter of 2022.

DfE announced that high needs funding will increase by £780 million, or 9.6%, in 2022-23 compared to 2021-22. This is on top of the increase of more than £1.5 billion over the previous two years and will bring the total high needs budget to £8.9 billion, an increase of over a third since 2019-20.

DfE is investing a further £300 million to create places for children with SEND, improve existing provision in schools and make accessibility adaptations in the financial year 2021 to 2022, while also providing over £42 million in 2021-22 to continue funding projects to support children with SEND. This investment will ensure that specialist organisations around the country can continue to help strengthen local area performance, support families and provide practical support to schools and colleges.

At the request of the Prime Minister, a set of Ministerial Disability Champions were appointed in summer 2020, to drive the development and delivery of the National Disability Strategy. Now the strategy is published, the Minister for Disabled People chairs quarterly meetings of this group to sustain momentum and track progress against the over 100 commitments.

The full list is set out on .GOV.UK, which includes Will Quince MP, the Department of Education Ministerial Disability Champion.

The strategy committed to publishing an annual report in summer 2022, which will detail the progress made against all commitments, including those that relate to education.