Found: order to ensure that the needs and rights of children and young people are met throughout Scotland
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with Buckinghamshire Council on (a) the adequacy of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities in Buckinghamshire and (b) the level of funding for SEND support in that county.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
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. These areas were:
i) 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.
ii) 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.
iii) Waiting times to see a community paediatrician.
Following the inspection, Buckinghamshire produced a Written Statement of Action (WSoA) to address these areas of weakness, which was accepted by Ofsted and CQC. The department’s regional team has put in place systems to track outcomes against these areas of weakness and the progress made by children and young people with SEND, including regular review meetings. At the most recent WSoA review meeting in July 2024, the local area demonstrated progress against the range of actions in place to secure clear and sustained improvement across all the areas of significant weakness. Buckinghamshire is also taking part in the Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND Programme.
Nationally, the government is providing schools with extra funding of almost £1.1 billion in this 2024/25 financial year through the new Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) to support them with overall costs, including the costs of supporting their pupils SEND. Of this total, special schools and alternative provision settings will be receiving over £140 million through the CSBG.
The additional funding through the CSBG comes alongside high needs funding for services and support for children and young people with complex SEND. Buckinghamshire County Council is receiving a high needs funding allocation of £127.5 million through their 2024/25 dedicated schools grant. Decisions on future funding levels beyond this financial year will be for the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the accessibility of mental health services to (1) children and young people, and (2) older adults, who have speech, language and communication needs.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the NHS Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance for 2024/25, NHS England is continuing to expand access to mental health services. This includes increasing the number of children and young people accessing comprehensive mental health support, as well as the number of adults and older adults completing a course of treatment for anxiety and depression via NHS Talking Therapies, some of whom having speech, language, and communication needs. Support may include provision of speech and language therapy as part of a local offer, however decisions about service provision are down to local determination by integrated care boards, to meet locally identified need.
As set out in the Equality Act 2010, all organisations, including those in health and social care, must take steps to remove the barriers individuals face because of disability. The National Health Service must make it as easy for disabled people to use health services as it is for people who are not disabled. NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers must also comply with the Accessible Information Standard, to meet the communication needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss.
Found: children and young people”.
Written Evidence Mar. 17 2025
Inquiry: Solving the SEND CrisisFound: and young people with special educational needs This response specifically relates to children and
Written Evidence Mar. 04 2025
Inquiry: Solving the SEND CrisisFound: and young people.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of (a) the (i) quality and (ii) accessibility of special educational needs support services in Buckinghamshire, and (b) the adequacy of funding received by Buckinghamshire council for SEND services.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
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. These areas were:
i) 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.
ii) 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.
iii) Waiting times to see a community paediatrician.
Following the inspection, Buckinghamshire produced a Written Statement of Action (WSoA) to address these areas of weakness, which was accepted by Ofsted and CQC. The department’s regional team has put in place systems to track outcomes against these areas of weakness and the progress made by children and young people with SEND, including regular review meetings. At the most recent WSoA review meeting in July 2024, the local area demonstrated progress against the range of actions in place to secure clear and sustained improvement across all the areas of significant weakness. Buckinghamshire is also taking part in the Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND Programme.
Nationally, the government is providing schools with extra funding of almost £1.1 billion in this 2024/25 financial year through the new Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) to support them with overall costs, including the costs of supporting their pupils SEND. Of this total, special schools and alternative provision settings will be receiving over £140 million through the CSBG.
The additional funding through the CSBG comes alongside high needs funding for services and support for children and young people with complex SEND. Buckinghamshire County Council is receiving a high needs funding allocation of £127.5 million through their 2024/25 dedicated schools grant. Decisions on future funding levels beyond this financial year will be for the forthcoming Spending Review.
Found: Children, Young People and Education Committee findings What we found out about how disabled children
Found: Children, Young People and Education Committee findings What we found out about how disabled children
Found: Children, Young People and Education Committee findings What we found out about how disabled children