Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that the budget for the Special Schools Eye Care Service is not reduced so that (a) children with Special Educational Needs can receive free eye care in schools and (b) optometrists can afford to continue providing the service.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually for the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. This is a new additional budget for providing sight tests and vouchers in these settings, and so represents a recurrent increased investment in sight testing and the sight testing sector. Service delivery will continue within the proof-of-concept settings, to ensure continuity of service, whilst the required regulatory changes are laid in Parliament to underpin wider rollout during 2024/25.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of cutting the special schools eye care budget on children with special educational needs.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually for the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. This is a new additional budget for providing sight tests and vouchers in these settings, and so represents a recurrent increased investment in sight testing and the sight testing sector. Service delivery will continue within the proof-of-concept settings, to ensure continuity of service, whilst the required regulatory changes are laid in Parliament to underpin wider rollout during 2024/25.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of trends in the special schools eye care service budget on service delivery.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually for the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. This is a new additional budget for providing sight tests and vouchers in these settings, and so represents a recurrent increased investment in sight testing and the sight testing sector. Service delivery will continue within the proof-of-concept settings, to ensure continuity of service, whilst the required regulatory changes are laid in Parliament to underpin wider rollout during 2024/25.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Special Schools Eye Care service is fully funded.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually for the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. This is a new additional budget for providing sight tests and vouchers in these settings, and so represents a recurrent increased investment in sight testing and the sight testing sector. Service delivery will continue within the proof-of-concept settings, to ensure continuity of service, whilst the required regulatory changes are laid in Parliament to underpin wider rollout during 2024/25.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reduce the time taken for children to receive (a) SEN assessments and (b) mental health treatment in Morley and Outwood constituency.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department wants to ensure that Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments, where required, are conducted as quickly as possible, so that children and young people can access the support they need. In March 2023, the government set out its plans to reform and improve the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system through its SEND and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan. The plan commits to establishing a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND, so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes and are well prepared for adulthood and employment. Wakefield, Leeds, Calderdale and Bradford are in the SEND Change Programme, representing the Yorkshire and Humber region, to test these reforms. Specifically, these reforms focus on early intervention, improving the quality of EHC plans, streamlining the EHC plan process, reducing conflicts within the EHC plan system through better co-production and ultimately enhancing outcomes for children and young people.
The mental health of children is a national priority for this government and the department recognises that some children will need specialist support for their mental health issues. The department is supporting children and young people nationally, including those in the Morley and Outwood area, in the expansion and transformation of mental health services through an increase in spending through the NHS overall, as well as improved access to early mental health support.
To expand access to early mental health support, the department is continuing to roll out Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to schools and colleges. As of April 2024, MHSTs now covers 44% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England. The department is extending coverage of MHSTs to at least 50% of pupils and learners by the end of March 2025.
The department has also committed to offering all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025, enabling them to introduce effective whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing. So far 16,700 settings have claimed a grant so far, including more than 8 in 10 state-funded secondary schools.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will list the teacher recruitment and retention schemes that have received notice that funding will be (a) reduced and (b) ended since 1 January 2024.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
England currently has the highest number of teachers on record. At the last count there were over 468,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
To make sure the department’s teacher recruitment and retention efforts are focussed on where they are needed most and providing best value for taxpayers’ money, the department has made some changes to funding allocations. Since January 2024, notice of changes to funding has been sent to the following teacher recruitment and retention partners:
Since January 2024, notice of non-renewal of funding has been sent to:
The department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries that are worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships that are £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. The ITT financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, which is a £15 million increase on the last cycle.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of SEND provision in schools in (a) Portsmouth and (b) England.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that there are sufficient school places for all pupils in a local area in mainstream schools and settings for pupils with high needs including special schools and alternative provision (AP).
The department works closely with Portsmouth City Council and Multi Academy Trusts in the area to ensure high-quality provision. In Portsmouth there are five special schools. Of these schools three are rated as outstanding by Ofsted, one is a new school yet to be inspected and one is inadequate, and the department is working with the trust to secure rapid improvement. Several mainstream schools in the city also provide education to children with special educational needs through special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) units and resourced provision.
The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission for Portsmouth was in July 2019, and the inspection found that professionals across Education, Health, and Care work well in a joined-up way to promote inclusive practice.
Last year the department published the SEND and AP Improvement Plan. This set out the department's plans to establish a new national SEND and AP system that delivers timely, high-quality services and support in mainstream settings, alongside swift access to more local state specialist settings, where required.
The department is investing £2.6 billion since 2022 to deliver new specialist and AP places and improve existing provision. Together with ongoing delivery of new special and AP free schools, this funding supports local authorities to deliver over 60,000 new specialist places and improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
The department is also increasing high needs revenue funding for children and young people with complex needs to over £10.5 billion this financial year 2024/25 (up 60% over the last five years). Within this total Portsmouth City Council will receive a high needs allocation of over £37 million, which is a cumulative increase of 36% per head over the three years from 2021/22. The extra revenue funding will help with the increasing costs of supporting SEND provision in schools.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Royal National Institute of Blind People's research entitled Provision under pressure: Gaps in Educational Support for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment in England (2023), published in February 2024; and what steps her Department (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to ensure that children and young people with vision impairment have equitable access to education.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s ambition is that all children and young people receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan outlines the government’s mission to establish a single, national SEND and AP system, with the proposal to develop national standards a fundamental foundation for this.
This new single national system will set standards on what support should be made available in mainstream settings, including for children with vision impairment. The National Standards will outline the types of special educational provision that should be available, who is responsible for delivering that support, and clarify expectations on mainstream settings and local services. To inform national standards, the department is engaging with stakeholders across education, health and social care, as well as children, young people and their families, this includes members of the Royal National Institute of Blind People.
The department is committed to ensuring a steady supply of teachers of children with vision impairment in both specialist and mainstream settings. To teach a class of pupils with vision impairments, a teacher is required to hold the relevant mandatory qualification for sensory impairment (MQSI). There are currently six providers of the MQSI, with a seventh from September 2024. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) is developing a new occupational standard for teachers of sensory impairment, expected to be available from September 2025. Children and young people with special educational needs have more access to assistive technology following investment in remote education and accessibility features, which can reduce or remove barriers to learning.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for SEND services in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that there are sufficient school places for all pupils in a local area in mainstream schools and settings for pupils with high needs including special schools and alternative provision (AP).
The department works closely with Portsmouth City Council and Multi Academy Trusts in the area to ensure high-quality provision. In Portsmouth there are five special schools. Of these schools three are rated as outstanding by Ofsted, one is a new school yet to be inspected and one is inadequate, and the department is working with the trust to secure rapid improvement. Several mainstream schools in the city also provide education to children with special educational needs through special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) units and resourced provision.
The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission for Portsmouth was in July 2019, and the inspection found that professionals across Education, Health, and Care work well in a joined-up way to promote inclusive practice.
Last year the department published the SEND and AP Improvement Plan. This set out the department's plans to establish a new national SEND and AP system that delivers timely, high-quality services and support in mainstream settings, alongside swift access to more local state specialist settings, where required.
The department is investing £2.6 billion since 2022 to deliver new specialist and AP places and improve existing provision. Together with ongoing delivery of new special and AP free schools, this funding supports local authorities to deliver over 60,000 new specialist places and improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
The department is also increasing high needs revenue funding for children and young people with complex needs to over £10.5 billion this financial year 2024/25 (up 60% over the last five years). Within this total Portsmouth City Council will receive a high needs allocation of over £37 million, which is a cumulative increase of 36% per head over the three years from 2021/22. The extra revenue funding will help with the increasing costs of supporting SEND provision in schools.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April to Question 20456 on Special Educational Needs: Stockport Metropolitan Borough Counci, what estimate her Department has made of the number of local authorities that are not delivering their education, health and care function as a result of constraints upon the general fund.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Responsibility for local authority funding lies with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have special educational needs that require an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. EHC plans must be issued within twenty weeks of the needs assessment commencing so that children and young people can access the support they need.
In 2022, 49.2% of EHC plans were issued within the twenty week time limit. Where local authorities are failing to deliver, the department works with them using a range of improvement programmes and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) specialist advisers to address weaknesses. The department is also putting in place measures such as developing new national standards and a standardised EHC plan process to improve the SEND system so that, where an EHC plan is needed, they can be issued as quickly as possible to ensure children and young people can access the support they need.