Special Educational Needs: Standards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the extent to which local authorities comply with identified SEND provision prior to tribunal proceedings.
Answered by Georgia Gould
To ensure all local areas have the capacity to undertake meaningful transformation planning and delivery while maintaining current special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services, the department is investing £200 million for local authorities to transform their SEND services. They will be held firmly to account for delivering high-quality, inclusive provision, and we will intervene when local authorities and Integrated Care Boards do not meet the expected standards. This is through additional oversight and specialist advice and, where serious concerns arise, we may intervene directly using statutory powers and the deployment of SEND advisers and commissioners.
More broadly, we want to improve parental confidence that local authorities will act on SEND Tribunal judgments and ensure improvements are made to local authorities’ future decision-making, with the ultimate goal of mitigating parents' need to bring cases to Tribunal in the first instance. That is why in the SEND consultation document we proposed requirements on local authorities to write to parents following Tribunal judgments explaining the action they will take and by when, and to publish regular updates summarising any judgments against them and setting out how they will remedy any wider systemic issues.
Furthermore, in line with the commitments set out in the White Paper, there will be a new remit for the Children’s Commissioner to oversee and scrutinise the implementation of SEND reforms. The department is currently in the process of exploring and defining the options for this role.
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