Do you have questions on the special educational needs and disability (SEND) Review? Ask Minister for Children and Families, Will Quince MP

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Created for Department for Education

The Department for Education is seeking views on the changes they want to make to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) system in England. For further information visit SEND Review.

Read below for Will Quince's answers to some of your questions.

About Will Quince MP:

“Will Quince is the MP for Colchester and was appointed as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education on 16 September 2021. As Minister for children and families, his responsibilities include children’s social care, families, children in care, children in need, child protection, adoption and care leavers, early years, special educational needs including high needs funding, alternative provision and vulnerable children.”

Here’s what DfE has to say:

“We have listened to many children, young people, parents, teachers and those who work for and advocate for children with special educational needs and disabilities, to ensure our proposals were shaped by those who work within the system and those who should benefit from it. However, it is critical that we hear from even more people to gain invaluable feedback and expertise from a wide range of perspectives before final decisions are made. Our public consultation is open until the 1st of July, and we want everyone to have their say and help to shape the future of the system. For further information visit: http://sendreview.campaign.gov.uk”

Thanks, MNHQ!

Mumsnet Insight T&Cs apply

Why have you still not got a formal process with the SEND Review for coproduction with children and young people with SEND in line with s19 of the Children and Families Act and s149 of the Equality Act please?

Hi @BristolMum96 thank you for your question, it's a great one and something I am determined to address as part of these reforms.

I start from the premise that I don't want any parent to feel that they have to fight the system in order to get their child the education they deserve. It's not right or fair.

We recognise that the current EHCP process can be long and bureaucratic and that there are inconsistencies in how it is carried out across the country. This has to change. There are proposals in the green paper to standardise and digitise the EHCP process to reduce bureaucracy and drive consistency. I hope that this is welcome news. The national standards will make clear the input required from different services, including health and social care, to contribute to an EHC needs assessment.

I want all children and young people with SEND to get the right support, at the right place, at the right time.

I hope that helps.

DfE Directors at the London SEND Green Paper event last week when asked the same question: “It’s a fair point, I’ll take it on the chin”

Thanks @WillQuinceMP for answering mine and others' questions. I look forward to seeing some of the things raised here truly taken into account and addressed in the very near future.

Good Morning,

Thank you both for your time the other day at the London SEND and AP Green Paper Consultation Event. I appreciated your openness and willingness to engage with all parties around this important matter, but was also somewhat concerned, especially at this stage of the review that there is still no formal arrangements for strategic coproduction with children and young people with SEND.

As you can see from the email trail below, and the attachments, I have endeavoured to raise this matter a number of times with the minister, twice having received a response, which cites the work undertaken to date, but no compelling evidence of how this matter, in breach of section 19 of the Children and Families Act 2014, and the underlying ethos of the SEND Reforms 2014, the Select Committee Report 2019 and the ongoing SEND Review will be addressed.

I have attached a strategy developed on behalf of local authorities on the ‘Effective and Meaningful participation of children and young people with SEND’, which considers siders the following: elements that support and promote participation of children and young people with SEND (p. 25); research and learning (p. 28-38); the development of the Children and Families Act 2014, section 19 principles (p. 39-44); SEND Participation Charter (p. 45); and SEND Participation Guidance (p. 46).

This was completed alongside the Kaizen Partnership who undertook the operational aspects of the project. They too were involved recently in CDCs study of how COVID-19 has affected children and young people with SEND, available here: councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/resources/all-resources/filter/inclusion-send/lessons-learnt-lockdown-highs-and-lows-pandemics While I appreciate that central government has certain processes that it must follow for policy and legislation, this work demonstrates that it is possible to achieve this level of participation and coproduction, and I would be happy to talk to you about it further.

I have also attached questions submitted to the minister on the Special Needs Jungle & NNPCF Webinar which look at some of the issues to date, most notably the failure of the previous administration to carry out a proper Equality Act Impact Assessment under section 149 of the Equality Act 2019, where the Office of the Children’s Commission were unambitious and ineffective in scoping the impact of the 2014 reform on those groups with protected characteristics, which in turn is likely to occur with this review unless the matter of formal coproduction with children and young people is addressed.

The Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Impact Assessments
A Child Rights Impact Assessment of Parts 1-3 of the Children and Families Bill

I have also attached a response to the House of Lords Select Committee for post-legislative scrutiny, which goes into further detail areas of challenge since the implementation of the SEND Reform 2014, and the position of Local Areas (Local Authorities, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Public Health, NHS England for specialist services, Early Year’s settings, Schools and Further Education providers) based on professional engagement with members of my network.

Finally with regard to Alternative Provision, I was the responsible Commissioning Manager within a Local Area for this area of statutory provision recently, and during the initial phase of COVID-19. I have attached some redacted examples of the data we analysed during this time, which in addition to the pandemic, provides an insightful illustration of how this cohort, typically caught between unsuitable mainstream and inaccessible special provision, are missing out on meaningful education, resulting in a rise in Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs, high expenditure of the High Needs Block of the Delegated Schools Grant and signposting to specialist services with no tangible pathway for support.

I appreciate you taking the time to consider these matters, as ever, I would be very happy to talk in more detail and am able to put myself at the disposal of the review, especially in relation to insights into the ‘reality’ of Local Area’ experiences, but also as a father of two children who are ‘stuck’ in the system with now clear pathway of helpful support. Please feel free to contact me to discuss any of these matters further.

Thank you from me too. Can you assure all the anxious (and often traumatised and exhausted) parents posting on here that this review is not designed to water down the rights and access of our SEN children?

Hi @IncessantNameChanger thank you for your questions on tribunals. I know that @hiredandsqueak @ColdHappyBap and @Unformidable have also raised issues / concerns about Tribunals.

This is certainly and area of focus as part of the Review.

The National standards are intended to ensure that there is greater fairness and consistency in decision-making across the country in how needs are identified, assessed, and supported, which will bring clarity and help improve overall parental confidence.

Throughout the SEND Review, parents and carers told the department how lengthy, stressful, and often expensive, the tribunal process can be. Our proposals set out in the Green Paper seek to enable issues to be resolved earlier and improve relationships locally by strengthening mediation, including consulting on making it mandatory.

I know that there are mixed views on this issue and I assure you that I am listening to them. I don't want to add to the burden parents face and my and the Department's motivation is to try and make the system less adversarial.

We do know that mediation is effective in the majority of cases. In 2020, 73% of mediation cases were settled without the need to progress to Tribunal. That is why I am considering and consulting on this.

The vast majority of decisions about Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments and plans are concluded without the need to resort to Tribunal hearings. Nationally, in 2020, only 1.7% of all appealable decisions subsequently resulted in an appeal to the SEND Tribunal. However, we recognise that the current SEND system does not deliver the outcomes we want and expect for children and young people with SEND, their families or the people and services who support them.

The department is committed to ensure that children and young people with SEND get the educational, health and care support they need, identified early, and delivered promptly, in settings that are best suited to meet their needs.

We need to improve outcomes and experiences, within a financially sustainable and accountable system.

I hope that answers your questions - I need to speed up my typing to get through more questions before 2pm!

Email above send to DfE Directors and the Minister, yet to receive a response

Hi @Goldenbunny thank you for your questions, also thank you to @Nerdymummy who has asked a similar question on provision so I will answer these together. I could have spent the whole hour on this issue alone.

The last decade has seen significant growth in the demand for special school places – in some cases for children who, with the right support, could have their needs met in mainstream. I am conscious that this means us getting mainstream right, having inclusivity at the heart of mainstream schools culture and where appropriate creating more specialist units in mainstream schools.

Local authorities need to work with parents and schools to ensure there is sufficient provision to meet the needs of their children.

We have announced an huge investment of £2.6 billion over the next three years, to deliver new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision, boosting capacity where it is most needed.

When drawing up an EHC plan, the local authority should provide parents with information on the schools or colleges which can meet your child’s needs, for example through the published Local Offer of SEND services and provision.

You are then able to request that a specific school or college be named on the EHC plan; the local authority is under a conditional duty to name it and, if named, the school or college must admit the child. Where specialist provision is most appropriate for a child, we are consulting on proposals for a simplified process where parents will be supported to express an informed preference for a suitable placement from a tailored list of settings, co-produced between LAs and parents, that are appropriate to meet their child’s needs. This aims to give parents and carers clarity on what is available locally, but this may still include independent or out of borough provision where appropriate in order to meet the child’s needs.

These are really great questions and go to the heart of the Review.

Thanks for your reply. I still feel that making mediation compulsory is the wrong take. The problem with the EHCP system is local authorities don't follow the law. Simple as. I've once again had to counsel a friend through dealing with a LA who claim they need 3 rounds of evidence and a diagnosis before an EHCNA can be done. We all know that is not what the law says. If the LA followed the law parents wouldn't need mediation or tribunal.

But this is never properly dealt with. And instead we get local authorities like Kent recently sending out briefings saying their problems are all caused by pushy parents. Local authorities need more money to address SEN and they need consequences when they don't.

@WillQuinceMP Thank you for responding. I have lots of views on accountability.

THe most obvious is there is no penalty for not providing education or support in a timely manner. In fact LAs can save big chunks of fees by not providing a child with education for a term or so whilst they await the right provision. Where is the incentive to move things quickly when a child is sat at home or on a part time timetable in an unsuitable school? My child missed so much school 'awaiting placement' and all it did was save the LA money.

Id follow that up with the obvious conflict of interest, that the person who assesses needs and decides what support is necessary, is also the person who has to pay for any recommendations (perhaps knowing there arent any special school places left or the OT service has collapsed)

Hi @MumC2141 and thank you for your question. It shows why I am working so closely with Gillian Keegan MP at DHSC as getting health right and ensuring that there are sufficient accountability and redress mechanisms for health are key. @lostlanguages also raised therapies workforce issues which I will try to also address.

We certainly recognise the value which mainstream schools place on high-quality, accessible specialist advice, for example from educational psychologists and speech and language therapists, and the challenges many face in securing such provision.

We know that an inclusive education system will also ensure that children and young people have timely access to specialist services and support, including specialist placements where this is appropriate. We propose to commission analysis to better understand the support that children and young people with SEND need from the health workforce so that there is a clear focus on SEND in health workforce planning. This would likely include speech and language therapists as well as other therapeutic and specialist workforces.

This will build on existing work from the Government to increase recruitment of speech and language therapists, as part of the biggest nursing, midwifery, and Allied Health Professional recruitment drive in decades. This has led to there being 620 acceptances to speech and language therapy programmes in England in 2020, an increase of 28% on 2019.

I hope that this answers the questions. This is one of the more complex areas and why we are working so closely with health colleagues because of the way the NHS is structured with Integrated Care Systems at local levels and how we ensure that they all step up and take these issues as seriously as we want and expect them to.

Hi @Misspepperpotts and thank you for your questions on £, also thank you to @Ilikecheeseontoast who has asked a similar question on SEND funding so I will answer these together.

We are increasing high needs funding for children and young people with the most complex SEND by £1 billion in the financial year 2022-23, to a total of £9.1 billion. This unprecedented increase of 13% comes on top of the £1.5 billion increase over the last two years and will continue to support local authorities and schools with the increasing costs they are facing.

It is important that we give schools flexibility in how they spend their money. SENCos, headteachers, teachers and other professionals working locally with parents are best placed to understand the needs of the pupils in their school and the support they need. We will, however, be consulting on this aspect of school funding, as we progress towards a funding system in which schools are funded directly rather than through local authorities, and as we develop the new national standards that will bring more consistency to what we expect all schools to provide for those with SEND.

Hi and thank you for your question @MadAngryCry it's about getting the balance right so we have the right support, in the right place, at the right time based on the need of the child - as a starting point, it's about making mainstream inclusive and ensuring more effective support in mainstream settings so more parent's feel that their child's needs are being met and they have confidence in the system.

However, we do recognise that there will always be a number of children and young people with particularly complex needs that are most effectively met in a specialist setting, and our ambition is that all children and young people receive a high-quality, appropriate education in a setting that meets their needs.

@Doubleraspberry also asked about our investment in special schools.

The last decade has seen significant growth in the demand for special school places – in some cases for children who, with the right support, could have their needs met in mainstream.

Local authorities need to work with parents and schools to ensure there is sufficient provision to meet the needs of their children.

We have announced an investment of £2.6 billion over the next three years, to deliver new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision, boosting capacity where it is most needed.

I am very sorry that my hour is up. Thank you all for all of your questions. I hope that my answers have been helpful and apologies that some were a tad wordy!

I have asked my team to monitor this feed as part of the consultation so please keep posting.

Final point from me, please do take part in the formal Gov.uk consultation, link below:

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/send-review-right-support-right-place-right-time

Thank you again

Will

The SEN system was reformed in 2014 supposedly resulting in an integrated system for ages 0-25 and EHCPs . The intention was good but the reforms were never properly funded and so bound to fail.
What assurances can you give that these reforms will actually improve the lives of children and young people with SEN?

Having had a child with Sen in mainstream school who is now in specialist I can see this approach being a disaster and making things worse unless managed properly with proper safeguards in place. Part of the whole problem with things as they are is the delegated element 2 funding which is given to schools is not ring fenced to a particular child. As schools have lots of pressures on their budget it is no wonder they don’t want to spend large amounts on a small number of children so it is no wonder children are left without adequate support as when they eventually worsen to a point where they leave the school for specialist or homeschooling this frees up the funding for the school to use on things that make it look better for ofsted. Your comment sounds very much like you are considering more funding going direct to schools as they know what children need and when. This is a good idea in theory but clearly hasn’t worked so far with current element 2 funding or we wouldn’t be in the situation now of having this review

I think this is the most disappointing answer of them all, standardising and digitising EHCPs will no doubt be beneficial in the long term but offers no support to parents to access EHCPs, will not offer any incentive for schools or LAs to implement them, and will not clear the current massive backlog. As I'm sure you're aware standardisation among multi-agencies is not quick and digitising will come at a snail's pace. It will lead to confusion and delay the process in the interim.

In another response you mention "Nationally, in 2020, only 1.7% of all appealable decisions subsequently resulted in an appeal to the SEND Tribunal."

Curious to see a 2020 statistic given the timing of it , I tried to find information for the year 2019. Google would only provide this statement repeated in numerous places. What's the answer for 2019 please?

no one asked.

I mean really, what was the point in any of this? They're going to crack on doing whatever they want to do to erode the rights of disabled children and ruin lives. All in the name of saving money, which will then be siphoned off to their rich mates.

Don't waste your time responding, they do. not. care.

Ipsea agree with you Polly and certainly my current experience of the system

www.ipsea.org.uk/news/send-review-is-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-government-proposals-will-mean-complete-overhaul-of-send-law

I would also hate not to have much say in schools.

From IPSEA, the whole article is well worth a read.

We believe that the proposals in the green paper are not about enhancing families’ experiences or improving children or young people's outcomes, and it is disingenuous to suggest otherwise. The main purpose of the proposed reforms is to save money.

www.ipsea.org.uk/News/send-review-is-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-government-proposals-will-mean-complete-overhaul-of-send-law

Shame on you @WillQuinceMP . Haven't our children already been through enough?

Apologies if this doesn't belong here, but I'm guessing that there are some parents who might find this helpful.

I'm Lucy and I work in campaigning for a charity called the Together Trust. We support children with special educational needs and disabilities across the UK. You can read about us here: www.togethertrust.org.uk

As you will be aware from this thread, the government is changing the way that children with SEND are supported across England.

Yet the SEND Green Paper (which outlines the proposed changes) is over 100 pages long, and the government's consultation asks 22 highly specific questions. To answer fully, parents and carers would have to write over 5,000 words.

We know that not everybody will be able to respond to the full consultation.
As an alternative, we are asking parents and carers to let us know what needs to be improved through our simple, five-minute survey, which is open until the 2nd of July, and can be accessed here:

togethertrust.typeform.com/to/CdywGFaM.

We'll listen to you and respond to the consultation on your behalf. If you are willing, please share this in circles with parents and carers who have a child with SEND.

We don't want anybody to miss out on the opportunity of having their voice heard.

Please me know if you have any questions.

Lucy

How are all of the changes/ improvements going to be funded? It is all well and good talking about reforming the provision but there isn't enough money to provide the things which are legally required now so how the heck are improvements going to be made?

E.g. there is a huge shortfall in special needs school places in my local area and even with two new schools planned thwr are still not enough places. Many of the local schools are 50% over capacity.

Oops, the link is actually:

togethertrust.typeform.com/to/CdywGFaM

Without the full stop. Thanks!