Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Not Addressed
Paragraph: 98
Delivering effective support for children and young people with SEND during a public health crisis...
Recommendation
Delivering effective support for children and young people with SEND during a public health crisis was inevitably a massive challenge, to which some local authorities were unable to rise. The pandemic demonstrated and exacerbated a widely acknowledged pre-existing crisis in SEND provision. As set out in our interim Report, many children and young people received little or no support for three months. The Government must now prioritise its SEND review, launched over a year ago, and bring forward as a matter of urgency reforms which address fundamental problems of funding, consistency of support, accountability and integration of services, identified by the Education Committee and the National Audit Office in 2019. The outcome of the SEND review must be published no later than the first quarter of 2021 and set out the Government’s plan to reach a sustainable funding model while achieving the core aims of the 2014 reforms.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response discusses British Sign Language provision in the House of Commons, completely failing to address the recommendation on prioritizing and publishing the SEND review.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
98
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government · verbatim extract
Not Addressed
The COVID-19 pandemic has unavoidably delayed the completion of the Review. The SEND Review remains a key priority for this government and it is fully committed to delivering real change. The Review team has used this time to ask fundamental questions, and has drawn on the best evidence available and expertise from children, young people, families, and people across education, health and care to answer them. It is clear that there is some great practice, but it is not yet common practice. It is equally clear that the issues the SEND system faces are very significant. Nevertheless, the Department for Education (DfE) thinks it is possible to deliver the vision of the 2014 SEND Reforms on a financially sustainable basis, while improving the experience of accessing support. DfE do want to get this right, and that means consultation. DfE intends to publish proposals for consultation in the spring of 2021, and are thinking carefully about the best time and method to consult so everyone can fully engage with that exercise.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗