Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
22
We asked the Department why it had not made more progress in completing the SEND...
Conclusion
We asked the Department why it had not made more progress in completing the SEND review. The Department told us that the review had been delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, it had paused work on the review and diverted resources 38 Qq 93–95 39 Q 56 40 Qq 93, 162; C&AG’s Report, para 1.33 41 C&AG’s Report, para 1.35 42 Qq 163, 175–177 43 C&AG’s Report, para 1.30 44 Q 182 45 HC Committee of Public Accounts, Support for children with special educational needs and disabilities, First Report of Session 2019–21, May 2020 46 Q 113, HC Committee of Public Accounts, Oral evidence: COVID-19: Education, HC 944, March 2021 Financial sustainability of schools in England 13 to manage its response to COVID-19, including supporting vulnerable children. Second, when its team had started working on the review again, stakeholders told the Department that the pandemic had changed the context for the review and the things that the review needed to do. Third, the Department had wanted to make sure that the SEND review was well integrated with the Schools White Paper.47
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
4. PAC conclusion: While we wait for the much-delayed SEND review, the support system continues to fail many children and remains financially unsustainable. 4: PAC recommendation: The Department should set out in the SEND review (which it has committed to publish in the first quarter of 2022) what improvements it is aiming to achieve and over what time period, and make clear what specific metrics it will use to assess whether the support system is improving and becoming more sustainable. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 4.2 The government published the outcome of the SEND Review in the Special Educational Needs and Disability and Alternative Provision Green Paper - SEND Review: Right Support, Right place, Right time on 29 March 2022. The consultation on the Green Paper will close on 1 July 2022. 4.3 Later in 2022 the department will publish a national SEND delivery plan, setting out the government’s response to the consultation and how change will be implemented and by whom to deliver better outcomes for children and young people. 4.4 The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, wrote to the Committee about the Green Paper on 28 March 2022.