Recommendation 23

HM Government Accepted

The Government acknowledges the importance of improving support for children and young people with SEND, particularly to ensure they can attend school regularly and are well supported when they do. This is why a key part of the SEND and AP improvement plan is to make sure pupils get the right support at the right time and are therefore better able to attend and thrive in school. We are clear that pupils should be in mainstream schools wherever possible, with the right support, and this is a core principle of the SEND and AP improvement plan. This plan seeks to create a more inclusive system which can address unmet need and ensure that pupils can access the support they need in a timely way, and therefore improve their attendance. The Department is investing £2.6 billion between 2022–25, including significant additional investment in mainstream schools and special schools, to improve the SEND system. This will fund: up to 60,000 new specialist places; new SEND and AP change programme partnerships, that will develop new local SEND systems and strengthen mainstream provision; and a new national SEND and AP partnership board of leaders from across the sector, to work with the Department to deliver the plan. The Change Programme, currently underway, will test and learn from new ways of working across nine regions in England, to develop new systems for children and young people with SEND and in AP. This will involve the development of new approaches to mainstream SEND support including ensuring there are robust arrangements for early identification and effective support in mainstream schools for children with additional needs, and for effective mainstream to specialist transitions. It also means increasing the capacity of specialist services, including mental health services, to enable needs to be met in a timely way. The Department will publish a National Standards for SEND and AP setting clear expectations for the first time about the support children and young people should expect to receive, regardless of where they live or go to school. These Standards will reflect the intention for pupils to remain in mainstream schools wherever possible, with the right support, as well as outlining the role of specialist provision. These Standards will enable schools to ensure their provision is appropriately set up to identify and support SEND pupils and address the current level of unmet need, thereby improving their attendance rates. It is the Department’s intention to consult on the National Standards in Spring 2024. The Department is committed to driving up school attendance for all pupils, including those with SEND. Attendance is a key focus of the SEND and AP improvement plan and will be included in the new national standards and performance framework. The performance framework will include the monitoring of attendance data for children and young people with SEND and in AP to track progress across the country and ensure accountability within the system. The new National Standards will support children and young people to get back on track, and wherever possible, re-integrate successfully into mainstream education and attend regularly. The Department is also asking local authorities and schools to consider what else they can do to improve inclusive practice by raising the standard for what support is ‘ordinarily available’ in schools, supported by community-based specialist teams that can help spot needs early, and put support in place quickly. The Change Programme will run from September 2023 until August 2025 and will provide both real-time lessons that can be shared widely and provide the evidence base to support future funding or legislative changes. Improved attendance is a key focus of the work.