Claire Coutinho: I will be happy to look into that in detail and write to the right hon. Gentleman further about it, but I would say that the Department is working to improve all schools in terms of SEND needs across different sectors and we are working with all of them.
Claire Coutinho: If the hon. Lady had been listening, she would know that I just said we will be publishing early in the new year; if she was not just reading out a scripted question, she might have cottoned on to that point. This is an important area. I have many affected constituents so have seen all of this first hand, as I have in previous roles and from talking to parents across the country. We want to...
Claire Coutinho: We are making a transformational investment in SEND places by investing £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to help deliver new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision as well as up to 60 new special and AP free schools.
Claire Coutinho: My hon. Friend is a doughty campaigner for Wiltshire and I applaud the council on the work it is doing. Ofsted is revising its framework on this area, which was set out in the Green Paper earlier this year. My hon. Friend might be interested to know that we are also looking at better local and national dashboards to improve local accountability.
Claire Coutinho: My hon. Friend is right that many parents find the system adversarial. That is one of the key things we are seeking to address by making what parents can expect much clearer and by simplifying and digitising their EHCP—education, health and care plan—application process, among our other measures. Meanwhile, Leicestershire will continue to be supported through its delivering better value...
Claire Coutinho: My hon. Friend has spoken to me multiple times about the excellent school provision in his area, and I would be delighted to visit and see more for myself.
Claire Coutinho: We absolutely need to address the plight of low-income families struggling with the system when their children have SEND. The amount of funding that has gone into the SEND high needs block has risen by 40% over the last three years, so we are putting the funding in, but we absolutely need to ensure that it is going to the right families.
Claire Coutinho: I point to the £2 billion extra funding that is going into the schools system next year and the year after as well as the huge increase of funding that I just mentioned going into the SEND sector.
Claire Coutinho: As I have mentioned, there is extra money going into the schools system, which was set out in the autumn statement. The energy relief scheme, which is helping schools with their energy bills, will also last throughout the winter.
Claire Coutinho: It is absolutely tragic that anyone might spend that amount of time outside of school. In March we announced £1.4 billion of high needs provision capital allocations, of which Worcestershire is receiving just over £10.7 million between 2022 and 2024 to help create new places in both mainstream and special schools. It is up to the local authority to determine how best to use that funding....
Claire Coutinho: The Department has significantly expanded the number of fully funded initial teacher training places in early years for the next academic year, and it is reviewing the level-3 qualification criterion for early years, both of which are part of our package of £180 million-worth of support.[Official Report, 6 December 2022, Vol. 724, c. 3MC.]
Claire Coutinho: I know that my hon. Friend is a huge supporter of Jelly Babies, both the nursery and otherwise. The Government are supporting early years professionals with £180 million for qualifications and specific training, such as on dealing with challenging behaviour following the pandemic and on early communication.[Official Report, 6 December 2022, Vol. 724, c. 3MC.]
Claire Coutinho: As I said in answer to earlier questions, we put an extra £0.5 billion into the early years sector in the 2021 spending review to increase the hourly rate. We are also spending money on qualifications and training for teachers. This sector is very important to us, and we continue to consider all the ways we can support it.[Official Report, 6 December 2022, Vol. 724, c. 4MC.]
Claire Coutinho: We have set out the announcements on funding for SEND, which, as I said, has increased by 40% over the past three years for the high needs block funding. We have also set out spending on capital grants. We are setting out early next year our proposals for the SEND and alternative provision Green Paper to make sure that that money is spent well.
Claire Coutinho: I would be delighted to meet my right hon. Friend. She is an incredible campaigner on these issues, which are also important to the Government.
Claire Coutinho: The department welcomes the Children's Commissioner's report, a response to the department’s consultation, which provided a range of recommendations for the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, including improving the educational health care (EHC) plan process, and support that is available for alternative provision (AP) providers. The SEND and AP green paper set out...
Claire Coutinho: Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only. The government understands that people are worried about the cost of living challenges ahead, we have announced further support for next year worth £26 billion, designed to target the most vulnerable households. The government continues to provide access to grant funding for families on low incomes...
Claire Coutinho: The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards that all early years providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to age five. The framework can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-found ation-stage-framework--2. The framework requires that where children are provided with meals, snacks...
Claire Coutinho: The recently published Independent Review of Children’s Social Care set out recommendations on how the government can better support kinship families The department is now considering these recommendations, including the recommendation to create a financial allowance. The department is working on a comprehensive response to the recommendations in the review, which will set out how we intend...
Claire Coutinho: I have been asked to keep my comments relatively brief, so I hope I can do justice to this tremendous debate and set out some of the Government’s vision. I start by thanking the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) for a moving and passionate speech, which I am becoming used to hearing from her, and my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), who has...