To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2022 to Question 125334 on Special Educational Needs: Coronavirus, if he will publish the local authorities targeted for an increase in training available to early years SENDCO.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2022 to Question 125334 on Special Educational Needs: Coronavirus, if he will publish his Department's criteria for determining which local authorities to target with an increase in training available to early years SENDCO.

We are in the process of procuring for additional special educational needs coordinators training for early years. We are aiming to target training in the following local authorities:

These local authorities have been identified using metrics to measure levels of disadvantage in individual local authorities. The metrics used are: rates of access to free school meals alongside Early Years Foundation Stage profile outcomes, % of children eligible for Early Years Pupil Premium, % of children in receipt of an Education and Healthcare Plan and COVID-19 cases rate per 100,000 resident population across the length of the COVID-19 pandemic.