The government’s long-awaited response to the SEND and alternative provision (AP) green paper includes plans for new national standards for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and the digitisation of education, health and care plans (EHCPs).
Their overarching aims can be found here:
SEND-Reforms-2023Download
The plans for the future system can be found here:
SEND-Reforms-2023-pt-2Download
The full document can be read here:
SEND_and_alternative_provision_improvement_planDownload
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Originally posted by www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk
The Government today published its Schools Bill with Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi announcing a 'strict' and 'non-negotiable' approach on school attendance.
The Bill will order schools across England to produce plans for addressing absenteeism. The Government also plans to issue new central guidance on the best approach to fining parents whose children are absent from school. Over 40,000 autistic pupils (31%) were persistent absentees in 2020/21.
Responding to the bill, Jolanta Lasota, Chief Executive of Ambitious about Autism, said:
“These measures are a regressive step and miss the point entirely about why many autistic pupils can’t attend school. “Autistic young people tell us they desperately want to go to school, just like everyone else, but many can’t because of inaccessible school environments, teaching, and expectations that they be something they are not: neurotypical. “Compelling these young people to be at a school they can’t access, without the support they need to attend, will not help them learn. Punishing their...
The Council for Disabled Children (CDC) has recently updated its guide, Disabled Children and the Equality Act 2010: What teachers need to know and what schools need to do. The updated guide has been funded by the Department for Education.
Schools have a range of duties under the Equality Act 2010: to staff, as employees; to parents and others, where the school is providing a service to other people using the school; and to pupils, staff and others who share other protected characteristics as well as disability.
This guide is designed to help teachers understand the legislation and how it applies to their work with disabled pupils in their school. It explains what the Equality Act requires of schools and of governors, trustees and others who are the ‘responsible body’ for the school.
The guide draws on examples of practices that may amount to discrimination or that may help schools to avoid discrimination. Many of these examples are drawn from the decisions of...
Legal requirements for councils around inclusion and the creation of national standards focussed on support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are among a raft of proposals laid out in the government’s SEND green paper.
The SEND and alternative provision green paper has been published following the completion of the Department for Education’s long-awaited SEND review which was launched in 2019.
The proposals, backed by £70m of new funding, will be subject to a 13-week public consultation due to close on 1 July, DfE has announced.
https://youtu.be/Ut_LI2sK1R4
Proposals
Increased early intervention for children with SEND and a single system combining SEND and alternative education provision feature highly in the plans.
The creation of new national standards across education, health and care to build for a higher performing SEND system are also among measures set out in the paper.
The national standards will build on the Children and Families Act 2014 which is currently the subject of an enquiry by peers.
The standards look set to...
Children's minister defends delays to landmark review and warns Covid has 'intensified' issues
Children's Minister: Will Quince
The government has named 23 members of a steering group set up to help push through its much-delayed SEND review, as a minister warned Covid had “intensified” issues.
In an open letter to parents of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, children’s minister Will Quince said improvements to the system were “needed, and overdue”. The steering group will “help us move forward” with the review, he added.
The SEND review was first promised in September 2019. The government has now missed three of its own deadlines to publish it, with Covid cited as a major contributor to the delays.
Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said last week that he was hoping to have it out “in the first quarter of next year” so it can “dovetail” with a planned schools white paper.
In his letter, Quince said the pandemic had “intensified some of the issues in the system, and...
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has reiterated his support for the introduction of a home education register.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi was giving evidence to the Education Select Committee. Image: Parliament TV
Speaking at a Parliamentary hearing this morning (Wednesday), Zahawi said he was “absolutely committed” to the creation of a register of elective home-educated (EHE) children, which would be maintained by local authorities.
The measure was a key proposal in the Children Not in School consultation paper published in April 2019 alongside a planned duty on parents to register their child as being home schooled and for councils to provide additional support for EHE children.
The government has yet to publish its response to the consultation, which was criticised by members of the Education Select Committee who were questioning Zahawi.
Caroline Johnson, Conservative MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, said: “I am unsure why it is taking so long? This is a safeguarding issue…we know that some people are not doing a good job [home...
Yesterday, we shared on our social media that it had been confirmed that Gavin Williamson has been replaced as the Education Secretary. We know that this may create a mix emotions in the professionals, parents, carers, young people and children that we support.
It has now been announced that Williamson has been replaced by Nadhim Zahawi who has most recently been the Vaccines Minister, and previously worked as a children's minister between 2018 and 2019.
Further changes in the Department for Education saw Nick Gibb removed as schools minister after nine years in the role.
Michelle Donnelan remains as universities minister, however, no announcement has been made about the future of Vicky Ford as children's minister.
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Between February and March 2021, as part of the Making Participation Work programme which is funded by the Department for Education and jointly delivered by Council for Disabled Children and KIDS, the Council for Disabled Children commissioned Kaizen to deliver an England wide consultation with children and young people with SEND. The consultation was co-designed between Kaizen, CDC and the FLARE young advisory group, and is based on the feedback of children and young people participating in CDC and KIDS led youth groups.
The full report can be downloaded here:
Lessons-Learnt-From-LockdownDownload
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With the news that everyone will be returning to school/college" from March 8th, the Department for Education has once again issued separate operational guidance for schools and for specialist settings: Additional operational guidance for special schools, special post-16 institutions and alternative provision.
Below is a bit of a breakdown of some of the important points that you should be aware of.
1. Attendance
The attendance section in the specialist and alternative settings guidance emphasises that from March 8th, attendance is mandatory for all, unless they receive a positive test result or have to self-isolate.
It is vital for pupils and students to attend school or college to minimise, as far as possible, the longer-term impact of the pandemic on their education, wellbeing and wider development. The usual rules on school attendance apply to all pupils including:- parents’ duty to secure their child’s regular attendance at school (where the child is a registered pupil at school, and they are of compulsory school age)-...
It was announced last night that all primary and secondary schools and colleges would close for at least six weeks until February half-term to all pupils except the children of frontline workers and vulnerable children. Early years settings, including nurseries and childminders, special schools and alternative education providers will remain open to all pupils, Johnson said.
The Department for Education has confirmed it will go ahead with previously announced plans to increase the number of free laptops and 4G routers made available to disadvantaged children. It said it aimed to provide one million devices by the end of the current academic year having handed out 560,000 as of December.The government-funded National Tutoring Programme, aimed at helping the most disadvantaged children impacted by the pandemic catch-up with peers, has said it will continue to provide tutoring remotely - it delivered support to 62,000 pupils last term.Meanwhile, the government has admitted that GCSE, AS and A level exams are “unlikely” to go ahead...
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