Over a thousand more children and young people with SEND are set
to benefit from access to high-quality specialised learning, with
seven new special free schools in Cambridgeshire, Kent, Merton
and Norfolk selected to be built alongside the existing 83
already committed to opening, located across England from Devon
to Darlington.
Once complete, this investment will more than double the number
of special free school places available across the country – from
around 8,500 to 19,000 – ensuring all children receive a quality
education, tailored to their needs.
Today, local authorities across the country have been selected to
deliver a ground-breaking new programme to test and refine the
reforms to services for young people and families.
Backed by £70 million, the local authorities will help inform the
development of new national standards to improve the consistency
of provision across the country.
Each area will also bring together education and health services,
as well as parents and families to develop an inclusion plan that
sets out how they will deliver local services in a co-ordinated
way – for example making sure a child with special educational
needs who is behind in reading is quickly assessed and given the
right support. This addresses feedback from families that the
current system is often fragmented with agencies not working
together.
This follows recent confirmation that high needs funding is
increasing by a further £440 million for 24/25, bringing total
funding to £10.5 billion – an increase of over 60% since 2019-20.
Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, said:
Making sure children with special educational needs and
disabilities get a superb education is a priority.
Earlier this year our Improvement Plan set out systemic reforms
to make sure every child and young person gets consistently
high-quality support, no matter where in the country they live.
Today we’re making sure that those reforms are informed by the
experiences of real families, up and down the country, and
creating the thousands of new places at specialist schools and in
staff training courses that are needed to make sure our plan is a
success.
The government is also confirming today an expansion in
training for early years staff, adding an extra 2,000 training
places for early years special educational needs co-ordinators on
top of the 5,000 already announced.
Measures confirmed in the Improvement Plan included:
-
A new leadership level
National Professional Qualification for Special Educational
Needs Co-ordinators (NPQ for SENCOs), ensuring SENCOs
have the training they need to provide the right support to
children.
- A new approach to AP will focus on preparing
children to return to mainstream or prepare for
adulthood. AP will act as an intervention within
mainstream education, as well as high-quality standalone
provision, in an approach that meets children’s needs earlier and
helps prevent escalation.
- An extension until March 2025 to the AP Specialist
Taskforces, which work directly with young people
in AP to offer intensive support from teams made up of
experts, including mental health professionals, family workers,
and speech and language therapists, backed by an additional £7
million investment.
- A doubling of the number of supported internship places by
2025, from around 2,500 to around 5,000, backed with £18 million
of funding to help young people make the transition into
adulthood.
- £30 million to go towards developing innovative approaches
for short breaks for
children, young people and their families, providing
crucial respite for families of children with complex needs -
the programme funds local areas to test new services including
play, sports, arts and independent living activities, allowing
parents time to themselves, while their child enjoys learning
new skills. 13 local authorities are taking part in the second
year of the programme.
