SEND Review: Right support, right place, right time

In 2019, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned the SEND Review to understand the challenges faced by children and young people with SEND, and those educated in alternative provision.

On Tuesday 29 March 2022, we published the SEND and AP green paper setting out proposals for a system that offers children and young people the opportunity to thrive, with access to the right support, in the right place, and at the right time, so they can fulfill their potential and lead happy, healthy and productive adult lives.

A full version of the green paper, including alternative formats, is available on GOV.UK.

Understanding the proposals

A series of resources are available to help understand the proposals, including:

• an in-depth conversation with Minister Quince about what the proposals mean for parents and carers, including plans for mandatory mediation, school budgets, and teacher training. The full discussion is available to watch on YouTube.
• a parent-led question and answer session with Minister Quince covering such topics as behaviour, accountability, and Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments. The full session is available to watch on YouTube.
• a webinar by the National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF) that sets out for parent carer forums and DfE the emerging findings from their survey on the SEND and AP green paper, which will inform their consultation response. The webinar is available to watch in full on YouTube.

The response to the consultation

We ran a public consultation seeking your views on the proposals.

During the 16-week consultation, we ran 175 events with different organisations representing:

• children and young people
• parents and carers
• education workforces, including early years, schools, alternative provision, and further education
• health and social care workforces
• local government
• voluntary sector including information, advice, and support services

We’ve received both individual consultation responses and some from organisations representing the views of many individuals.

All responses will be reviewed and feed into a plan for how we will deliver improvements to the SEND and AP system.

Since announcing the SEND Review, we have begun to deliver on the commitments set out in the green paper, including:

• increasing the high needs budget to £9.1 billion for 2022/2023
• providing £2.6 billion to deliver thousands of new specialist places and improve existing provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities
• launching a call for evidence to understand the use of unregistered alternative provision
• investing £21 million funding in the training of 400 educational psychologists from 2024, in addition to the £10 million announced earlier this year to train over 200 educational psychologists from September 2023

Improvement plan

Early in the new year we will publish a national SEND and AP improvement plan setting out in detail how we will move forward to deliver improvements to the SEND and AP system.

Throughout the SEND Review, we met with a wide range of people from across the system to help shape the plan. The government was advised by a SEND Review steering group.

For a full list of steering group members, visit GOV.UK.

To lead improvements across education, health and care, a new National SEND and AP board will be established. The board will comprise:

• civil servants
• parents and carers
• people working across education, health and care and representing alternative provision

The board will take into account the voices and lived experiences of children, young people and their families.

For further information about children with SEND, visit GOV.UK.

The charity Contact provides a range of services including a telephone helpline, live chat and Listening Ear support service.

The Information, Advice and Support Programme (IASS) provides access to free and impartial information, advice and support on SEND issues in every local authority area.