Briefings and responses

Councils share the Government’s ambition of making sure every child with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) gets the high-quality support that they need. Reforms to the SEND system, set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 have, however, failed to achieve the goal of improving provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The proposed Private Members’ Bill, Support for Infants and Parents etc (Information) Bill 2023-24 is a bill to make provision for and in connection with the making available of information about support available for infants, parents and carers of infants, and prospective parents and carers, including reporting requirements relating to such support.

School-based counselling and mental health support needs to be fully funded by the Government in all state-funded secondary schools and academies, to help support rising numbers of children and young people reporting mental health issues.

High-quality early years provision can have a positive impact on children, particularly disadvantaged children, in terms of their immediate development and long-term outcomes.

Councils share the Government’s ambition of making sure every child with SEND gets the high-quality support that they need. The previous reforms to the SEND system set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 have, however, failed to achieve the goal of improving provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

A Westminster Hall Debate on School Attendance

Councils share the Government’s ambition of making sure every child with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) gets the high-quality support that they need. Reforms set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 failed to achieve the goal of improving provisions for children with special educational needs and disabilities and were not supported by sufficient powers or funding to allow councils to meet the needs of children with SEND or hold health and education partners to account for their contributions to local SEND systems.

The Chancellor’s announcement in March 2023 of 30 hours of free childcare for every child with working parents aged from nine months to five years means we need to understand what works and what will ensure councils can deliver on their sufficiency duty. Changes to the early years system should not just be seen as quick fixes around the sides: a more holistic view of what works, what would support the workforce, and how to ensure there is high quality early education and childcare should be considered.

The regulation proposed in this Bill is aimed at ensuring platforms have systems and processes in place to deal with illegal and harmful content and their associated risk, particularly to children and young people.