Written questions by Anderson.

Whether she has had recent discussions with Buckinghamshire Council on (a) the adequacy of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities in Buckinghamshire and (b) the level of funding for SEND support in that county.

The department is continuing to support and challenge Buckinghamshire to improve its delivery of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services.The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for Buckinghamshire was in March 2022, during which inspectors identified three areas of significant weakness. These areas were:i) The lack of a cohesive area strategy to identify and meet the needs of those children and young people requiring speech and language, communication and occupational therapy.ii) Waiting times for assessments on the autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis pathways, and the system-owned plans in place to address this.iii) Waiting times to see a community paediatrician.Following the inspection, Buckinghamshire produced a Written Statement of Action (WSoA) to address these areas of weakness, which was accepted by Ofsted and CQC. The department’s regional team has put in place systems to track outcomes against these areas of weakness and the progress made by children and young people with SEND, including regular review meetings. At the most recent WSoA review meeting in July 2024, the local area demonstrated progress against the range of actions in place to secure clear and sustained improvement across all the areas of significant weakness. Buckinghamshire is also taking part in the Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND Programme.Nationally, the government is providing schools with extra funding of almost £1.1 billion in this 2024/25 financial year through the new Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) to support them with overall costs, including the costs of supporting their pupils SEND. Of this total, special schools and alternative provision settings will be receiving over £140 million through the CSBG.The additional funding through the CSBG comes alongside high needs funding for services and support for children and young people with complex SEND. Buckinghamshire County Council is receiving a high needs funding allocation of £127.5 million through their 2024/25 dedicated schools grant. Decisions on future funding levels beyond this financial year will be for the forthcoming Spending Review.

What assessment her Department has made of (a) the (i) quality and (ii) accessibility of special educational needs support services in Buckinghamshire, and (b) the adequacy of funding received by Buckinghamshire council for SEND services.

The department is continuing to support and challenge Buckinghamshire to improve its delivery of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services.The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for Buckinghamshire was in March 2022, during which inspectors identified three areas of significant weakness. These areas were:i) The lack of a cohesive area strategy to identify and meet the needs of those children and young people requiring speech and language, communication and occupational therapy.ii) Waiting times for assessments on the autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis pathways, and the system-owned plans in place to address this.iii) Waiting times to see a community paediatrician.Following the inspection, Buckinghamshire produced a Written Statement of Action (WSoA) to address these areas of weakness, which was accepted by Ofsted and CQC. The department’s regional team has put in place systems to track outcomes against these areas of weakness and the progress made by children and young people with SEND, including regular review meetings. At the most recent WSoA review meeting in July 2024, the local area demonstrated progress against the range of actions in place to secure clear and sustained improvement across all the areas of significant weakness. Buckinghamshire is also taking part in the Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND Programme.Nationally, the government is providing schools with extra funding of almost £1.1 billion in this 2024/25 financial year through the new Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) to support them with overall costs, including the costs of supporting their pupils SEND. Of this total, special schools and alternative provision settings will be receiving over £140 million through the CSBG.The additional funding through the CSBG comes alongside high needs funding for services and support for children and young people with complex SEND. Buckinghamshire County Council is receiving a high needs funding allocation of £127.5 million through their 2024/25 dedicated schools grant. Decisions on future funding levels beyond this financial year will be for the forthcoming Spending Review.

What steps her Department is taking to provide financial education in schools.

Financial education currently forms a compulsory part of the National Curriculum for mathematics (at key stages 1 to 4) and citizenship (at key stages 3 and 4). The primary mathematics curriculum includes arithmetic knowledge that supports pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, calculations with money and percentages. In secondary mathematics, pupils are taught topics such as how to calculate compound interest, which is relevant for personal finance. In citizenship, pupils are taught the function and uses of money, how to budget and manage credit and debt, as well as concepts like insurance, savings and pensions. High and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. The government‘s ambition is for a broad, rich and cutting-edge curriculum that equips children and young people with the essential knowledge and skills required to thrive as citizens, in work and throughout life. This is why the government announced a Curriculum and Assessment Review on 19 July 2024, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The review will be undertaken in close consultation with education professionals and other experts, parents, children and young people, and stakeholders. A call for evidence will be launched in the coming weeks, to direct the focus of engagement with the sector and stakeholders over the autumn term. Following the independent review, the government will legislate to require all state schools teach the reformed national curriculum. This will give parents certainty over the core of their children’s education.

What recent discussions her Department has had with Buckinghamshire Council on the provision of specialist school places for children with special educational needs; and what steps she plans to take to increase capacity in that county.

The department is engaging with Buckinghamshire Council to discuss the current provision of and future demand for specialist school places, with a view to supporting them in delivering places where needed and improving outcomes for children with special educational needs.This includes working with Buckinghamshire on the authority’s successful application to be part of the national free school competition, and on the provision of new specialist units within mainstream schools.

What data she holds on the number of children in Buckinghamshire who are on waiting lists for education, health and care plan assessments; and what steps she is taking reduce waiting times.

The department publishes official statistics on education, health and care (EHC) plans annually, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans. This includes data at local authority level on the rate of EHC plans issued within the deadline of 20 weeks.The table below contains details of assessments in 2023 in Buckinghamshire, by the duration, in days, between the date of the request for assessment and the date of the assessment outcome. This includes those for whom a plan was issued and those with the decision not to issue a plan, but excludes cases where the assessment was withdrawn.Number of assessments completed by time between date received and assessment completion date in Buckinghamshire for the 2023 calendar year:Less than 6 monthsBetween 6 months to a yearBetween 1 and 2 yearsMore than 2 yearsDuration not availableTotal assessments completed617336200955To note:Source: SEN2 Data collection"Duration not available" includes cases where the date of request is not available or was recorded after the outcome date​In this table, “less than six months” refers to 180 days or less, “six months to a year” refers to between 181 days and 365 days, “1 to 2 years” refers to between 366 days and 730 days, and "more than 2 years" refers to over 730 days.The person-level data collection on EHC plans is in its second year. As a result, the department expects the quality of data returns to improve over time, as the collection becomes established. In particular, the recording of the dates of the assessment request and the assessment outcome is subject to data quality issues, which become especially prominent when looking at a low level of granularity. For this reason, cases over two years have been aggregated, and where the date of request is missing or was recorded after the outcome date, this is marked in the table as ‘not available’. The department continues to work with local authorities in understanding and improving the data collection.The department will continue to maintain close oversight of services in Buckinghamshire to ensure every child and young person with special educational needs and disabilities has access to high quality services.