Speeches by McKinnell.

“Yes, I think there is a real opportunity here to get good data that can inform how any reforms are delivering in practice, but also how to keep it continuously improving as well. We have a data strategy that we are currently working on as a Department. We want to make improvements to the data and the oversight of the S…”

“Clearly, it is working well in some areas and it is not working well in others. Generally, as part of our SEND reform, we want to harness where that is working well and where that good practice is, find the ingredients and make sure we have a much more consistent approach. Where partners are not meeting their duties, w…”

“The purpose of the statutory guidance will be to clarify those roles and responsibilities. The intention would be that that would be clarified through that.”

“We appreciate the appetite for updated guidance on the delegation of clinical tasks by healthcare professionals to school and college staff. I am pleased to confirm that officials and Department of Health and NHS England colleagues are developing non-statutory guidance to clarify the roles and responsibilities, because…”

“You identify a big challenge, and we want to improve services that support early identification and intervention where it is needed, and whole-school inclusive practice. The local authority and the ICB as joint commissioners of services will clearly play an important role within that. We will need to set out the detail…”

“At the moment, the statutory duties are clear that Health and local authorities have a duty to ensure the integration of educational and training provision with health and social care provision. That means that they have to make joint commissioning arrangements with local partners in order to meet the needs of children…”

“Starting with the latter point, I think I have already set out the approach that we want to see that does not rely on a diagnosis, that does not rely on a label, that assesses what is a need that the child may be presenting with and has a trained and upskilled workforce to meet that need, regardless of what any diagnos…”

“We work very closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to make sure that as we develop a reformed system, we recognise the important role that different Governments have and are aligned in our future SEND and alternative provision reforms. T…”

“Do you mind saying the last bit again?”

“That is what we would like to see.”

“Do you want to come in on the data side?”

“We are working through the pipeline of projects at the moment. We are prioritising those that are due to open in the shorter term, and we are still working through that process. That is because of the wider strategy, you will understand. It is part of a wider strategy, which is why we appreciate there is a real balance…”

“It is difficult to give you a specific response on that because our aim is for a fully-inclusive school system where most needs are met and addressed early within mainstream schools. We know that there will still need to be high-quality alternative provision for those who cannot—”

“We know that many children and their families currently struggle to find a suitable school placement that is close to home and meets their needs. We want to make sure that we have the right places in the right time, but that is a big strategic challenge, and one that I think we will need to work on closely with local a…”

“Sorry, what is the question?”

“In our longer-term strategy, we clearly see a much greater role for inclusive mainstream. We want to see schools in every local community being able to offer that specialist support where needed; being able to offer that accessible support for children; making sure that every child, where it is the right place for them…”

“Some children will always need that more specialist provision, and it is important that those places are available for those children who need it and their families. I visited a specialist school on Friday and saw amazing work going on with children with very complex needs, but working really hard with them towards tra…”

“You identify what is a fundamental challenge in the system, which is whether we have the balance right currently between mainstream inclusion that will meet the needs of the vast majority of children and should meet the needs of the vast majority of children, and the rising need for more specialist settings because the…”

“The quick answer to that is that we will provide more detail by the end of the year on a plan for supporting local authorities with historic and accruing deficits, because we recognise it is an ongoing challenge.”

“The spending review process is a cross-government endeavour by its very nature, and we must work cross-departmentally on local government with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Work and Pensions where that comes to transition. I think the point that Alison Ismail made earlier is an importa…”