Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are a valuable tool in ensuring children’s rights are considered when developing new policy and legislation. Whilst the department does not intend to give these impact assessments a statutory basis, it encourages the use of them across governmental departments when developing policies.

The government takes steps to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policy such as consulting with internal policy teams, as well as the relevant external experts, organisations, and representative groups. Much of the government’s policy is targeted at helping those that need help most, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The government also operates within the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places a duty on government to consider the impact of policies on people who share protected characteristics, including age.

In line with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury requirements, the department produces an annual plan to ensure delivery of my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s, priorities. This sets out the department’s priority outcomes and ensures that they are embedded across government in relevant departmental strategies.

Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are a valuable tool in ensuring children’s rights are considered when developing new policy and legislation. Whilst the department does not intend to give these impact assessments a statutory basis, it encourages the use of them across governmental departments when developing policies.

The government takes steps to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policy such as consulting with internal policy teams, as well as the relevant external experts, organisations, and representative groups. Much of the government’s policy is targeted at helping those that need help most, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The government also operates within the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places a duty on government to consider the impact of policies on people who share protected characteristics, including age.

In line with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury requirements, the department produces an annual plan to ensure delivery of my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s, priorities. This sets out the department’s priority outcomes and ensures that they are embedded across government in relevant departmental strategies.

Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are a valuable tool in ensuring children’s rights are considered when developing new policy and legislation. Whilst the department does not intend to give these impact assessments a statutory basis, it encourages the use of them across governmental departments when developing policies.

The government takes steps to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policy such as consulting with internal policy teams, as well as the relevant external experts, organisations, and representative groups. Much of the government’s policy is targeted at helping those that need help most, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The government also operates within the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places a duty on government to consider the impact of policies on people who share protected characteristics, including age.

In line with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury requirements, the department produces an annual plan to ensure delivery of my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s, priorities. This sets out the department’s priority outcomes and ensures that they are embedded across government in relevant departmental strategies.

Disabled children often face greater barriers to attending school than their peers, but the government is clear that the attendance ambition for these pupils should be the same as for any other pupil.

The department’s new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance (attached) sets expectations on schools to be mindful of the barriers that disabled children face and put in place additional support where necessary to access full-time education, including making reasonable adjustments (for example, to uniforms or school routines). The department’s attendance hubs, mentors and advisor programmes will help schools to meet these expectations.

Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of health reasons including long-term illness, would otherwise not receive suitable education. The department’s statutory guidance, ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ (attached), sets out clear expectations of local authorities to meet this duty including that the education provided is of good quality.

The attached Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, detail commitments to providing stronger support for disabled children. This includes a Law Commission review of children’s social care legislation for disabled children and a £30 million investment in innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children. Improved attendance will be a key outcome in the new SEND and AP inclusion dashboards and in the new performance framework for AP. Information on the implementation strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.

Disabled children often face greater barriers to attending school than their peers, but the government is clear that the attendance ambition for these pupils should be the same as for any other pupil.

The department’s new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance (attached) sets expectations on schools to be mindful of the barriers that disabled children face and put in place additional support where necessary to access full-time education, including making reasonable adjustments (for example, to uniforms or school routines). The department’s attendance hubs, mentors and advisor programmes will help schools to meet these expectations.

Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of health reasons including long-term illness, would otherwise not receive suitable education. The department’s statutory guidance, ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ (attached), sets out clear expectations of local authorities to meet this duty including that the education provided is of good quality.

The attached Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, detail commitments to providing stronger support for disabled children. This includes a Law Commission review of children’s social care legislation for disabled children and a £30 million investment in innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children. Improved attendance will be a key outcome in the new SEND and AP inclusion dashboards and in the new performance framework for AP. Information on the implementation strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.

Disabled children often face greater barriers to attending school than their peers, but the government is clear that the attendance ambition for these pupils should be the same as for any other pupil.

The department’s new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance (attached) sets expectations on schools to be mindful of the barriers that disabled children face and put in place additional support where necessary to access full-time education, including making reasonable adjustments (for example, to uniforms or school routines). The department’s attendance hubs, mentors and advisor programmes will help schools to meet these expectations.

Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of health reasons including long-term illness, would otherwise not receive suitable education. The department’s statutory guidance, ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ (attached), sets out clear expectations of local authorities to meet this duty including that the education provided is of good quality.

The attached Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan and the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy, detail commitments to providing stronger support for disabled children. This includes a Law Commission review of children’s social care legislation for disabled children and a £30 million investment in innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children. Improved attendance will be a key outcome in the new SEND and AP inclusion dashboards and in the new performance framework for AP. Information on the implementation strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/childrens-social-care-stable-homes-built-on-love.

The post-16 education and labour market activities, pathways and outcomes report, published in May 2021, uses the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) administrative data set to explore the pattern and nature of the pathways that people take from completing school, through their education and into the labour market. This is broken down by a number of key characteristics including special education need. The report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-16-education-and-labour-market-activities-pathways-and-outcomes-leo, and the dashboard can be found here: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/leo-post16education-labourmarket/.

The dashboard provides information on educational and labour market activities, including earnings, employment rates and out-of-work benefits uptake, for up to 15 years after leaving school.

In January 2022, local authorities reported that there were 2,477 young people with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan enrolled on a supported internship.

In February 2022, the department announced that we are investing up to £18 million over the next three years to build capacity in the Supported Internships programme. We will aim to double the number of Supported Internships to around 4,500 per year by 2025 to give more young people with an EHC plan the skills to secure and sustain paid employment.

In the Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced up to £3 million to pilot extending Supported Internships to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities without EHC plans, to support more young people into employment.

Published evidence cannot directly answer the exact wording of the question. The government has published multiple pieces of analysis that examine employment outcomes for people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Taken together, this evidence shows that there is an employment gap between those with SEND and those without.

Note that for children and young people with more complex needs, the education, health and care (EHC) plan replaced statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments (LDAs) in 2014. This replacement took some years to rollout. Details are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/398815/SEND_Code_of_Practice_January_2015.pdf. There are therefore limited cohorts of pupils where it is possible to assess long-term employment rates for individuals with EHC plans.

The most relevant published evidence assesses the outcomes of young people that took their GCSEs exams between 2002 and 2007. The 2021 report is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1122775/Research_report_-_Post_16_education_and_labour_market_activities_pathways_and_outcomes_LEO.pdf. The report covers cohorts that took their GCSEs before special educational needs (SEN) statements were replaced by EHC plans. This analysis shows that of the 2001/02 key stage 4 GCSEs, usually taken at age 16, cohort used in the analysis, 39% of people that had a SEN statement were in employment[1] fifteen years later. For comparison, 50% that had SEN without a statement were estimated to be employed, versus 63% of students with no identified SEN.

There are multiple other pieces of published evidence that assesses the labour market outcomes of those with a SEN, a learning difficulty and/or a disability captured below:

• The department publishes key stage 4 and key stage 5 destination data by pupil characteristic: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-destinations.
• The department also publishes outcome data for further education learners: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-outcome-based-success-measures.
• The Office for National Statistics publishes estimates of UK employment rates for people with disabilities: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/disability/articles/outcomesfordisabledpeopleintheuk/2021.
• NHS Digital publishes employment rates for adults with learning difficulties receiving support from social services: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/adult-social-care-outcomes-framework-ascof/2021-22.

[1] Employment is defined here as “the individual has been in paid employment for at least one day in each of the 12 months of the tax year. If the individual has a spell of employment but no income in the tax year (e.g. career break) then the individual is not counted as being employed.”

The department is committed to providing all young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) with good opportunities to allow them to transition from education into a fulfilling adult life.

On 2 March 2023, we published the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, in response to the SEND and AP Green Paper published in March 2022. This outlines the government’s mission for the SEND and AP system to fulfil children and young people’s potential, build parents’ trust, and provide financial sustainability.

In the Improvement Plan, the department committed to developing good practice guidance to support consistent, timely, high-quality transitions for children and young people with SEND and in AP. This will ultimately look at transitions between all stages of education and will focus initially on transitions into and out of post-16 settings, including into employment.

We are also supporting the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to develop and pilot an Adjustments Passport that will help to smooth the transition into employment and support people changing jobs.

Schools and colleges are expected to develop and improve their careers provision for young people in line with the world-class Gatsby Benchmarks, addressing the individual needs of each pupil, and seeking to raise the career aspirations of students with SEND.

Supported internships are a study programme for young people aged 16 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan, want to move into employment and need extra support to do so. All young people completing a supported internship have an EHC plan. We are investing approximately £18 million until 2025 to build capacity in the Supported Internships Programme and support more young people with EHC plans into employment.

The department also wants to ensure people of all ages and backgrounds can undertake apprenticeships that offer excellent career development and progression opportunities. In recent years, we have seen an improved representation of learners who have declared a Learning Difficulty or Disability (LDD) starting apprenticeships. We have improved our ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ service to allow people to identify Disability Confident Employers offering opportunities. Training providers will conduct an assessment for people with an LDD to identify if they require a reasonable adjustment to undertake and continue with their apprenticeship.

To ensure that employers are supported to create new apprenticeship opportunities, the department provides targeted financial support directly to training providers to help remove barriers for people with a LDD. Employers could receive £1,000 towards the costs of workplace support when they take on an apprentice aged 16-18 or 19-25 with an EHC plan, as well as help to cover the extra costs working individuals may have because of their disability, through the DWP’s Access to Work scheme.

The department is committed to providing all young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) with good opportunities to allow them to transition from education into a fulfilling adult life.

On 2 March 2023, we published the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, in response to the SEND and AP Green Paper published in March 2022. This outlines the government’s mission for the SEND and AP system to fulfil children and young people’s potential, build parents’ trust, and provide financial sustainability.

In the Improvement Plan, the department committed to developing good practice guidance to support consistent, timely, high-quality transitions for children and young people with SEND and in AP. This will ultimately look at transitions between all stages of education and will focus initially on transitions into and out of post-16 settings, including into employment.

We are also supporting the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to develop and pilot an Adjustments Passport that will help to smooth the transition into employment and support people changing jobs.

Schools and colleges are expected to develop and improve their careers provision for young people in line with the world-class Gatsby Benchmarks, addressing the individual needs of each pupil, and seeking to raise the career aspirations of students with SEND.

Supported internships are a study programme for young people aged 16 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan, want to move into employment and need extra support to do so. All young people completing a supported internship have an EHC plan. We are investing approximately £18 million until 2025 to build capacity in the Supported Internships Programme and support more young people with EHC plans into employment.

The department also wants to ensure people of all ages and backgrounds can undertake apprenticeships that offer excellent career development and progression opportunities. In recent years, we have seen an improved representation of learners who have declared a Learning Difficulty or Disability (LDD) starting apprenticeships. We have improved our ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ service to allow people to identify Disability Confident Employers offering opportunities. Training providers will conduct an assessment for people with an LDD to identify if they require a reasonable adjustment to undertake and continue with their apprenticeship.

To ensure that employers are supported to create new apprenticeship opportunities, the department provides targeted financial support directly to training providers to help remove barriers for people with a LDD. Employers could receive £1,000 towards the costs of workplace support when they take on an apprentice aged 16-18 or 19-25 with an EHC plan, as well as help to cover the extra costs working individuals may have because of their disability, through the DWP’s Access to Work scheme.

The Department’s resource and capital budgets from the 2015/16 to 2022/23 financial years are set out in the table below.

Capital budgets vary between years, reflecting large capital programmes that spend at different rates across their lifetime and at different delivery stages.

Key stage 4 destination measures published by the department show the activity of young people in the academic year after leaving key stage 4 (usually aged 16), including pupils with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. The latest data for state-funded mainstream and special schools shows that 1.5% of pupils with an EHC plan had a sustained employment destination after leaving key stage 4 in 2020, compared with 3.4% of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) support and 2.3% of pupils with no identified SEN.

The attached table includes data on employment destinations as well as other types of activity (education, apprenticeships, not sustained, unknown).

Destination data is also published for students that reached the end of 16 to 18 study in 2020, but it does not include a specific breakdown by EHC plan. In this data, information on SEN eligibility status is based on data recorded by state-funded mainstream schools during 16 to 18 study only, and does not cover the entire cohort of young people studying at post-16, which includes further education colleges. This data is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/9ffa5c63-983f-43fd-8160-08daf87133b7.

Sustained participation in employment was counted if there was some participation in at least 5 of the 6 months between October and March of the 2020/21 academic year.

Off-rolling (the practice of removing a pupil from the school roll without using a permanent exclusion, when the removal is primarily in the best interests of the school, rather than the best interests of the pupil) is unlawful and unacceptable in any form and we continue to work with Ofsted to tackle it.

Ofsted considers the records of children taken off roll and their characteristics and strengthened the focus on this in the revised framework in September 2019. Where inspectors find off-rolling, this will always be addressed in the inspection report and, where appropriate, could lead to a school’s leadership being judged inadequate.

A pupil’s name can lawfully be deleted from the admission register on the grounds prescribed in Regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended. All schools must notify the local authority when a pupil’s name is to be deleted from the admission register under any of the grounds prescribed in Regulation 8 as soon as the ground for removal is met and no later than the time at which the pupil’s name is removed from the register.

The department publishes figures on the proportion of pupils permanently excluded or suspended from schools in England. The most recent full academic year figures, covering academic years up to 2020/21, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england/2020-21. The table attached shows the proportion of permanent exclusions and suspensions at state-funded schools which were of pupils who had special educational needs.

In March 2022, the department published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, which sets out our proposals to ensure that every child and young person has their needs identified quickly and met consistently.

In the green paper, the department proposed to introduce a standardised and digitised Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan process and template to minimise bureaucracy, deliver consistency and improve the experiences for families and professionals.

The green paper consultation closed on 22 July 2022. We are currently reviewing the feedback received and using this, along with continued engagement with families, professionals, and other SEND system stakeholders, to inform the next stage of delivering improvements for children, young people and their families. This includes those steps set out on EHC Plans.

The department is committed to publishing a full response to the green paper in an improvement plan early this year. We will continue to support the system in the immediate term to deliver change and continue to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND and those who need AP.

In March 2022, the department published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, which sets out our proposals to ensure that every child and young person has their needs identified quickly and met consistently.

In the green paper, the department proposed to introduce a standardised and digitised Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan process and template to minimise bureaucracy, deliver consistency and improve the experiences for families and professionals.

The green paper consultation closed on 22 July 2022. We are currently reviewing the feedback received and using this, along with continued engagement with families, professionals, and other SEND system stakeholders, to inform the next stage of delivering improvements for children, young people and their families. This includes those steps set out on EHC Plans.

The department is committed to publishing a full response to the green paper in an improvement plan early this year. We will continue to support the system in the immediate term to deliver change and continue to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND and those who need AP.

In March 2022, the department published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, which sets out our proposals to ensure that every child and young person has their needs identified quickly and met consistently.

In the green paper, the department proposed to introduce a standardised and digitised Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan process and template to minimise bureaucracy, deliver consistency and improve the experiences for families and professionals.

The green paper consultation closed on 22 July 2022. We are currently reviewing the feedback received and using this, along with continued engagement with families, professionals, and other SEND system stakeholders, to inform the next stage of delivering improvements for children, young people and their families. This includes those steps set out on EHC Plans.

The department is committed to publishing a full response to the green paper in an improvement plan early this year. We will continue to support the system in the immediate term to deliver change and continue to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND and those who need AP.

PCRs test are already in use to diagnose RSV and monitor its prevalence. Current RSV immunisation is targeted at infants at high risk of severe complications. New immunisation products, including vaccines, have been developed and are being reviewed by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, JCVI, which will potentially provide advice later this year. His Majesty’s Government will decide on future vaccination programmes once they have received that advice.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education statutory guidance clearly sets out the content that should be covered in the topics of basic first aid and health and prevention, at both primary and secondary school. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education. The subjects have been designed to build knowledge and support the development of pupils’ self-control and their ability to self-regulate, as well as providing strategies for doing so.

Health education covers aspects of self-care such as dental hygiene and personal hygiene. It also has a strong focus on mental wellbeing, including a recognition that mental wellbeing and physical health are linked. The aim is to give pupils the information they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, including self-care, and to recognise the early signs of mental wellbeing concerns, including common types of mental ill health.

To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the department has produced teacher training modules which are free to download from GOV.UK. These modules can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health#train-teachers-on-relationships-sex-and-health-education.