Category: Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues

I have received the letter below from the Secretary of State for Education regarding the Special Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Plan for England.

The Government recognises the need to deliver a more positive experience for children and young people with SEND and make it easier for their families to obtain the support they need for their children. The Improvement Plan sets out how it will achieve this through a single national SEND and alternative provision system.

I know from my constituents who have children with SEND that is often difficult to navigate the system to access support and I also know how the children flourish when they do get the service they need. I am always happy to help where parents are finding it difficult to get the right support.

You may be interested in reading the full Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1139561/SEND_and_alternative_provision_improvement_plan.pdf

Dear Colleague,

SEND AND ALTERNATIVE PROVISION IMPROVEMENT PLAN

I passionately believe that it must be the government’s utmost priority to ensure that no matter where you are from or what stage of life you are at, every child and young person should always be able to get a high-quality education and receive the right support in the right place at the right time – and this is particularly pertinent for children and young people with SEND or those in alternative provision.

I am writing to inform you that today the Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care have jointly published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan for England (SEND and alternative provision improvement plan – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Publication of the Improvement Plan marks our response to the 16-week consultation period on the proposals set out in the SEND and alternative provision green paper. Through this consultation period we attended 175 events and heard from over 4,500 people, as well as receiving thousands of responses to the consultation.

I would like to put on record our thanks to all children, young people, and their families, organisations and sector groups across education, health and care who have provided feedback including via the SEND and alternative provision green paper e-consultation and through our consultation events.

It is time to deliver a more positive experience for children and young people with SEND and to restore families’ confidence in the system. The Improvement Plan sets out how we will achieve this through a single national SEND and alternative provision system with the mission to fulfil children’s potential, build parents’ trust and provide financial sustainability. New National Standards will improve early identification of needs and set clear expectations for the types of evidence-based support that should be available in mainstream settings, to give parents confidence in the support that should be made available for their child.

To deliver the National Standards in local areas, new local SEND and alternative provision partnerships will create evidence-based local inclusion plans that will set out how the needs of children and young people in the area will be met. These plans will be in line with the National Standards and the vision for alternative provision. By improving early identification and the quality of support, we expect that more children and young people will have their needs met consistently through ordinarily available provision in their mainstream setting, preventing escalation of need that pushes some children to Education, Health and Care Plans.

For children and young people who need a plan, we will reduce bureaucracy by introducing new standardised plans and supporting local authorities to use digital technology consistently. Our investment into specialist and alternative provision places, including opening 33 new special free schools with 49 in the pipeline, means that more children will have timely access to the right support in their local area. A three-tier alternative provision system will focus on targeted early support in mainstream schools, time-limited intensive placements in an alternative provision setting, and longer-term placements to support returns to mainstream or to sustainable post-16 destinations.

We know how important an expert workforce is in supporting children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision to fulfil their potential. We will invest in the workforce across education, health and care to build the capacity of the specialist workforce and to improve confidence and expertise in supporting children and young people with SEND promptly and effectively. This includes funding up to 5,000 early years staff to gain an accredited Level 3 early years SENCO qualification. To increase the capacity of specialists, we will use a £21 million investment to train two cohorts of educational psychologists between 2024 and 2025.

To help build parents’ trust we will strengthen accountabilities, with every partner held to account, including through the new Ofsted/CQC Area SEND Inspection. From autumn 2023, local and national inclusion dashboards will provide increased transparency to parents.

To help all children and young people to lead healthy and fulfilled adult lives, we will support young people into employment including investing £18 million between 2022 and 2025 to double the capacity of the Supported Internships programme. These are complemented by the Adjustment Passports we already produce with the Department for Work and Pensions, to support young people with SEND to enter work.

Children and young people can only get the right support within a system where costs are managed effectively. An over 50% increase in high needs funding to over £10 billion by 2023-24, compared to £6.1 billion in 2018-19, will help children and young people with SEND in both special schools and mainstream schools receive the right support. We are working hard with local authorities to improve services and address deficits, including through the existing Safety Valve programme, which has already helped authorities begin implementing plans to reform their high needs systems for the benefit of children and young people. We are also continuing to invest, through an additional £2 billion a year, from this April, secured in the Autumn statement. Of this, £400 million has been earmarked for special educational needs and disabilities and alternative provision.

Our goal is to deliver a system that is more responsive to the needs of individual children. To make sure we get this right we will use our £70 million Change Programme to establish up to nine Regional Expert Partnerships who will help us co-produce, test and refine key reforms.

The steps in the Improvement Plan cannot be delivered by government alone and local system leaders can start now in learning from and adopting good practice that already exists across the country. We look forward to working in collaboration with system leaders, parents and families, directly and through a National Board that will be co-chaired by Claire Coutinho, the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing and Maria Caulfield, the Minister for Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy. It is important that we work together to deliver a single national system that delivers consistently for every child and young person with SEND and in alternative provision.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you want any further detail.

Yours sincerely,
Rt Hon Gillian Keegan MP
Secretary of State for Education

I had a meeting with the Secretary of State for Levelling up, who is the senior Minister for Planning. I sought clarification  that the new system will allow a Council like Wokingham to settle its own numbers of additional homes to be built in the next local Plan. There will be  no override from national estimates or guidance. He stressed the importance of  any Council producing a new plan, and  confirmed the local ability to set the housing targets, without of course engaging on any detail over the specific Wokingham position.

I held a meeting with officials over the Home Office use of hotels in the local area to house migrants pending resolution of their cases. I stressed the undesirability of long delays both to the migrants and to the local community. If someone is a genuine asylum seeker we need to welcome them and let them get on with establishing a new life in the UK, and if they are illegal economic migrants they should not be put up for extended periods in hotels at taxpayers’ expense. We need our hotels available for their normal users, to allow business people and visitors travelling to Wokingham a good choice of hotel, and to cater for weddings, conferences and events.

I asked when the Home Office plans to vacate the hotels . They did not know.

I asked what plans they had to ensure a smooth return of hotels to normal use. They said that was a matter for the hotels.

I asked for an assurance they would not be taking any more of our local hotels. They did not think so, but could not guarantee that.

I asked why they did  not recruit more staff and get rid of the backlog of cases. They said they were doing so.

I asked why it took so long to decide a case for someone who had travelled from a safe country like Albania. They said they were now speeding these  cases up.

I asked how they handled people who had come from a safe country like France. They said these  cases could be complex and could not be done promptly.

I asked if I could assume they had not identified anywhere in our area for the idea that they transfer people still having to wait a long time from hotels to other accommodation. They thought that was true but could not confirm.

I asked for written follow up to the issues where they could not be sure of the answers, which I will share when I get it.

I have received the following letter from the Minister about Cost of Living Support and the extension to the Household Support Fund which is available to Local Authorities.

Dear Colleague,

COST OF LIVING SUPPORT AND EXTENSION TO THE HOUSEHOLD SUPPORT FUND

The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and is taking further action to provide vital support for those in need in the coming months. The Prime Minister has committed to cut the headline rate of inflation in half by the end of the
year.

We are also making further cost of living payments in 2023/24, including up to £900 delivered in three payments to those on eligible means-tested benefits, a £150 payment for those on eligible disability benefits, and £300 on top of Winter Fuel Payments for pensioner households. Benefits and pensions will also increase by 10.1% in April, with the minimum wage also seeing its largest ever cash rise hitting £10.42 an hour.

The Energy Price Guarantee is also continuing to protect customers from increases in energy costs and, from April 2023 until the end of March 2024, meaning a typical household bill will be around £3,000 per year in Great Britain, while equivalent support will continue to be provided in Northern Ireland.

The Government is also providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including Barnett impact, to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England in the next financial year. This is on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding to £2.5 billion.

In England, the Household Support Fund, backed by £842 million, will run from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, enabling Local Authorities to help households with the cost of essentials. The Devolved
Administrations will receive consequential funding as usual through the Barnett formula to spend at their discretion.

This year-long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide this support. Local Authorities have the flexibility and discretion to design their own local schemes within the parameters of this guidance and grant determination that we have set out for the fund. Local Authorities have the local knowledge and ties to best determine how this support should be provided to those in need in their local communities.

Local Authorities have been asked in the scheme guidance to support households in the most need, and in particular those who may not be eligible for the other support government has recently made available. Local Authorities are expected to help eligible households with the cost of energy and water bills, food and other related essentials. Authorities can deliver the funding in a number of ways that they deem most suitable, such as by paying into bank accounts, or via the provision of goods.

Today, the guidance and grant determination for this forthcoming extension have been published, and can be found here.

This extension, in addition to the previously mentioned initiatives, will work to help those in need. We would be grateful if you could direct constituents in need of support to their Local Authority or Devolved Administrations who will be able to help them access the local support available to them in the coming months.

I am placing a copy of this letter in the House Library.

Mims Davies MP

Minister for Social Mobility, Youth and Progression

Wokingham Council will receive £1,051,147
West Berkshire will receive £1,389,666

To the right is Morgan Milner, the Branch Manager and to the left is Lisa Harley, one of the branch’s Member Representatives.

On Friday I visited the Nationwide Building Society branch in Wokingham as part of the site’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. I met the team and toured the branch, learning about the services that the Nationwide offers to their members.

I raised the importance of retaining face to face services and learned how the Nationwide is supporting those who are not comfortable with online banking. I heard how the Nationwide is supporting their mortgage holders and helping renters to enter the housing market. They are also offering support to Nationwide members with money worries through their freephone cost-of-living hotline.

I was very interested to learn about their Money Lessons programme which is targeted at students from Year 1 to Year 13 and works with schools to deliver sessions on a wide range of topics including savings, budgeting and staying safe online.

On Friday 3rd February I was invited to see the building works in Shinfield close to the M4 for the new complex of studios. It is a large building site, with one studio complex completed and another nearing completion. In total it will be some 1 million square feet of studio space with several studios offering substantial interiors for filming. Each building is a large box structure with well insulated double walls to ensure silence inside when needed for recording, with good eaves height to allow sets and plenty of hanging lighting.

They have been attracted to our area by the talented workforce available in surrounding towns and villages, and by the good access from the motorway nearby. I wish them every success as they go about completing the buildings and finding the first users who want to come here to make their films. There was filming action in a completed studio on Friday which we did not disturb.