Government initiatives

Children's National Service Framework (NSF)
Government standards for children's health and social care services

SEN Strategy - Removing Barriers to Achievement
DfES ten-year plan for children with special educational needs

Children's Green Paper - Every Child Matters
The changing agenda for children's services - includes information on the current Children Bill

Early Support Programme
Innovative support and services for families with very young disabled children

The Childrens, Schools and Families Select Committee undertook an inquiry
into special educational needs to which TreeHouse submitted evidence.

The Committee published their report in July 2006 (Third Report of Session
2005-06, Special Educational Needs). The report found that the education system
was failing to meet the needs of a large number of children with SEN. It argued
that the Government was giving mixed signals about its policy on inclusion; the
proportion of children it believes need to educated in special school settings
and on the use of Statements. It rather starkly concluded that the SEN system
was no longer fit for purpose and that the Government needed to develop a new
system which puts the needs of the child at the heart of provision.

The report is available to download from the Reports and Publications section
of the UK Parliament website.

The Government's response was published on 11 October 2006 and can be
downloaded from the SEN section of the teachernet website.

In its response the Government argued against a radical overhaul of the
current system. They did however respond positively to points about workforce
investment and have committed to increasing the training on SEN for those
teachers undergoing 3 and 4 year teacher training but have not committed to any
changes for those training through the PGCE. Also slightly partial are the
welcome on improvements to the status of Speical Educational Need Co-ordinatiors
(SENCOs), that they must all be qualified teachers and on the senior management
team, but only for new not existing SENCOs.

There was a debate on the Committee's report and the Government’s response in
Westminster Hall on Thursday 26 October 2006. TreeHouse submitted a briefing and was mentioned
during the debate.