Government Initiatives (England)

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.