Special Needs Children To Receive Earlier Support In New Government Plans

Special educational needs Children in England will receive better help at school from an earlier stage under a new national system.

The Department for Education plans for England includes digitising paperwork to help parents receive extra support for their children more quickly.

It is part of a delayed review into the special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) support system with critics saying too little urgency has been shown to address the broken system.

Last year, 1.4 million pupils in England were identified as having special educational needs with the proportion growing since 2017.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told local media that early intervention was a “focus” of the plans – and would be achieved partly by training 5,000 more early-years teachers to be SEN co-ordinators (Sencos), who monitor and assess SEN children’s progress.

Zahawi said the plans will give confidence to families across the country that from very early on in their child’s journey through education, whatever their level of need, their local school will be equipped to offer a tailored and high-quality level of support.

The Department for Education said new funding of £70m would be used to back the proposals.