Clinical commissioning groups of GPs will be required by law to secure specialist services for children with special educational needs (SEN) under reforms currently going through parliament.
The duty, announced yesterday, should mean that any under-25-year-old who has an education, health and care plan will be able to access health services, such as physiotherapy and speech and language therapy.
The move seeks to address problems in the current system, where parents have reported difficulties securing support from health providers in comparison to educational support.
Una Summerson, policy and public affairs manager at Contact a Family, said the announcement was a “welcomed strengthening of the Children and Families Bill,” which contains the SEN legislation.
“This is a very positive step forward for those children who will be eligible for an education, health and care plan. It’s something the sector has been pressing for since we saw the draft provisions last year,” said Summerson.
“For parents, the duty will help them not have to fight for health services. It will solve the problem of whether it’s the local authority or health services that have to provide care.”
However, Summerson said the government needs to place a duty on local authorities to provide social care services if education, health and care plans are to achieve their aim of delivering integrated support.
“That will mean that the family doesn’t have additional pressures to put the social services care in place – it’s the missing link,” she said.
Jo Campion, deputy director of policy and campaigns at the National Deaf Children’s Society, agreed the government needed to make more changes to ensure children with SEN received appropriate support.
“As with other areas of the bill, accountability and enforcement is still unclear,” said Campion.
“Parents need to know more about how they will be able to enforce these rights, especially given that the new duty does nothing to address the funding crisis facing many services.
“Across England, vital services for deaf children are facing the axe. Unless the government intervenes to protect funding for specific support for deaf children like speech and language therapists and teachers of the deaf, these new duties risk being little more than empty promises.”
Children and families minister Edward Timpson said the legal duty would put health “at the centre” of the reforms.
“It is a significant step forward for children and young adults with special educational needs, and I know that many parents will welcome it,” said Timpson.
“The duty will mean that parents, and children and young adults with complex special educational needs, will get the health services that are right for them.”
In related news, the Department for Education announced up to £600,000 of funding in 2013/14 for 20 of the 31 pathfinder councils currently trialling the SEN reforms.
This announcement coincides with the publication of an evaluation of the trials so far, which showed that around 440 families had received completed education, health and care plans by mid-February 2013.
