Children's secretary Ed Balls said he would "seek to amend legislation at the next appropriate opportunity" to to place a duty on Ofsted to report on the quality of a school's SEN provision. The government has already said schools found to be giving inadequate support to children with special educational needs (SEN) will be penalised in their Ofsted inspections but this step will ensure Ofsted considers SEN in every inspection.
Balls also said parents would be given a right to appeal following the annual review of their child's statement of special needs, which sets out the child's needs and the help they should have, if they felt changes should be made. Parents can already appeal if changes have been made which they disagree with.
Balls asked Lamb to report on the quality and clarity of statements and on Ofsted inspection provisions ahead of his main report on special educational needs, which will be published in September.
Lamb said: "One of the things that hit me most forcibly is that under the same system you can get dramatically different actions even in one area of a town and another. This is partly down to compliance issues and partly down to gaps in legislation."
Lamb's inspection report calls for all school inspectors to receive training on SEN and disability, and for the recruitment of additional inspectors with skills in particular areas, such as teachers of the deaf.
Lamb's statement report calls for a major training programme for local authority staff on how to reflect the views of parents and young people in statements, as well as a more robust approach to annual reviews, which should ensure statements are amended if objectives for a child are not met.
