The Lamb Inquiry
Special Educational Needs and Parental Confidence
In October 2007, the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee published Special Educational Needs: Assessment and Funding. The Report identified parental confidence in the special educational needs (SEN) assessment system as a key issue in making provision for children with SEN. The Government shares the Committee’s desire to improve parental confidence and, in the Children’s Plan, set out an ambitious package of measures supported by £18m of additional investment over the three years from 2008-2011. This package will improve the skills of the workforce in meeting children’s special educational needs and focus on outcomes achieved.
This year, new specially developed SEN and disability units for primary undergraduate teacher training courses will be rolled out. These will be followed by units for secondary and PGCE courses in 2009. The Government is developing the skills of the early years and schools workforce through the Inclusion Development Programme and promoting specialist training through the work of three Trusts dealing with communication, autism and dyslexia. In addition, the Government is learning about the progress of children with SEN through the Making Good Progress pilots and will be improving data to support progression.
Building on this, in its response to the Committee’s Report (HC 298, published 4 February 2008) the Government committed to setting up a group of expert advisers, under the chairmanship of Brian Lamb, the Chair of the Special Educational Consortium, to advise on the most effective ways of increasing parental confidence in the SEN assessment process.
On 16 December 2009 - Brian Lamb wrote to the Secretary of State and submitted his final report. The Secretary of State’s response is available to read.
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