Lord Storey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2014-03-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether youth offending teams are given access to students’ special needs statements as of right.

Lord Faulks

Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) can request access to special needs statements from the education services arm of local authorities who hold them, but they have no access to these as of right. Under the Education (Special Educational Needs) (England) (Consolidation) Regulations 2001, local authority education services are not permitted to share these statements, without the student’s consent, with external parties including YOTs, except for prescribed reasons which include where the local authority in question judges it necessary to do so in the interests of the child, on the order of a court or for the purpose of any criminal proceedings.

Under the Children and Families Act 2014, YOTs and local authorities will be required to co-operate in the exercise of the authority’s functions relating to children and young people with special educational needs, for example in the assessment for and preparation of Education and Health Care plans in relation to young people known to the YOT.