Mark Hoban – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hoban on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to ensure that health professionals are trained in the identification and notification of (a) all special educational needs and (b) educational needs related to cerebral palsy in children under two years of age.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Government works with Health Education England, which provides leadership on the training of the health workforce, and the professional regulatory bodies, such as the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which set professional standards, to ensure that health professionals are appropriately trained in identification and support of children with special educational needs, or cerebral palsy.

Clinical commissioning groups are under a statutory duty to make arrangements to notify the local authority where a provider is of the opinion that a child under compulsory school age has special educational needs (having first discussed this with the child’s parents). The Children and Families Act introduces new arrangements for local authorities and health services to work together to support children with special educational needs.