End of Term Policy Update

24/7/2017

Both Houses of Parliament are now in summer recess and will return on Tuesday 5th September – as will our Week Ahead brief, here is our end of term policy update to cover what you might have missed.

Top Story: New funding for LGBT+ school programmes  

The Department for Education has announced that £3m worth of funding will be spent on “anti-homophobic and transphobic programmes”. All schools, including faith schools, will be required to include LGBT issues in relationships and sex education.

Secretary of State, Justine Greening said: “This government is committed to building an inclusive society that works for everyone, no matter what their gender or sexuality.

Read more about the policy here.

It was “take out the trash day” at the DfE last Wednesday, who released numerous documents relevant to SEND before the parliamentary recess.

 You can view these here:

Latest news from DYT:

  • Read our end of term newsletter here.

 

  • Our coverage of the SEN wellbeing research: Wellbeing report finds that 1 in 5 SEND pupils unhappy at school.
  • On Tuesday Justine Greening announced the National Funding Formula will go ahead from 2018/19 but with an extra £1.3bn for the core school budget across the next two years. However, there will be no new funds from the Treasury, the money will come from “efficiencies and savings” across the DfE (expected to use £280 million from new free schools and grammar schools & £420 million worth of the capital budget, including the healthy pupils programme).
  • Read our coverage of the exclusion debate and our response to the government’s consultation. Special needs pupils seven times more likely to be excluded.
  • Research claims to be the first comparison of literacy standards in primary and secondary schools across the four UK nations, finding that England lags behind Northern Ireland on pupil literacy improvement. (Read the full story in TES) 

We hope you have a great summer, our policy updates will be back on the 4th September, we will be continuing our campaign to put SEND on the agenda when Parliament returns.

If you have any questions about DYT’s policy work contact: daniel.baynes@driveryouthtrust.com