The Green Paper, We Await The Green Light.

The Green Paper consultation process is still continuing. Sarah Teather, the Minister of State for Children and Families, has said that her department is reflecting on approximately two and a half thousand responses to the Government’s outline proposals for future SEN provision in schools.

The Minister has promised to provide a formal response later in the year when she and her department have given all the reactions proper consideration. She admits that there are potential issues with the proposed radical changes, and so has promised a preliminary local piloting programme of several of them, the results of which will be evaluated before there is any general implementation. These SEND pathfinder pilot schemes will address the issues of personal budgets for the parents of children with SEND, the proposed single education, health and care plan, changes to commissioning, partnerships between agencies, the voluntary sector’s rôle, the cost of the changes.

It is clear that the remainder of the academic year will continue to be full of important developments, the first of which will presumably be the Minister’s forthcoming response to the consultation.