On 29th March 2022, the Department for Education shared a SEND Review that was 'committed to improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND and those in alternative provision', and they have been asking the public to consult on the publication.

On their page: SEND review: right support, right place, right time, they said:

To achieve this ambition we want to work with and hear from:

• children and young people
• parents and carers
• those who advocate and work with the SEND sector
• local and national system leaders

You still have time! The SEND Review consultations for young autistic people and autistic adults, parents/carers are open until 22nd July 2022.

And to support you, the NAS created a consultation guide for autistic people and parents/carers to respond to the consultation and share their experiences. 

The NAS calls on the Government to:

• Tackle the delays in getting support and improve the support that is on offer.
• Involve autistic children and their parents in the decisions that are being made about them
• Put an end to the needless battles. Getting the right support should not depend on where you live, but on what your needs are.
• Take a whole school approach to autism training to improve autism understanding.

This consultation is now closed. 

The National Autistic Society and Ambitious about Autism are supporting members of the House of Lords to table amendments, alongside other charities, as part of the Special Educational Consortium (SEC). They are continuing to call on the Government to fix the broken special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, via the SEND Review:

• Proposals for attendance - For the Government to improve attendance at school, it needs to consider the underlying reasons for low attendance of autistic pupils.  Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, speaking during a debate on the Schools Bills on 8 June 2022, said “attendance and attainment cannot be at the expense of a child’s mental health and emotional well-being.”
• Training in autism – The Schools Bill to be amended to follow the model being introduced by the NHS, which sees all health and social care staff receive mandatory learning disability and autism training. Following the whole school approach, all school staff, including school governors, should be given training in understanding autism.
• Register for children not in school - The Government plans to introduce a national register for children who aren’t in school. This could improve the insight that councils have about autistic children who are not in school and help identify the support they need.

Further information about the NAS is doing in response can be found here:

The Department for Education confirmed new ministerial portfolios. Will Quince MP is Minister of State for School Standards. Alongside responsibility for school standards, qualifications, and curriculum, he retains responsibility for the SEND Review reforms, including the AP proposals set out in the green paper. Brendan Clarke-Smith MP is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families and will have formal responsibility for AP, children’s social care, early years and more. Ministers will be working together to ensure the department delivers on the commitments set out in the green paper. For a full breakdown of ministerial portfolios, please see the ‘Our Ministers’ section of the DfE page at:

The impact of Covid will be felt when A-level results come out next month, following the first in-person exams in two years.

We can expect to see grades fall from record highs in 2020 and 2021, when students were given marks based on assessments by their teachers because of the pandemic.

Grade boundaries will be set at a "midpoint" between the 2019 boundaries and the levels used in teacher assessments in 2021.

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