§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what guidance his Department gives on the maximum time which local education authorities should take to produce a statement of special educational needs; and what procedures are in place to measure compliance with this guidance. [65785]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeLocal education authorities are required by law to serve a draft statement on the parents of a child with special educational needs within eighteen weeks of first proposing to carry out an assessment of the child's needs. The Audit Commission monitors LEAs' compliance with this requirement, and publishes annual statistics for England and Wales showing the proportion of draft statements produced by each LEA within eighteen weeks. These statistics show that in 1996–97 only 48 per cent. of all draft statements were prepared within the statutory deadline. The Programme of Action on special educational needs published by the Department last November made it clear that the Government regard this figure as unacceptably low, and that they are committed to achieving a significant improvement. The Department has recently provided LEAs with advice on good practice in this area, and has challenged the worst-performing LEAs to improve.