HC Deb 27 November 1992 vol 214 c851W
Mr. Steinberg

To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list the average time taken by each local education authority to assess a child as special needs from the initial application to the issue of a statement of special needs.

Mr. Forth

Information for each authority is not available centrally. However, the Audit Commission/HMI study "Getting in on the Act", published in June 1992, presented data for a sample of 12 local education authorities, and discovered that the median length of time taken to complete an assessment in these authorities is 12 months. The new Education Bill envisages that regulations may provide that, where a local education authority is under a duty to make an assessment, the duty must, subject to prescribed exceptions, be performed within a prescribed period.