HC Deb 03 December 1996 vol 286 c609W
Sir John Hannam

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will ensure mandatory baseline assessment provides effective screening for children at risk of literacy and numeracy difficulties. [6764]

Mrs. Gillan

The School Curriculum and Assessment Authority—SCAA—has been consulting widely about baseline assessment. One of its proposals was that any statutory requirements should provide equal entitlement for all children to be assessed on entry to school. SCAA's consultation document proposed, among other things, that any assessment should be meaningful to children with special educational needs. SCAA is due to offer advice on baseline assessment to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State in the new year.

The code of practice on the identification and assessment of special educational needs, to which all schools already must have regard, emphasises that all children with special educational needs should be identified and assessed as early as possible.

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