Page 12 - SEN107 SEN Magazine July-August 2020

Further to his column in our last issue about SEN and the impact of school closures by the Coronavirus, in this issue Douglas Silas looks at developments since then. SEN and Covid-19 update What has happened? At the time of my writing this article, we are still on lockdown with many schools closed because of the Covid-19/Coronavirus pandemic. However, further to my last article, there have now been some important developments. Soon after my last column, the government brought into law the Coronavirus Act 2020, where they temporarily removed the absolute duty for local authorities to comply with their legal duties to maintain educational provision in education, health and care (EHC) plans, or the timescales applicable for complying with EHC assessments. That said, it was pointed out that these powers could not be used unless the Secretary of State for Education issued a “Notice”. As a notice was not subsequently introduced during the next few weeks, there seemed to be a false sense of security for many people. However, to many people’s dismay and just as many had feared, the “Notice” was then issued on 30th of April 2020. What did the “Notice” say? In essence, it stated that for the next month, local authorities and health commissioning bodies would now only need to use “reasonable endeavours” instead of having their continuing absolute legal duty to secure the provision set out within a child and young person’s EHC plan, which could result in a child or young person’s provision being different from that which was set out in their EHC plan. The government also produced very detailed guidance at the same regarding these changes, which they said would be kept under review. After a short introduction and discussing the need for continuing co-production work and cooperation between local authorities and placements, the “Notice” provided that, where it was considered appropriate and proportionate in all the circumstances, then they could temporarily modify any duty imposed on a person under section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (the absolute duty to secure special educational or healthcare provision in an EHC SEN law SEN 107 senmagazine.co.uk 12 SEN law