The DfE confirmed this week that responsibility for SEND and alternative provision is to be placed in the schools brief in a bid to ensure inclusion is a core consideration for policy decisions.
Under the previous government, SEND and alternative provision sat apart within the wider children and families brief.
In a statement, the DfE said: “The government has been clear that the education and care system does not currently meet the needs of all children, particularly those with SEND – with earlier interventions in mainstream schools key for those with less complex needs.
“To ensure that improving inclusion in mainstream schools is at the heart of our plans to improve opportunity for those children with SEND, the education secretary has confirmed that the DfE will restructure so that SEND and alternative provision policy will come under the responsibility of the schools group.”
The DfE has also confirmed that the former chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation Sir Kevan Collins is to advise ministers and officials on key issues including teacher shortages and school attendance.
Sir Kevan, who was for a short time the Covid recovery tsar under the previous government, has been appointed as a non-executive board member for a term of three years.
As part of this role he is to offer “scrutiny and advice” on school standards and “finding solutions to the biggest barriers to opportunity for children, including teacher shortages and high absence rates”.
Non-executive board members are individuals from a range of backgrounds who give the DfE appropriate advice on different aspects of education and Sir Kevan will also draw on his previous experience as a teacher and as director of children’s services in Tower Hamlets, east London.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson, said: “Sir Kevan has been an outstanding force for good in schools, especially his work advocating for our teachers and children during the pandemic and he will play a crucial role in advising the department.”
Sir Kevan himself added: “I am delighted to be returning to the DfE. There are real challenges facing our schools and I am looking forward to being part of a renewed drive to ensure that we tackle these with bold and fresh new ideas, to deliver high and rising standards in every corner of the country.”
Ms Phillipson has already announced key members of her ministerial team, with Catherine McKinnell MP appointed as schools minister.
Former Labour MP Jacqui Smith, meanwhile, has been given a seat in the House of Lords and appointed as a minister of state for further and higher education.
Anneliese Dodds MP has also been appointed a minister of state at the DfE – she is expected to cover the womens and equalities brief alongside Ms Phillipson – while former shadow schools minister Stephen Morgan MP and Janet Daby MP have been appointed as Parliamentary undersecretaries of state.