Health Bill (Fifteenth sitting)
I thank my hon. Friend for going to hear directly from her constituents. She is right: that message is fairly consistent. Last year, my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy), my right hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Darren Jones) and I played a pivotal role in bringing our ICB and local authorities together as local Members of Parliament. That was a result of our experience with parents and constituents. Members of Parliament from across the House—this is not a party political point—can bring parents together to highlight this issue and use parliamentary power to bring together organisations that sometimes do not listen or know the best way to communicate. Our role in that has been pivotal. The Secretary of State for Education has taken that learning forward across the country. That is why we are taking the steps to deliver the programme. ICBs have been asked to work with local authorities to develop local SEND reform plans. Those plans will lay the foundation for long-term reform, enabling ongoing monitoring of progress, and draw on knowledge, skills and lived experience held locally. That builds on work that is under way to improve accountability and set expectations of joint working, which is what parents and families expected to happen, but was not happening. Each ICB is expected to have an executive lead on SEND. The NHS medium-term planning framework for the next three years made it clear that ICBs and providers must meet their statutory duties and support delivery of the reforms. Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission will continue to check how local services, including health, work together for children and young people and hold them accountable. We will also update the SEND code of practice and publish new guidance so that local SEND partnerships have clearer expectations to work to. That is why we have not proposed changes to health and social care appeals to the SEND tribunal or made the decisions binding. This reflects the need for ICBs and NHS providers to retain the flexibility to plan services across their wider populations and prioritise support according to clinical and population need. This aligns with our commitment in the 10-year health plan to create a new NHS operating model where ICBs are the strategic commissioners of local healthcare services. It is worth noting that while tribunal decisions on health and care are non-binding, local authorities and ICBs are expected to follow them, and in most cases do. If they do not follow recommendations, they must send a response setting out the next steps they have decided to take and why. There is no doubt that health and social care have crucial roles in SEND reforms, with shared ambitions across education, health and care for earlier intervention and support. I reassure the Committee that we are exploring further opportunities to strengthen accountability, as stated in the SEND consultation document. We are considering responses to the consultation, which closed on 18 May, and will set out our next steps in due course. For those reasons, I ask the hon. Member for Winchester to withdraw the new clause.