The Department’s ability to reform the system is hindered by a lack of data, targets and a clear, costed plan. The Department accepts the need for major change, but lacks a clear, costed plan to push forward reforms and measure progress. Despite taking years to develop a plan to address recognised challenges, the Department recognises it needs to be much clearer on what it needs to achieve, how and when, through a costed plan with interdependencies and metrics for progress and benefits. In setting out metrics, the Department conceded it needs to further develop how it will look beyond educational attainment to understand if the system is working, such as by considering attendance which may indicate children feeling supported. The Department has a long way to go to build data across a range of areas, such as on SEN mainstream schools places, home to school transport and whole system costs. It continues to test dashboards across 32 local authorities, but it is unclear how these data will be used and when. recommendation The Department should urgently improve its data, and then use this information to develop a new fully costed plan for improving the SEN system, with concrete actions, and clear interdependencies, alongside metrics to measure outcomes. 7 1 Support for children and their families Introduction