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Mr. St. Aubyn: Does the hon. Gentleman accept that some children's home environment is, sadly, so disrupted that they can learn to cope with that environment and to appreciate the need for education only by being removed from it for a few nights a week? Those schools play that vital role.
Mr. Colman: I fully accept that and I am pleased that we have returned to cross-party agreement. As I said, parents particularly wanted the change that occurred during my six years as leader of Merton council because they wanted their children to be integrated with their neighbours' children. Individual cases will have to be dealt with as the hon. Gentleman suggests, but the parents with whom I spoke in those six years much preferred to have their children back in their neighbourhood's special or mainstream school--whichever they decided.
Statements should contain success criteria. Far too often, statementing has been extremely negative: that is not the way forward. The hon. Member for Guildford may not agree, but goals should be set towards which children are helped.
The most important change that I registered when there was a change of control on Merton council was the enormous time required for the statementing procedure. In some boroughs--not Labour boroughs--delay was sometimes used to keep down the number being dealt with.
Mrs. Browning:
They all do it.
Mr. Colman:
The hon. Lady is quite right; I am now doing it.
In Merton, statementing occurs within 18 weeks. I hope that the Minister will publish the timetables regularly so that we can see how the statementing procedure is progressing. I am concerned that more than 60 per cent. of LEAs are nowhere near the level achieved by Merton. Perhaps central Government should intervene in this area to point out clearly where those LEAs should improve their performance.
I want to ensure seamless provision across local and central Government and I am concerned that different Department for Education and Employment policies could cause tension. I shall give three examples, to which the Minister may wish to refer later.
First, as Merton shifts more pupils from special to mainstream schools--I am sure that Wandsworth also has an excellent record in this area--it is important that money is made available through the phasing-out of the assisted places scheme. We are moving to the excellent situation of maximum class sizes of 30 for five, six and seven-year-olds. There must be co-ordination to ensure that, as pupils with special needs enter mainstream schools, account is taken of resources in order to benefit both education streams. The integration of children with special educational needs into mainstream schools should not cause problems if that is what their parents want. However, financing may be an area of concern.
My second concern relates to literacy and numeracy targets in mainstream schools. I hope that the Minister will ensure that those targets take account of children who find it difficult to catch up and attain the same standards as other pupils. Such children should not be castigated for their performance: it is not their fault. The system must
assist them. It is important that that factor is taken into account in any examination of league tables and literacy and numeracy targets.
The previous Government set targets for training and enterprise councils and phased out support for many young people with special educational needs who wished to enter the work force. That has now eased, but it is important to ensure that any literacy and numeracy targets take account of the mixed abilities of children in schools in particular areas.
I come now to my third area of concern. I am proud of the facilities that SEN makes available to children across the borough of Merton, but as we move towards a 100 per cent. delegated schools budget and there is less money for LEAs to spend on central services, we must ensure that specialists and SEN facilities continue to be available to all schools on a cost-effective basis. Not every school can have its own specialist facilities, so it is important to retain access to those services in the local education authority area.
I shall now consider the matters that my hon. Friend the Minister raised when she opened the debate. First, help should be given for early years education, with money being reallocated and, I hope, new money being provided. As the National Autistic Society has said, it is important to identify and provide help at the earliest point.
Secondly, mainstream schools should be encouraged to take children with special educational needs, but only when appropriate. The knowledge that I gained as leader of Merton council for six years leads me to support that view. It is important that it should not happen without parental agreement. Parents should decide.
Thirdly, parents must be empowered. It is important that they know that they are in the driving seat. Fourthly, the training of teachers must change. That is one of the three key points raised by Autism Awareness Week--early years development, training and a third element that I have forgotten; I shall come back to it.
The fifth item is co-operative working. I have talked about the need for services from the local education authority. I also applaud the idea of regional working. I look forward to the Greater London authority having an interest, just as I wish it to have an interest in health. I do not want it to take on responsibility for delivery, but to ensure co-ordination of services.
Mr. Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham):
This is an important debate. As the hon. Member for Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty) said earlier, it is a pity that it is being held on a Friday morning. The attendance today contrasts with that last week. It is also a particular pity for me, because my wife is nine months and one day pregnant. I hope that you will forgive me, Mr. Deputy Speaker, if I do not linger for the winding-up speeches in view of the rumblings on my pager.
I have been a governor of inner-city primary schools and technology colleges in Wandsworth with a high proportion of special educational needs children. I have also been struck by the many desperate surgery cases that have come to me since I became a Member of Parliament. Parents and grandparents bringing up afflicted children are struggling against the system to get the special educational treatment that those children deserve and need. I am still dealing with many of those cases. We have some excellent special educational needs schools in my constituency and throughout West Sussex, which has a proud tradition of provision for SEN children.
I will concentrate later on severe SEN cases and the principles of funding. I welcome the Green Paper, but it raises important questions that need to be dealt with. They are fundamental to our approach to special educational needs.
My hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Mrs. Browning) mentioned the scale of the problem. It is a growing problem, with 1.5 million pupils regarded as having special educational needs--that is 18 per cent.--and 233,000 statements in the past year. More than half of those are looked after in mainstream schools and fewer than half in specialist schools. I recognise, of course, that the increase is due in part to a better awareness of special educational needs.
I am grateful for the Minister's tribute to the work of the previous Conservative Government, beginning in 1981 with the setting out of the terms of SEN, which was followed by the Education Act 1993 and the establishment of SEN tribunals. We have heard about the tribunal cases which have increased from 1,200 to 1,600. Tribunals are an important part of the process, as is the code of practice which identifies and assesses need, which was introduced in 1993 as well.
In the spirit of cross-party bonhomie, I want to take up a point mentioned by the hon. Member for Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty) who said that the Spice Girls might not be No. 1 by Christmas. If they are not, it is most likely that they will have been pipped at the post by the Teletubbies. If ever there was a case for a need for SEN statementing, particularly for speech therapy, we have it in the Teletubbies. I say that as the father of two children who are addicted to the Teletubbies; I am determined that my third will not be brought up in a similar vein.
We welcome many parts of the Green Paper and I want to highlight the early identification procedures outlined in it. It is essential that we identify SEN children early and that the necessary measures are taken from the age of three or four, or as soon as possible. As a former school governor, I especially welcome the national guidance for the training of governors with SEN responsibilities. When I was a governor, SEN was very much a grey area. Far more detailed training must be given to governors, especially in view of the additional responsibilities that they now have with the local management of schools.
I also welcome the greater emphasis on training in information and communications technology, although we take issue with the fact that it is to be lottery funded. The money should come out of mainstream funding rather than being pinched from the pot that is meant for other things.
Another great concern mentioned in the Green Paper is the national variation in statementing. In some areas, fewer than 2 per cent. of children are statemented while in other local authority areas the figure is more than 4 per cent. That problem must be addressed. We need far greater national consistency; although, of course, we must take into account regional, social and economic differences. I am sure, however, that the divergence is not so great as the figures might suggest.
We also need to consider the temporary as well as the permanent specialist requirements of children with special educational needs. The Green Paper also emphasises the importance of co-operation between local agencies. We cannot see SEN as just as a local education authority problem, because it brings in the whole school system and, in many cases, the social services.
Many special educational needs children and disabled children need special facilities, such as special shoes or special boots; I have had cases involving such matters in my surgeries. Transport is also important. Special educational needs schools require specialist transport; again, that is a matter with which I am dealing in West Sussex.
Another important issue is respite care which is so essential for parents who have to look after difficult children day in and day out. I have come across some desperate cases, and I pay tribute to parents who are saving the state enormous sums by looking after their children at home, as they want to do. Looking after such children places an enormous strain on many families, especially where there are other children who are in mainstream education. The parents have to concentrate on the child who has special educational needs and there may be behavioural problems which can cause serious upheaval to the family environment. We need to take a holistic approach: I hope that the Government will take account of that when they look at co-operation between local agencies.
The overall thrust of the Green Paper is that there should be more integration in mainstream schools, and we agree with that. Integration is good in principle because inclusion has to be the right way forward, but we have to approach the matter carefully and sensitively. Integration must not be used, as some may see it, as an excuse for cost cutting or siphoning off SEN money to patch up gaps in classrooms in mainstream schools. There must be appropriate, well trained support staff in mainstream schools, who are dedicated to SEN children, and who have had the proper, specialist training.
I am pleased with the Government's statement about disabled access and the schools access initiative. That must be a step in the right direction. We shall not quibble about the amounts involved, as the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Foster) would have us do.
It is appropriate to raise the subject of autism, given that it is national Autism Awareness Week. I was pleased to read my copy of "Timetable for autism". Adaptations will have to be made to mainstream schools to accommodate autistic children, of whom there are in excess of 120,000.
Many autistic children are sensitive to light and sound, especially if they are epileptic. Classrooms will have to be adapted so that they can cater for those children properly. We shall have to review discipline procedures at schools, where autistic children may become victims of
bullying. Those considerations are not necessarily at the top of the priority pile in the Green Paper, but they are important and could make the difference between autistic children having a happy and fulfilling life in mainstream schools or its being a nightmare for them.
I should like to refer to some of the problems with the Green Paper. The Independent Panel for Special Education Advice has undertaken some interesting work, which has not yet been mentioned. Its response to the Green Paper contrasts with that of the National Association for Special Educational Needs, which was less critical. Both organisations were constructive and positive about the way ahead.
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