House of Commons
Thursday 19 November 1998
The House met at half-past Two o'clock
PRAYERS
[Madam Speaker in the Chair]
Oral Answers to Questions
EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
The Secretary of State was asked--
Special Needs
1. Mr. Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Hall Green): If he will make a statement on the Government's plans for special needs education. [59102]
6. Mr. Peter L. Pike (Burnley): What proposals he plans to bring forward following the consultation on the Green Paper on special educational needs, "Excellence for all Children". [59107]
The Minister for School Standards (Ms Estelle Morris): Following consultation on our Green Paper, "Excellence for all children: meeting special educational needs", and in the light of advice from the National Advisory Group on Special Educational Needs, we published earlier this month "Meeting Special Educational Needs: A Programme of Action", stating the practical steps that we shall take to support and promote developments in SEN. The action programme will be supported by funding of almost £60 million in 1999-2000.
Mr. McCabe: I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. She will be familiar with the excellent work of the Dame Ellen Pinsent school in my constituency. At a recent meeting with parents at the school, I was struck by the number of them who feared that an inclusion policy might result in the school's closure. Will my hon. Friend assure those parents--all parents--of children with special needs that the Government will play no part in forcing the closure of good special schools, or in forcing children with special needs into mainstream schools? Will she assure those parents that any inclusion policy will ensure that they are totally involved in and fully consulted on that policy?
Ms Morris: I am delighted to give those assurances. Both my hon. Friend and I have children in our constituencies who attend the Dame Ellen Pinsent school, and I should like to add my warm words about its work. The thrust of the Green Paper on inclusion is to give parents a genuine choice. Many parents currently do not feel that they have the choice of educating their children in a mainstream school because that school is not able to
cope with their children. However, not one word in reply to the Green Paper should cause any special school to feel under threat. Parents will retain their right to express a preference for a special school.
I should say also that there is at Dame Ellen Pinsent and other schools so much expertise in their teachers. We want to ensure that that expertise is used not only in special schools but in mainstream schools, to support a wider range of students. Special schools are safe if they are good schools and parents wish to send their children to them, but like all schools, special schools must accept the need to change and to offer high standards for our children.
Mr. Pike:
I recognise what the Minister has just said, but will she make it absolutely clear that special schools that are meeting both parents' needs and the established criteria have a future in the all-inclusive education system, and that the two will work side by side when appropriate?
Ms Morris:
Exactly. Our motivation is to give choice to parents and students and a good quality of education to every child with special educational needs. I am delighted to have this opportunity to say that not one word that I or other Ministers have said should lead any special school to fear that its future is in doubt. If parents wish to send their children to special schools, they will retain the right to do so. Any change to any school, regardless of whether it is a special school, is subject to local decisions, and it will be even more so in the new framework. I am happy to give those assurances, and am pleased that I have had the opportunity to do so.
Mr. Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury):
I was interested to hear the Minister's reply. In Gloucestershire, there is pressure to close a very good school, Alderman Knight school, which provides an excellent service for children with special educational needs. As the Minister will be aware, many of those children also suffer physical disadvantages. Will she make it clear to all local education authorities that the policy she has just stated to the House is the Government's policy? There is much doubt in LEAs about what that policy is.
Ms Morris:
There can be no doubt about it on the part of anyone who has read either the original document or the action plan that we have launched subsequently. I shall say again something that I have said many times before: no local authority, no school and no governing body should be quoting anything from either our documents or our words to imply that special schools should close on a point of principle. I do not know the circumstances to which the hon. Gentleman refers, and I cannot be expected to know them. However, there are bound to be changes in the pattern of provision of education in local authority areas as times change and as parents express different preferences.
Of course, there may be occasions when the pattern of provision for children with special educational needs is such that a reorganisation of special needs provision is the best thing. Nothing that I have said suggests that special needs provision should be set in stone, but we are not sending a message that special schools do not have a future. They do have a future because they meet the needs
of some parents and pupils, and many of their staff have great expertise that we want to use across the school system.
Mrs. Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton):
What assessment has the Minister made of the advocacy services, which are very often provided by the voluntary and charitable sector, to support parents through the statementing process when they are, for example, lodging an appeal? She will know that the service is patchy in parts of the country. Although the Department issues very good written advice about parents' rights, what plans does she have to make sure that there is uniform support and provision for parents going through what, for them, is often a very distressing process?
Ms Morris:
My judgment is that the advocacy services often provided by voluntaries bodies are excellent and that they support parents at a very difficult time. I am delighted to be able to tell the hon. Lady that, as part of our action plan, we have made funds available for a parent partnership in every local authority area. We have restored a provision that was cut by the previous Government.
The financial resources that we have provided have ensured that that facility will be made available to parents. I have made it clear that I want and expect every local authority to develop parent partnerships to support parents in the way that the hon. Lady described. If, in due course, that has not happened, we shall look for legislative time to give the provision statutory force.
2. Ms Julia Drown (South Swindon):
If he will make a statement on progress in securing employer involvement in the new deal for the young unemployed. [59103]
The Minister for Employment, Welfare to Work and Equal Opportunities (Mr. Andrew Smith):
The new deal is making good progress in securing employer involvement, with now nearly 33,000 employers signed up--254 of them in the Swindon district--and with firms of all sizes actively involved in the planning, promotion and delivery of the new deal.
Ms Drown:
I thank my right hon. Friend for that helpful reply. My constituency has low unemployment, but some young people, and others eligible for the new deal, have real difficulties in returning to work, even with the support of the new deal. For example, they may have communication difficulties or lack some social skills. What advice does my right hon. Friend have for employers so that they might help into work some of the people who are not yet job-ready?
Mr. Smith:
There are a number of ways in which employers can offer extra assistance--for example, through involvement in the design and delivery of the gateway, by encouraging employees to act as mentors, and by offering mock interviews--to help especially disadvantaged young people to get jobs. I am pleased to say that many employers are already doing just that, which is greatly to their credit. Indeed, I know of some in my hon. Friend's constituency.
Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham):
Will the Minister confirm that nearly 80 per cent. of the companies that
Mr. Smith:
No, I will confirm no such thing. The 33,000 employers who have signed up to the new deal are testimony to their confidence in it. As the hon. Gentleman is talking about the progress of the new deal, he might like to take account of the fact that, in 18 months, we have reduced youth unemployment to a level lower than it was at any time during the 18 years of the previous Government. What is more, in the six months the new deal has been up and running nationally, youth unemployment has fallen at nearly twice the rate it did in the six months before the general election.
Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover):
Will the Minister bear in mind that in some parts of Britain there are still pockets of very high unemployment, especially in coalfield areas where the Tories closed the pits? Will he pay special attention to that and ensure that special training centres are set up to mop up the unemployment? If he has time, will he also bear it in mind that towards the end of the year a new deal for jobs will be required for the unemployed hereditary peers? May I suggest that they be found tasks cleaning out the sewers?
Mr. Smith:
I have taken serious note of what my hon. Friend said about hereditary peers and, more importantly, the needs of the coalfield communities. We are looking at the adequacy of the training provision and carefully monitoring the progress of young unemployed people into jobs or, through the other new-deal options, in gaining the skills that they need genuinely to enhance their employability. That is every bit as, if not more, important in coalfield areas, inner cities and estates that were blighted by high unemployment under the Conservatives but which this Government are taking action to help.
Mr. Paul Keetch (Hereford):
Does the Minister agree that one of the most difficult sectors of youth unemployment to place in work is that from the ethnic minorities? Is he aware that 20 per cent. fewer people from ethnic minorities find subsidised employment through the new deal? For example, in Lambeth where half the people on options are from ethnic minorities, only one in four finds subsidised employment. Is it not time the Department started keeping records so that the anomalies can be understood and rectified?
Mr. Smith:
It is because we started keeping records that the hon. Gentleman can ask the question. Under the new deal, we have introduced ethnic monitoring for the first time. In the spirit of co-operation on the part of the hon. Gentleman's party, he might like to refer to the glass as half full rather than half empty. The good news from the early figures is that, so far, ethnic minorities have been moving into unsubsidised jobs at the same rate as the rest of the population.
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