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10.24 am
Mr. Don Foster (Bath): Like the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Mrs. Browning), I pay tribute to the Minister for arranging this debate today and, perhaps more important, for producing a Green Paper on this important issue when her Department is busy with other matters. It has introduced in a short space of time two major education Bills. That shows that the Minister, her Department and the Government generally are extremely concerned about special educational needs.
It was also right for the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton to refer to the important timing of this debate, which is taking place during national autism awareness week. As the hon. Lady rightly said, there are about 120,000 children with autism in this country. Their needs are covered by the aspirations behind the Green Paper.
I was interested to receive only yesterday a letter from the National Autistic Society, in which it says:
The Minister rightly paid tribute to the many teachers and professionals who, in recent years, have done a tremendous job of providing support in many different ways for children with special educational needs. She also, rightly, paid a tribute to the previous Government. There is no doubt that the previous Administration cared greatly about the issue. I pay particular tribute to one member of that Administration: those concerned with special educational needs recognise
the committed work of the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth). During his time as Minister, he made SEN an important issue and did a great deal about it.
Unfortunately, as with much else in education, many of the promises were affected by the education cuts. One example is the introduction of special educational needs co-ordinators. That was a good idea, but those concerned have experienced difficulty fulfilling their potential because they are not provided with the resources they need or the non-contact time in which to do the job that is required.
We must all acknowledge that the Green Paper is a consultation paper and as such, is inevitably thin on details. As the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton observe, that means that there are a number of questions to which we would like the Minister to respond. I warmly welcome, however, the broad thrust of the Green Paper and I especially welcome the proposals to develop parental partnerships that will increase parental confidence in the system. I welcome the plans to strengthen still further the code of practice and the fundamental principle--this may be the key to the whole debate--that, wherever possible, children with special educational needs will be educated in mainstream schools.
The Minister rightly said that 19 out of 20 children with special educational needs are already educated in mainstream schools, but I share her view that we could do better.
Provision for special educational needs is a bit of a lottery. The Minister touched on that point, but it is worth stressing. Whether parents can get the mainstream provision that they want for their child depends on where they live. It is different in different parts of the country. There should not be a lottery in provision that children need.
I welcome the reference in the Green Paper and in the School Standards and Framework Bill to the procedures for early identification of special educational needs. Of all the proposals in the Green Paper and the Bill, that is the most crucial. Early identification of need, followed by early support, will reduce need and give young people greater opportunities to fulfil their potential.
I welcome the intention to drive down the number of statements. That will be acceptable only if we reduce the need for them; it will not if we merely cut the number arbitrarily. Early identification and support will be one of the key ways in which to reduce need.
There is just one thing wrong with the whole thrust of the Green Paper. I suspect that we cannot do anything about it yet, but it is an aspiration for us all. We should find a way of turning the whole debate on its head. We would achieve the most wonderful success if we were able to drop the phrase "special educational needs". Every child has special educational needs of one sort or another. We should have an education system that identifies and provides for the needs of every child. Only when we achieve that will we have a truly comprehensive education system.
Were we to move in that direction, as the Green Paper suggests, many more issues would have to be debated and addressed. That style of comprehensive education would require an absolute guarantee that all pupils have a right to the same range of educational choices, and that all schools value all pupils equally but celebrate diversity.
Schools should be developed to facilitate the learning of all pupils. We must recognise that effective development requires the involvement of all members of the school community, not just a few specialist teachers and ancillaries who are specially trained and selected for special educational needs work.
I think that my vision is shared by the Minister and the Government and is covered in the Green Paper. It is not an impossibility: it can be realised. The Green Paper highlighted a number of examples. One such is the John Smeaton community high school in Leeds. I had a particular reason for looking in more detail at this example of a school that is trying to develop an inclusive policy. The recent report of the Office for Standards in Education said:
Passionate support for an inclusive approach should not be interpreted by anyone as a belief that there will never be a need in the future for either statements or special schools: both will continue to play an important role. The Minister and the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton were right to say that we must not be dogmatic about inclusion. There will always be some children for whose needs education in mainstream schools is inappropriate. Sometimes, mainstream schools may also be inappropriate for other children, but I echo the Minister's point that that should always be the exception rather than the rule.
If we start from the premise of inclusivity, we must ask ourselves a series of questions. We must think about how we will train teachers: that is not covered in the Green Paper. We shall have to train all our teachers for work with special educational needs. Sadly, some trainee teachers receive as little as two hours' special needs training during their teacher training course. We shall have to find ways for teachers to teach a class with a wide range of individual needs. It is no good the Secretary of State promoting whole class teaching in the more formal style that he has suddenly become very keen on, because that will not be appropriate for children with a wide range of needs. He will have to give that more thought.
We must also think again about the way in which we relate to parents. We must ensure that parents are confident that their child's needs are being met and that they are wholly involved in the process. As the Minister acknowledges, we must also think again about how we reallocate resources. There are answers to many of those questions and there are many examples of how that approach can work in practice, but we must put in place adequate resources and training.
The Green Paper--understandably--does not provide all the details, so some clarification is required. It would be helpful if the Minister could deal with some of the issues that have been raised, because that would help to inform other people who may want to submit comments before the close of the consultation period.
The Green Paper omits reference to the crucial distinction in law between special educational provision that can be arranged by a mainstream school and that which cannot. When it is shown that the school is unable to provide for special educational needs, it is the duty of the local education authority to undertake a formal assessment to determine the provision required and to arrange that provision. Do the Government intend to change that basic duty to children with special educational needs?
Paragraph 13 of chapter 3 seems to imply that the issuing of statements is now outside the LEA's control. There is no evidence to support that contention. In 1995-96, 99.5 per cent. of all statements were issued by LEAs of their own volition and only 0.5 per cent., which is the grand total of 75 in the whole year, were forced on the LEA as a result of tribunal decisions. I hope that the Minister accepts that the issuing of statements is still within the control and discretion of LEAs.
"The Green Paper on SEN could be of tremendous benefit to children with autism--but only if the key elements of early intervention, teacher training and development and resources in schools are in place."
Those comments sum up many of our concerns about the Green Paper. We share many of the Government's aspirations, but we want to know that those aspirations can be delivered.
"The provision for pupils with special educational needs is very good. Staff cater extremely well for such pupils, ensure that they are integrated into school life and lessons, and help them to make satisfactory progress. Teachers generally use a range of styles and a variety of teaching methods depending on the needs and abilities of the pupils. Lively presentation and delivery was seen in English and geography lessons; in mathematics, stimulating activities are planned using devices such as pinball machines and the Morse Code."
I should declare a special interest, because the head of that school until very recently was my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis). He is even more passionate about these issues than I am, and rightly so. He apologises to the House for not being present, but he has an important constituency engagement.
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