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12.47 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Ms Estelle Morris): I congratulate the hon. Member for Croydon, South (Mr. Ottaway) on again managing to bring the needs of his constituents, especially for early years special education, to the House. He made an important contribution to our debate on the matter before Christmas and to the Green Paper, which I appreciated. I recognise his continuing concern, not only about SEN but for the children of his constituents.
I shall continue from where we left off in the previous debate on the matter, which took place just after we published our Green Paper on SEN, which, I am pleased to tell the hon. Gentleman, has resulted in more than 3,500 responses. That is a massive response, on a subject that has not had as much attention in the past as it deserved. Croydon was one of the local education authorities that responded. We look forward to analysing the detailed responses and taking the agenda forward.
I share the hon. Gentleman's concerns about SEN and about early identification and assessment. Whatever differences we may have in the rest of the debate, I know that we shall share concerns about those matters in the years ahead. Such issues unite the House, and I am happy to pay tribute to all those hon. Members who put them at the centre of their concerns.
I mentioned the importance of early identification and assessment and, in view of the passion with which the hon. Gentleman spoke about the closure of the nursery in his constituency, it is necessary to give the reasons for that importance.
I know that the hon. Gentleman will be concerned about early identification and assessment. He knows that, unless we get it right in those crucial early years, we stand little chance of getting it right elsewhere in the education system. Moreover, I agree with him that early identification is even more necessary for children with SEN than for any other identifiable group.
Although I would never pretend that early intervention and support will remove the need for support later in a child's school career, they accomplish three crucial objectives: first, they reduce the need for later support; secondly, they send a message that we have high expectations of all children, including those with SEN; and, thirdly--I know that the hon. Gentleman will be in accord with this objective--they establish at an early stage the vital relationship between parent and teacher and all the other professionals who work with children with SEN.
I share the hon. Gentleman's long-standing concerns about nursery provision for children with special educational needs in Croydon. As he said, we have corresponded--I think twice now, although he has corresponded also with the Secretary of State--about the closure of Hazelglen nursery.
As the hon. Gentleman knows, closure of the nursery is a matter for the Croydon local authority. As it is not a school, neither the Department for Education and Employment nor the Department of Health has any statutory powers to intervene. However--because of our shared concern about special needs--I am concerned if he feels that its closure has meant that the south of the borough, which he represents, will have no provision for nursery-age children with special educational needs.
I have spoken to Croydon--which will inevitably be one of the sources of information used by the Department. The comments made in this Adjournment debate also will be taken on board and investigated by the Department. Moreover, I shall happily reply to the hon. Gentleman if he wishes to continue our correspondence.
I have been told by Croydon that its policy is to ensure that all the nurseries it maintains offer places for children with special educational needs. Almost 450 places are available for nursery-age children in south Croydon. Specifically, the borough maintains four nursery schools that give priority to children with SEN and are resourced to do so. Two of those are in the south of the borough.
Additionally, nursery places are attached to two special schools, and 35 nurseries are attached to mainstream schools--15 of which are in the south of the borough. All those nurseries can and do offer places to children with special educational needs. Currently, 54 nursery-age children in Croydon are statemented, and all of them have nursery places.
I hope that that information will at least partly allay the hon. Gentleman's concerns. I should add that 65 children in the borough currently benefit from the portage system, which is a very valuable part of early years service.
I heard what the hon. Gentleman said about the special needs of SEN youngsters. I would not be happy if those needs were not being met specially within an early years institution. However, I should not be keen to make the judgment that those needs can be met only within a special educational needs nursery, although they have a very valuable role to play. I am sure that he will agree that nurseries that do not specialise in SEN children could, with support, offer a very good-quality service to those children. As the Green Paper indicated, such matching and variety of provision is the route that we want to pursue.
My information from Croydon is that it offers those two categories of service and specialised support. In Croydon, 43 per cent. of children with statements of special need are in special schools, whereas 57 per cent. are in maintained schools with either units or people to support statemented children. I think that such a varied, and I hope flexible, approach to children with statements of special educational needs shows the way forward.
Mr. Ottaway:
Neither the letters from Croydon council nor these from the Minister to me gave those reasons for the closure. If those are the reasons, why were they not given? The truth is that they were not the reason why the school was closed.
Ms Morris:
All I have attempted to do is state the provision that Croydon feels it is offering for special needs children. That is the pattern on which it has embarked in making nursery provision for all its statemented children.
I understand what the hon. Gentleman said about Hazelglen day centre. Any closure and any change is disturbing and distracting for parents and young children. As a constituency Member of Parliament, I realise that, every time a school is closed or threatened with closure, someone's life is affected. Such changes perhaps cause that person temporarily to have a more disjointed existence. However, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will agree that we would never make progress if we set everything in stone.
Croydon's letters to me, and certainly my second letter to the hon. Gentleman, acknowledged that, on the basis of last year's financial settlement--not on the basis of the financial settlement that this Government have offered for next year, although I do not attempt to make political points--the financial situation was one of the factors that drove it to reassess the matter.
In my letters to the hon. Gentleman, I said also that the reassessment was prompted by the fact that
Croydon gave a commitment--I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will tell me if it is not being met--to the users of Hazelglen day care centre that the children there would receive alternative services. I am told that that commitment has been honoured, and that many of those children are moving into nursery and reception classes. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will tell me if he feels that what Croydon has told me is not an accurate reflection of the situation there. However, I accept that a period of change is sometimes difficult to handle.
The hon. Gentleman gave the impression, both in his correspondence to me and in his speech today--it is important to get it straight now--that Hazelglen was a special needs nursery. Hazelglen was established not as a day care centre to meet the specific needs of special needs children and their parents, but to offer a wider service. That includes children with SEN and their parents, but it also includes other children and parents. It is right to establish that fact.
I am pleased also--I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will welcome it--that the Hazelglen site will be developed as a family resource centre. Croydon has an agreement with Barnardo's--a national children's organisation of very high repute--to implement that planning--
Ms Morris:
I am told that it is a bit more than "maybe", and I hope that it comes to fruition. I very much
Although I do not under-estimate for a minute the hon. Gentleman's concerns about children and parents at Hazelglen, I was pleased to hear his tribute to other providers--schools and units--in Croydon. In preparing for this debate, I inevitably became better versed in what is happening in Croydon. I was very pleased to note the match of provision--the special schools and units--provided by Croydon. St. Giles school, which he mentioned, is one of those in which a special unit for the hearing and visually impaired has been attached. That is very attractive.
For all that the hon. Gentleman has said about Hazelglen, he represents a constituency in a borough that has, over the years, provided for the needs of special needs children in an imaginative manner--which, as he said, he has supported. Although I do not want to put a time limit on it, I should like to accept his offer to visit St. Giles school--which he has offered to the House as an example of good practice. That is how we want to develop policy--by learning what works, seeing who has got it right and then letting the rest of the country know about it. I am sure that some of the changes taking place in Croydon with regard to early years provision and how to meet the special needs of certain youngsters will in time be the sort of good practice from which we can learn and which we can spread to the rest of the country.
"the centre was not best located for families in the West and South of the Borough",
and that average occupancy was lower than in other day care centres. I wrote also that Croydon had said that
"the level of need in the areas covered by the centre was not as marked as in the south east and north of the Borough."
I would defend a local authority's right to replan its provision. Authorities must occasionally do that, because it is right for them to assess where they are at and where
they want to go. Croydon maintains that Hazelglen is part of that redevelopment, and part of the necessary change in achieving its vision for meeting the needs of children with SEN and their parents in the borough of Croydon.
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