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Mr. Blunkett: I am grateful for the warm welcome that the hon. Gentleman gave to the statement about raising standards and giving real opportunity to inner-city children. I am only sorry that the Opposition have not got any ideas of their own, other than returning to the policy of taking some children out of the area to grammar schools and leaving the other 80 per cent. to sink. We are proposing not bussing children, but giving them enhanced opportunities based on the fact that the majority of children are rooted in and will go to their local schools. The very nature of supply and demand ensures that that is the case. Therefore, we have to deal with that reality.
It is essential that we build on the after-school study centres, the university of the first age, which has been pioneered in Birmingham, the summer and Easter school programme and the Saturday schools, which are so popular, in particular, with ethnic minority children, to ensure that we do what the rich have always taken for granted--give children extra tuition when they need it, whether they need special needs support or are gifted. The rich buy tutors for themselves, provide crammers at Easter and in the summer, and condemn anyone else who seeks to have such provision at public expense. Instead of bussing a handful of children into successful selective schools somewhere else, we are going to transform the level of education for the majority of our children in the schools that they have to attend. Everyone can benefit from the programme in those areas and, if the programme is successful, we shall spread it across the country. Selection was an anachronism; providing excellence in the schools to which children actually go is common sense.
The hon. Gentleman asked how we would identify pupils who had particular talents. As I described in my statement, teachers know that, when there is setting rather than streaming, those children who are in the top set and have a particular gift for a particular subject need extra support to stretch them. Giving them additional classes or extra help, perhaps through new technological links between schools--that is now being done not only within this country, but between countries--and using our imagination to develop real diversity makes sense to everybody. If we can make this programme work, sending children outside their area will be a thing of the past. We can ensure that children who are rooted in their neighbourhood can have the standard of education that others have taken for granted.
The hon. Gentleman asked me about mentors and learning units. The initial trawl of 800 for the coming year will be full-time professionals recruited from teaching and educational welfare officer posts and elsewhere. They will organise volunteers, as well as give direct help to pupils and their families. They will provide a link between the school and the home and will form a network giving extra support to pupils in and out of school. The learning units for disaffected children will be in-school units and will ensure that children return to the classroom if and when they are in a position to do so. There will be a full timetable--which never happened under the Conservative Government.
The hon. Gentleman asked me about new money. As I pointed out in my statement, £100 million of the £350 million is indeed money that was announced on
11 March as part of the investment in learning centres. The remaining £250 million over three years is money that was not previously announced; it is being taken from our reserves--because each Department now has reserves--and has been identified within our budget to take the programme forward. I am pleased that agreement has been reached with my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to make the programme possible.
Mr. Malcolm Wicks (Croydon, North):
Unlike the gifted shadow spokesman, the hon. Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts), I welcome the emphasis on highly able children. We must acknowledge that we have neglected the highly able for too long in our education system, under the comprehensive approach. The Select Committee report on highly able children will be published shortly after Easter.
May I ask my right hon. Friend what he thinks about the relationship between inner-city schools and disadvantaged schools, given that not all inner-city schools are disadvantaged and not all disadvantaged schools are in the inner city? Will it be possible for the extremely disadvantaged schools in outer-London boroughs, such as my own, and those in rural areas and out-of-town housing estates to be brought into the next phase of this excellent programme?
Mr. Blunkett:
The document that we are publishing this afternoon addresses those issues throughout the country, as well as in the six identified areas. The specialist school programme, the expansion to 1,000 of beacon schools and the support necessary for them, including the mini education action zones, will deal with those issues and will include a specific concentration on the 200 schools across the country that face the greatest challenge. We are monitoring those schools, which will receive special support and help. The programme is targeted on the six areas outlined, but is available to support the work of those schools facing disadvantage wherever they are in England.
Mr. Phil Willis (Harrogate and Knaresborough):
Liberal Democrats welcome anything that addresses the damage that took place over the past 18 years. Primarily, we welcome the recognition that in our inner cities, especially in failing schools, there is a host of very bright and gifted children. It is sad that the Education Acts of 1981 and 1996 failed to recognise such children under the category of special needs. Unlike the hon. Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts), I spent a lot of time in Leeds in an inner-city school of exactly the sort that will benefit from the initiative. We saw the effects of pupils drifting away and of staff being unable to get to grips with gifted children because of a host of problems.
However, I have to tell the Secretary of State, with all humility, as one who has worked in that area, that the thrust of his argument today is wrong. By saying that children can succeed only if they move to specialist schools or into EAZs, we are telling the rest of those schools and their teachers that they are failing--that is the reality of what has been said today. Will the Secretary of State make clear how schools are to be selected, and how pupils within those schools are to be selected to comprise the 10 per cent. who will gain? Will he rule out another bidding process, which I see on the horizon? Will he
consider the 1996 legislation on special educational needs and include gifted children as a category, so that all gifted children, whichever school they attend, can gain from new legislation?
Mr. Blunkett:
First, I applaud the hon. Gentleman for his work in Leeds; we are aware of the excellent contribution that he made and the lessons that he learned, so I am happy to take on board his suggestions about the programme, whether he makes them here or at another time. However, I have to disabuse him of a misunderstanding: we do not intend to select individual schools which will then have their pupils picked out as gifted children; rather, we are talking about all gifted children who have the ability to be stretched being able to benefit from the programme after having been identified by teachers through the setting and grouping process, which I described earlier. The children will not be taken out of their schools, and the schools that will benefit are not confined to those in EAZs; this is a universal programme.
Learning centres and the development of specialist schools will provide a network which can be drawn on by all schools, which will be able to link into neighbouring schools. The fact that one in four schools will be specialist schools will enable that linkage to take place easily, without disruption, and it will ensure that staff, equipment, materials and expertise can be shared. The beacon schools programme will enable schools to link with other schools. It is about sharing and working co-operatively, and about having a family of schools, not the market that was created by the Conservatives. It is about the system as a whole being geared to developing and supporting the needs of the individual.
Yes, I believe that gifted children should be included in the special needs category. In the foreword to the Green Paper "Excellence for all children: Meeting Special Educational Needs", I said:
Mr. Gerald Kaufman (Manchester, Gorton):
Is my right hon. Friend aware that the response of the hon. Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts), who, in a refined use of the verb, wants understanding of the issue, validates the statement made by Mr. Michael Portillo that, when one hears the word "teacher", one knows that that individual will not vote Conservative?
We who represent inner-city schools are well aware of the huge reservoir of talent among all children; it exists in the 14,000 children who attend state schools in my constituency, as well as in those who attend the three assisted places schools in my constituency. Their talents require encouragement at every level, and that is what my right hon. Friend is doing. Is he aware that schools that assist such striving for excellence should be encouraged?
"Good provision for SEN does not mean a sympathetic acceptance of low achievement. It means a tough-minded determination to show that children with SEN are capable of excellence."
Children, whatever their background and whether or not they have a disability, will get the education that they need and deserve.
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