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It being Seven o'clock, the motion for the Adjournment of the House lapsed, without Question put.
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Coaker.]
7 pm
Mr. David Drew (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op): I shall make just a few guarded remarks. I welcome what the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) has said. He performs an invaluable service in dealing with the Cinderella subjects that are so often ignored.
I would like to make two observations. Some educational psychologists have written to me to say that they are a wee bit worried about the implications of the changes to their profession. I know that they welcome the additional resources, but I suppose that their starting point would be—as the hon. Gentleman made only too clear—to ask how the training will take effect, what impact it will have on people already in situ, and whether there is any danger of a two-tier service developing. It would be appropriate if my hon. Friend the Minister could allay those fears.
My other point follows the hon. Gentleman's final remarks about the role of educational psychologists. Traditionally, this service has been directed by and through local education authorities. Now, with devolved budgets, schools are much more able to determine how they want their special educational needs budgets to be allocated. To some extent, that means that there is the potential for conflict in the role of the educational psychologist, in that schools might want to allocate the money for SEN on a more general basis, while parents might wish to identify the particular problems of their children. We have had an active debate on the value of statementing as a means to an end rather than an end in itself, so it would be helpful if my hon. Friend the Minister could allay any fears that we could be creating a more complicated situation in which there is even more room for disagreement, if not conflict, between the different parties.
In all the dealings that I have had with educational psychologists, I have found the service that they provide to be greatly undervalued and very important. At the end of the day, children who have difficulties in the schooling system clearly have to be looked at and helped by educational psychologists, and there is always a risk that the service might be spread a bit thinly. The Government can therefore be proud of anything that can be done to ensure that our children are given the appropriate help in a transparent and fair manner, and anything that my hon. Friend has to say about that will be gratefully received by the whole House.
7.3 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Mr. Stephen Twigg):
I congratulate the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) on securing this important debate, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) for his intervention in it.
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In opening, the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome informed the House that debates such as these are infrequent, so I thank him for giving us this opportunity to address this important subject. We are talking about an important group of professionals who make a vital contribution to our education service and, more generally, to children and young people in education. I certainly concur with what both he and my hon. Friend said about these issues coming up in our own constituencies, and all hon. Members will be aware of cases in which failings or weaknesses in the service have undermined the education and upbringing of children and young people in our constituencies.
Educational psychologists play a major part in helping to identify the learning needs of individual children and young people, including those who have special educational needs, and a critical role in supporting local authorities and schools in meeting those identified needs. They are a key resource in building the capacity of the education system to respond to children's learning needs.
At the end of his remarks, the hon. Gentleman addressed some broader challenges that we face in relation to assessment and special educational needs. I want say a few things about the broad picture with respect to SEN before addressing the specific issues that he raised in the main part of his speech about the role and training of educational psychologists.
The theme of building up capacity is central to our recently published document on special educational needs, "Removing Barriers to Achievement", the new strategy on SEN, and to the Green Paper, "Every Child Matters", to which the hon. Gentleman referred, and the associated legislation currently going through Parliament. The SEN strategy sets out our long-term vision and an ambitious programme of sustained action nationally and locally to enable all children with SEN to realise their potential. We are seeking to recognise some of the weaknesses and inconsistencies to which he referred. It is not about changing the legal framework, but about setting out ways in which real effect can be given to it, so that we make sure that the current system works as effectively as possible to meet the needs of children.
There are four key themes to which I will refer briefly: early intervention; removing barriers to learning; raising expectations and achievement; and delivering improvements in partnership. Each of those is relevant to some of the specific issues that the hon. Gentleman raised.
With respect to early intervention, we want to ensure that children with learning difficulties can receive the help that they need as soon as possible, and that parents of those children have access to suitable services, including child care. The strategy therefore seeks to embed in national practice the principles of the early support pilot programme for very young children and their families, and to implement a new strategy for child care for children with special educational needs, including working with voluntary organisations to consider the feasibility of establishing a national early intervention centre of excellence to use evidence about what works to inform practice. This emphasis on early intervention provides a real opportunity for educational psychologists to spend more time working with schools, working with individual pupils, and supporting teachers
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and other staff in putting in place programmes and interventions to address the individual needs of each child at the earliest possible stage.
The second strand in that strategy is removing barriers to learning. Children's learning difficulties often arise because the learning environment is not suitable. In developing the kind of inclusive practice about which the hon. Gentleman rightly spoke, we seek to meet the needs of every child. A new inclusion development programme, bringing together education, health, social care and the voluntary sector, will therefore develop effective approaches to provision for children with special educational needs. Initially, the programme will focus on autistic spectrum disorder, behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, speech, language and communication difficulties, and moderate learning difficulties. We are developing proposals to improve the quality of education for children with more severe behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, including addressing the regional planning of provision and providing practical guidance on reducing reliance on high-cost placements. We will also be developing minimum standards for SEN advisory and support services.
In terms of raising expectations and achievement, we have set out a strategic approach to developing the skills of staff working with children with SEN, and we are discussing with the Teacher Training Agency and others practical ways of ensuring that teacher training, induction and continuous professional development provide a good grounding in SEN.
We are sharpening the focus on SEN within our national primary and key stage 3 strategies, ensuring that we make the very best use of the data available and breaking down barriers between the Government and the voluntary and private sectors to improve the quality of planning to support young people in making the transition between the different stages of education and adult life.
Finally, we seek to deliver improvements in partnership working. As my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud said, despite some progress in recent years, children still face a postcode lottery in terms of the support available. That applies with respect to educational psychologists and more broadly to special educational needs. That is why the strategy contains a number of measures to promote greater consistency, including a team of SEN advisers working with local authorities to provide support and challenge, and a key role for our network of SEN regional partnerships in spreading effective practice. We are also building on the opportunities provided by the Green Paper, "Every Child Matters", and the Children Bill to integrate education, health and social care around the needs of children and families. The children's national service framework will set national outcome standards for health and social services, and we seek to align it with the SEN strategy through a joint implementation plan.
I do not at all underestimate the scale of the challenge that we face, which was well set out in both speeches earlier. I do believe that our strategy, combined with our work on inclusion in the White Paper and the Bill, will
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provide a real opportunity to get system-wide improvement for all children with special educational needs.
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