Assistive Technology

Baroness Blower Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I am aware of the important work that the all-party group does and the specific recommendation for the centre that the noble Lord outlines. I understand that my right honourable friend Stephen Timms is working on the short-term improvements to the distribution of assistive technology, as spelled out in the Government’s Pathways to Work Green Paper, and thinking about how to develop the type of centre that the noble Lord and the APPG were talking about.

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend the Minister on the fact that those new to the profession will be trained on assistive technology. That is a brilliant departure. I wonder if she can say anything more about the kind of catch-up that is obviously needed for those who may have been in the profession for some time.

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

My noble friend is right. I made the point about the training provided to SENCOs, which means that there is capacity within schools to make sure that all teachers have an understanding of the potential uses of assistive technology and that the SENCOs are able to focus particularly on those children identified as needing it. There is always a problem when you focus on those new to the profession, but I am sure that they will bring renewed knowledge and enthusiasm that others in the staff room will be able to benefit from.

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Baroness Blower Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

My Lords, there are certainly many welcome aspects of this Bill, not least the proper recognition of the importance of children’s well-being. What plans do the Government have to ensure that all schools are alert to the issue of bereavement and have access to resources beyond themselves to support any child or young person—perhaps as many as one in 29, as the Childhood Bereavement Network notes—who suffer a bereavement?

On the question of the curriculum and assessment, I earnestly hope that the review currently under way will address in full the narrowness of the existing curriculum, provide for much greater access for all children to arts and technical subjects, and allow for local curricular initiatives. It was always wrong that only academies had these curricular freedoms, as my noble friend Lady Morris said.

I ask my noble friend the Minister when we can expect to see the final report and what she expects to be the lead time for what I hope will be welcome changes in both curriculum and assessment. We have a lot to learn on this from other jurisdictions and, clearly, from my noble friend Lord Layard.

In relation to the pay and conditions of teachers, the Bill in its original form would have required all state-funded schools to follow the school teachers’ pay and conditions document. I regret that it has been amended to simply “have regard to”. As many will know, there is broad flexibility in the STPCD—in my view, less would be desirable, certainly in regard to the excessive salaries paid to some academy CEOs.

However, the full range of conditions of service appear not in the STPCD but in the Burgundy Book: the national conditions of service document, most recently revised in 2023. It covers appointments, resignation, retirement, occupational sick and maternity pay as well as trade union recognition and facilities, and it should be followed, in my view, by all state-funded schools. At a time of a deepening recruitment and retention crisis which is deleterious to all being educated, coherence and consistency in pay and conditions for all teachers in state-funded schools could certainly be an incentive to enter and remain in the profession. The fragmentation of the education service through academisation has certainly been a barrier to career mobility in some cases. An end to the presumption that all new schools must be academies is therefore very welcome, as is the intention to strengthen local authority powers in relation to school admissions.

Finally, the proposal that all teachers in all state-funded schools should have qualified teacher status, and that they should therefore be paid commensurately, is very welcome. There is currently exploitation of some teachers who do not have qualified teacher status. Therefore, I ask the Minister whether she is sympathetic to the creation of a statutory duty to ensure that all overseas-trained teachers are financially supported to complete the assessment-only route into QTS in a timely fashion.