Education, Health and Care Plans

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Sterling of Plaistow

Thursday 14th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

The noble Lord is right that autism accounts for the highest proportion of all claims at about 43% of appeals. We are very much focusing on this as an area of concern. In December last year we announced a number of measures to help deal with this, including joining up the healthcare and education services to address autistic children’s needs holistically, developing diagnostics services to diagnose autism earlier, improving the transition between children and adult services so that no young people miss out, and improving the understanding of autism and all its profiles, including recently identified forms such as pathological demand avoidance.

[Lord Sterling of Plaistow (Con)]

My Lords, I declare a personal interest as I have a grandson who is on the spectrum; also, a lot of people who have mental disabilities are joining the Motability scheme through PIP. I completely support the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Addington: according to the Ministry of Justice, the figure is 89% and the cost was £34 million last year. We are fortunate to have a Minister who is hugely interested in trying to enhance the position of such people, but the real point I want to make is that this goes beyond money. The anguish of the parents and the upset is the key factor. Are there ways to expedite all the measures that we would like to see taken?

Health: Spectrum Conditions

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Sterling of Plaistow

Tuesday 30th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, I share the concern of the noble Lord, Lord Watson, and I have offered to write to Warwickshire County Council to understand why it has not responded to the British Dyslexia Association’s very detailed and well-written letter, sent two and a half months ago. As I said, we recognise the issue of dyslexia. Many children and young people who have SEN may have a disability under the Equality Act, and as I said, we strongly believe in early diagnosis and early intervention.

[Lord Sterling of Plaistow (Con)]

My Lords, my grandson—a splendid little boy—is on the spectrum. Only yesterday, we had a meeting with the Minister on the subject of early identification of this problem. There is no doubt about it: the earlier it can be identified the better for everybody, as it gives children a chance to participate in life in a normal way. What was lacking, as many of us here know, is child psychologists. Without many more child psychologists we do not have the ability to identify problems early, and I hope that the Minister, who I know has huge empathy for this subject, might hasten to add to that voice.

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, I am not sure whether the noble Lord, Lord Sterling, was referring to dyslexia or autism, but he will be aware that we have increased awareness among all schools, and encouraged teachers to increase their awareness. With the Autism Education Trust, for example, we have rolled out a lot of autism awareness training. We now have 190,000 people trained in autism awareness, which is up from 150,000 in June of last year.

Schools: Exclusion of Disabled Children

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Sterling of Plaistow

Wednesday 11th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, it is important that schools take the appropriate steps to address the underlying causes of poor behaviour. In this Question, we are dealing with the propensity to violence of some children in schools. We have to have regard to 7 million pupils, 465,000 teachers and 265,000 teaching assistants, and we must take their interests into account as well.

[Lord Sterling of Plaistow (Con)]

My Lords, I certainly support what has been said, but I have had the pleasure of seeing that government at both ends are highly supportive of trying to improve the situation, and everybody in this House wants to help these youngsters. I see it through the eyes of my little grandson; I am learning all the time about it. It is all very well having records, but, as has already been said, when a school has headmasters and mistresses and staff who are trained, understand and know what a meltdown is all about, it makes so much difference to that child’s future. Could that whole system be accelerated?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, we have done a great deal over the past five years to raise awareness of these issues in schools, and we will continue to do so.

National Autism and Education Strategy

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Sterling of Plaistow

Wednesday 16th May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, I am very happy to meet the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, and other members of that committee so we can discuss the recommendations and try to include them in our future strategy.

[Lord Sterling of Plaistow (Con)]

My Lords, I have an interest in this via Motability and also because my little grandson is on the spectrum. I congratulate the Government because there is interest in and support for the subject on all sides of the House, including from Ministers. The National Autistic Society has done a marvellous job over the years. There has been a lot of research, there are a lot of statistics and more work is being done in different areas. We know the answers now—there is a huge amount of knowledge. We need the money now. Can the whole system be brought forward so we can get on and give these youngsters the chance they deserve?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, we have invested £373 million for local areas to implement SEND since 2014 and have just renewed a grant to the Autism Education Trust to help improve the training of education staff. It has trained some 150,000 staff since 2011-12. Awareness is very much rising in the education sector.