Children and Families Bill
Lord Lingfield Excerpts(11 years, 1 month ago)
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Lord Lingfield
Lord Lingfield (Con)
My Lords, the four amendments in my name, which are necessarily probing amendments, have as their purpose to include higher education in the Bill in cases where there is a reference to local authority duties related to education provision for young people up to the age of 25.
Unlike in the past, more and more young people with disabilities are now entering university courses. Sometimes they receive first-class support; other times, alas, it is very much wanting. There should be a seamless pattern of support whether or not a student aims at further education, which is catered for in the Bill, or for higher education. My amendment to Clause 27(3)(h) includes higher education institutions among the bodies with which a local authority must consult as part of its duty to keep education and care provision under review; the amendment to Clause 28(2)(e) adds higher education institutions to the local partners with which a local authority must co-operate; my amendment to Clause 29(2)(d) adds higher education institutions to the list of bodies that must co-operate with the local authority and vice versa; and, on the preparation of draft EHC plans, the amendment to Clause 38(3)(d) adds higher education to the institutions whose naming in the draft plan can be requested by a parent or young person.
At Second Reading I greatly welcomed the extension of the coverage of legislation from birth to 25 years of age, unlike the current system, which applies only to the end of school-based education. At that point under the current system, to quote a parent who gave evidence to my own commission on special needs, a child will often fall off an educational cliff. In light of the welcome extension of legislation to the age of 25, it is particularly important to make sure that higher education is included explicitly in this primary legislation in order that it will be regarded in the same way as further education and other post-16 provision under the new system of assessments and EHC plans. Without such amendments I fear that we will not improve the current and, in my view and the view of many parents and students, imperfect system, where there is a separate and often disconnected process for assessing and meeting the needs of young people with special educational needs who are successful in reaching higher education.
It is not often understood that currently a young person with a statement at school will not automatically have the same provision at university, and that the previous support that has come via a statement of needs has to be reassessed by Student Finance England before university entrance. I am told by those with direct exposure to this process that Student Finance England’s reassessment process does not provide for as thorough an assessment as that which would come through the current statutory assessment or, it is to be hoped, through the new EHC plan. As a result there is a clear risk of delay in support for these young people, especially where, as in many cases, there is no reason whatever why the provision that has supported them for years beforehand should cease.
I also note a separate but related concern that the expertise available to Student Finance England may be very different from, and possibly more limited than, that available to local authorities, healthcare providers and others for EHC plans. Indeed, it is rather surprising that Student Finance England and universities do not as a matter of course currently accept the advice of local authorities, expressed in the form of a statement, bearing in mind that local authorities have considerably more expertise available to them in the form of access to educational psychologists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists.
All this is illustrated very clearly by a case that was drawn to my attention, of Michael. Michael has dyspraxia, including severe oral and motor dyspraxia, and had a statement of special needs from the age of three. Nevertheless, despite Michael’s statement being reviewed annually, Student Finance England declined to accept this as evidence of his disability. A fresh set of reports were required and had to be paid for by Michael’s parents in order to compel Student Finance England to recognise that there was a pre-existing disability. Michael has now, with continuing and appropriate support, obtained a first-class honours degree in philosophy at his university.
In the new system, designed to cater for the needs of children and young people up to the age of 25, maintaining a different assessment process for those who are capable of entering university, as opposed to further education or other provision, will perpetuate an unfortunate anomaly which, in my view, could put off young people with disabilities from attempting a degree course. Surely the repetition of the process by two state-funded bodies is a waste of money. Any moves to address this disconnect, such as those sought in these amendments, surely must be welcomed. I very much hope that the Minister will give this her full consideration. I beg to move.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, the noble Lord’s amendments prompt me to ask a question. We know that care leavers have been increasingly going to university, although it seems to have stalled rather at the moment. The question is: of the care leavers going to university, what proportion have special educational needs? Are we doing as well with care leavers with special educational needs going to university as we are with the general body of care leavers going to university? Perhaps the Minister will write to me on that particular question.
Baroness Northover
I am sorry I did not address the points from my noble friend Lord Lucas, who wished to “keep me company” in discussing this Bill. I am very happy to keep his company—and that of any other noble Lords or Baronesses, should they wish. He is absolutely right: supporting students with mental health challenges is a vital area. I hope that he will be reassured that in the National Health Service now there is parity of esteem between mental health and physical health. We know that good mental health underpins better physical health. The challenges that students face when they leave home and are at university under all sorts of pressures are something we are acutely aware of, as are the higher education institutions. If there are instances where students are not being looked after within those institutions and health services locally, that is obviously a cause for concern.
Lord Lingfield
I thank the Minister for her reassurance. As she and my noble friend Lady Brinton will be glad to know, these were simply probing amendments aimed at debating this terribly important subject. As my noble kinsman Lord Addington said, the move from school into higher education is terribly important. Other noble Lords underlined that. Higher education is terribly important for these young people, as the noble Lord, Lord Low, illustrated with the statistics that he brought to us.
One point that my noble friend Lady Brinton made concerned the fact that while, of course, a young person can start early in their application to Student Finance England, most young people know only late in August, when they get their A-level results, which university they will go to. That leaves about a month and a bit to get all this straightened out. As the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, and the report that he commented on have shown, sometimes first-class accommodation that is entirely suitable for young people of this kind is provided. I am afraid that other universities do not have it. Neither I nor any of the young persons or their parents who have spoken to me are concerned as to which silo the funding for this should come from. All one is concerned about is that the provision should be as seamless as possible and that, unlike at the moment, the new plan should at the very least be taken into account when consideration is given to funding a young person who is going into university. Perhaps, along with the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, I should keep the noble Baroness company in order to discuss this further.
Children: Parenting for Success in School
Lord Lingfield Excerpts(13 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Lingfield
My Lords, it is with a sense of considerable privilege that I address your Lordships' House for the first time. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, for giving us the opportunity to have this debate. His efforts on behalf of the underprivileged are well known to us all.
Some noble Lords will know that I have been engaged in education policy for a good part of my life. I hope, therefore, to be able to contribute to your Lordships’ discussions on education. During the previous Conservative Administration I was appointed to lead the movement towards autonomy for state schools. This resulted in grant-maintained schools, from which the current academies programme finds its roots. However, it is about an entirely different aspect of education—special needs in education—that I want to speak today as early parenting skills are hugely important in this area.
In 2006 I was appointed by the then leader of the Opposition to chair a commission and produce a report on the reform of special educational needs. This brought home to me the huge importance of early diagnosis and early help for parents as both of those lead to success in schooling. I pay tribute to Professor John Marks, who helped me with that report, to Mr Brian Lamb, who produced the concomitant Labour report, and to those members of the Liberal Party who laid such emphasis on the early years in their manifesto.
There can be few more devastating experiences for families than finding, perhaps soon after their child is born, that he or she will need special care, possibly lifelong care. The advances in the past decades in medical technology mean that even children with the most complex and serious disabilities can not only survive birth but find much content in their life, provided they get the right attention, the right love, the right sympathy, as mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, and, of course, the right medication and the right schooling to follow. However, as he advised us, many parents do not possess early parenting skills and do not know where to go to get help to acquire them. If they have a disabled child, they will seek a statement of special educational needs but I am afraid that 40 per cent of them are turned down and the number of special educational needs statements is falling year on year. If they are refused, the parents concerned have an even gloomier prospect because they have to go to a special needs tribunal. All those parents who gave me evidence suggested that this was one of the most agonising things that they had encountered. Indeed, a man I spoke to last year told me that this was the most uncomfortable and difficult experience of his life—and he was a QC. How much more daunting is the experience for a young, inexperienced parent, who perhaps has little education and certainly little knowledge of judicial procedures. These processes are complicated. The papers were brought to me at this House a couple of days ago covering one girl’s tribunal. They numbered 500 sheets and I am told that this is pretty average.
Parents tell us that the tribunal system is getting longer, more adversarial and costly—they mention legal bills of about £12,000. The tribunal system was started for the best of all reasons as an arena of last resort, to be used rarely. Now it has become almost the norm. In 2008 it was moved from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to the Ministry of Justice. Appallingly, some of these tribunals now take place in magistrates’ courts. Parents have told me that they find themselves, with their young disabled child, sitting next to people arraigned for criminal activity or awaiting appeals against deportation orders.
Finally, I am delighted that the Government are considering a Green Paper on reform of special educational needs. Among the many reforms that will be required, to which I hope to return at a later date in this House, I very much hope that the Government will consider, first, dejudicialising the tribunal system and, secondly, inserting early on a process of mediation between those parents who require better facilities for their children and the local authorities, which of course are obliged to pay for them. Mediation works extremely well in other walks of life. There is no reason why it should not work well here, provided that the mediators are seen to be independent. Early parenting skills are hugely important, as the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, told us, and are no more important than in the area of special educational needs. I very much hope that the Government will do the things that I have asked them to consider.