SEND Provision: East of England Debate
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Alice Macdonald
Main Page: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)Department Debates - View all Alice Macdonald's debates with the Department for Education
SEND Provision: East of England
Alice Macdonald Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)
As we have heard, the SEND system is in crisis, and Norfolk is emblematic of that crisis. I know that the Government are determined to do all they can to tackle that crisis and I believe they have the backing of all of us, across the House. We have touched on many of the topline issues affecting SEND provision and I want to focus on the local issues that are affecting people in my constituency and across Norfolk.
First, there is some good news on SEND from Norfolk today. I welcome the announcement of 76 additional places in Norfolk schools. Many of those places will be in schools in my constituency. This is a welcome step, but we need a lot more urgent action. As well as more places in mainstream schools, there is a lack of specialist schools, in Norfolk as in many places. In Norwich North, the Angel Road junior school has sat empty since 2021. We have been campaigning to turn that into a specialist school and we hope that the county council will act urgently to ensure that is the case.
Secondly, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Kevin Bonavia) has mentioned, SENCO recruitment and retention is a real issue, which comes up again and again. It would be good to hear what steps will be taken to improve it. Thirdly, there is a feeling, sadly too often borne out, that the system is adversarial. In Norfolk, a huge amount of money has been spent on the tribunal system—£890,000 in one year. Of course it is important that we have legal processes in place, but will the Minister look into how we could address that and minimise the amount of money spent there? As the hon. Member for Waveney Valley (Adrian Ramsay) has mentioned, Norfolk is a rural county and children are spending far too much time on buses when they should be in schools. I hope that we can also take steps to address that.
I want to finish by paying tribute to the amazing staff, parents, support staff, in schools across the county of Norfolk and across the country, who are doing so much to support children and families.