Education, Health and Care Plans Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Education
Alison Bennett
Main Page: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)Department Debates - View all Alison Bennett's debates with the Department for Education
Education, Health and Care Plans
Alison Bennett Excerpts(1 month ago)
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Alison Bennett (Mid Sussex) (LD)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman) on securing this important debate. I will not repeat what colleagues have said about the impact on children, but will instead talk about the impact on teachers.
The current EHCP system is grossly unfair to teachers who are expected to cope. I recently visited the Gattons infant school in Burgess Hill. As an infant school, it has only three school years. Four-year-olds arrive there with clearly unmet needs, and they quite often leave the school before the EHCP has been processed by West Sussex county council. That is clearly unfair on those children, and it is clearly unfair on the children who do not have special educational needs or are not yet diagnosed. It is unfair to expect teachers to be able to cope with a classroom of 30 children, a significant number of whom have needs that are not being met. In conclusion, it is absolutely essential that is this is turned around with urgency, and I thank the Government for all that they are doing.