Oral Answers to Questions

Claire Coutinho Excerpts

Monday 12th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

4. What recent discussions she has had with her counterparts in the devolved Administrations on support for children with special educational needs.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Claire Coutinho)]

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that we published the special educational needs and disabilities and alternative provision improvement plan in March this year. Although the plan applies only to England, we shared a pre-publication draft with the devolved Administrations to build understanding of our proposals.

[Jim Shannon]

I thank the Minister for her response and for her interest in exchanging such ideas with Northern Ireland. Whether we are on the United Kingdom mainland or in Northern Ireland, money is under pressure. As someone who has been an elected representative in local government, in the council, as a Member of the Legislative Assembly and as a Member of Parliament, I am very aware that many more people seem to have special educational needs. When people have to wait up to seven months for an assessment, the cut in money is detrimental. Will the Minister share the ideas from the mainland here in the UK with the Department of Education back home? There are many ideas and thoughts on classroom assistants on the mainland, and it would be good to exchange those ideas and thoughts with the Assembly in Northern Ireland.

[Claire Coutinho]

I know that the hon. Gentleman is a passionate campaigner on such issues. He will know that education is devolved, but Ministers engage with our counterparts through the UK Education Ministers Council, and a session was held just last week, on 8 June.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

5. What steps she is taking to help improve support for children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families.

[Luke Hall (Thornbury and Yate) (Con)]

21. What steps she is taking to improve provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Claire Coutinho)]

I want every child and young person, regardless of their special educational need or disability, to receive the right support to enjoy their childhood and succeed in life. The SEND and AP improvement plan, published in March 2023, sets out the next steps that we are taking to deliver a more positive experience for children, young people and families.

[Debbie Abrahams]

The Children’s Commissioner has expressed concerns about the gaps in the Government’s plan to improve the system for children with special educational needs and disabilities, identifying:

“A vicious cycle of late intervention, low confidence and inefficient resource allocation”

that needs addressing. In particular, she points to the issues for looked-after children with SEND. Given that the plan is to be implemented by 2025, what are the Government doing now to achieve those things?

[Claire Coutinho]

We have not waited to take action on this issue. We have increased, for example, high needs block funding by 50% over the last four years to 2023-24. We have set out £2.6 billion to increase the number of specialist schools. We have also hired educational psychologists. We have done a lot of work to date, but the reforms are ambitious and wide-ranging and they will, I hope, help with the issues mentioned.

[Jack Brereton]

The need for more specialist school places is raised frequently by parents in my constituency, and children are being bounced between mainstream providers that are simply not fit to cater for many advanced needs. Recently, I visited Hillcrest Glebedale School in my constituency, which is keen to expand the number of places. Will the Minister do more to ensure that we support such schools and grow the number of SEND places in Stoke-on-Trent?

[Claire Coutinho]

I thank all the special schools for the amazing work they do to support children and young people. We have announced more than £1.4 billion of high needs provisional capital allocations to support local authorities to deliver new places for academic years 2023-24 and 2024-25. Local authorities can use that funding to work with any school or institution in their area.

[Luke Hall]

Work has begun on the new Two Bridges Academy in South Gloucestershire, a new school that will support pupils who have severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties and autism from the age of two right through to sixth form. Will the Minister join me in thanking the educational trust, the council and all the local groups who are helping to deliver this exciting and innovative project and will she use her office to make sure that it is open by the planned date of September 2024 to help us cope with the growing demand for special educational needs services in South Gloucestershire?

[Claire Coutinho]

I am delighted to join my hon. Friend in thanking all those involved in the project. The Two Bridges site remains on track to open as planned and work is progressing well. We are committed to working with the trust to ensure that that remains the case.

[Luke Pollard (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Lab/Co-op)]

6. What recent estimate she has made of the average weekly cost of childcare for households with (a) one child and (b) two or more children.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Claire Coutinho)]

The cost of childcare depends on hours used a week over weeks per year, provider type, child’s age and region. For this reason, the Department does not produce an official estimate of the average weekly cost of childcare by the number of children in a household. However, this year, Coram estimates the cost of using 25 hours a week of childcare for a child aged under two in a nursery as, on average, £151 across England.

[Luke Pollard]

In low-wage economies such as Plymouth, families are struggling to afford decent childcare and are having to choose between working all the hours God sends to afford the nursery bills and leaving the workforce to look after the kids at home. I look forward to meeting the Secretary of State tomorrow to talk about how we can keep south-west nurseries financially afloat, but mums and dads need to be kept afloat as well. What can the Minister do to make childcare more affordable and, importantly, not just load those additional costs on to nurseries that are already struggling to pay their bills?

[Claire Coutinho]

I completely recognise that this has been difficult for families, but that is exactly why we are taking action. We are making the single largest ever investment in childcare. We will be doubling the amount we spend on it by 2027-28, and that will start with additional funding this year.

[Sir Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby) (Con)]

Parents were delighted to hear in the spring Budget of the extension of childcare provision, which is being phased in to allow the sector to gear up, recruit and train. Will my hon. Friend give me an update on how that is progressing, in terms of having enough highly skilled people in place to do that important work?

[Claire Coutinho]

That is the crucial issue when it comes to delivery, and we have already taken steps. We are consulting on flexibilities for the sector to make sure that we have the right people in place for the first part of the roll-out, which will be in April 2024. We have also been making sure that more funding is going into the system this year.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

The early years sector has had three months to absorb the Government’s Budget announcement on childcare. Wherever I go in the country, early years professionals tell me that without a plan for expanding and developing the workforce and securing additional premises, the Government’s approach will deliver neither affordable childcare for parents nor high-quality early years education for children. They are clear that relaxing ratios is not the solution they need. What does the Minister intend to do about the deficit in the Government’s plans?

[Claire Coutinho]

As I said, we have already set out some flexibilities in a consultation that was published last week, and I urge every single person in the early years sector to look at that. I urge the hon. Lady to look at it too, because there are much wider flexibilities in there: for example, looking at qualifications relaxations. Overall, the Government have set out the single largest ever investment into childcare; Labour has not set out a plan at all.

[Bob Seely (Isle of Wight) (Con)]

8. What assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of phonics teaching in Isle of Wight constituency.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con)]

T5. A number of smaller schools across my Colne Valley constituency have increasing numbers of SEND students. What can the Department do to cajole Labour-run Kirklees Council to deliver timely education, health and care plans and ensure that it is delivering the financial support for the extra educational assistance that these children need?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Claire Coutinho)]

The work of teaching assistants is incredibly important to the SEND arena. We have taken education funding to real-term historic highs for mainstream education and we have increased the high-needs block by more than 50%.

[Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) (Lab)]

T6. Principals of sixth-form colleges across the country, such as Yolanda Botham at the excellent Long Road College in Cambridge, are warning that the Government’s continuing plans to scrap many of the BTEC qualifications risk real harm to their students. Will the Government listen to those people and to the Sixth Form Colleges Association and protect student choice?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

I often hear from parents whose children remain in mainstream education despite their school not being able to meet the child's special educational needs. Despite Rugby having received some additional SEN places recently, I have had such an email from a constituent in the last few hours. What is being done to make certain that more such spaces are made available?

[Claire Coutinho]

We have set out ambitious reforms to give parents greater confidence that their child’s needs can be met in mainstream provision. When they need specialist support, we are building many more special and alternative provision free schools—127 so far since 2010, with 67 in the pipeline.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

Freedom of information requests from the Liberal Democrats recently revealed that three in four primary schools will not have a mental health support team in place by 2024, when the funding runs out. Officials have suggested to MPs that hard-pressed NHS budgets could be squeezed to fund those schemes further. Will the Minister please commit to prioritising this area and committing new cash? If not, will she put a counsellor in every school?

[Claire Coutinho]

We take this issue incredibly seriously, which is why we are rolling out mental health support teams. We are ahead of schedule, with 35% of pupils covered this year and another 100 teams on the way to cover 44% of pupils next year, alongside other proposals.

[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

If and when parents get sight of what their children are being taught about relationships and sex education, will they have the right to withdraw their children from such lessons if they deem the materials to be inappropriate?