Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Smith and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 19th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

We are backing councils with extra capital investment, including in Staffordshire, but we need councils to work with us to create the provision that children desperately need. We are also strengthening accountability. We have heard from parents time and again that their voices are not heard and that change does not happen quickly. That is why making inclusion a key area of Ofsted inspection for the very first time is central to building parents’ confidence.

It would be remiss of me not to remind the House what Reform has had to say about support for children with SEND and their parents: it has said that this is about naughty children, bad parenting, and “a class of victims”. That is just some of the language that Reform Members have chosen to use. I invite them and others to go and speak to parents of children with SEND, and understand just how desperate things have become and the change that is needed.

[Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State accept that cancelling an £18-million, purpose-built, 152-place SEND school in Buckinghamshire, due to open in 2028, and replacing it with just £8 million over three years will inevitably increase reliance on high-cost independent placements, worsen outcomes for children with the most acute needs in Buckinghamshire, and ultimately cost the taxpayer more, while failing some of the county’s most vulnerable children?

[Bridget Phillipson]

We are giving councils significant extra capital investment to create places and provision much more quickly than many of them would otherwise have been able to. We are offering most local authorities a choice between continuing with their free school or accepting some alternative funding to deliver the same number of specialist places. Some projects without trusts appointed, which had opening dates very far into the distance, would not have created the places that we need as quickly as we need them. This is about bringing forward the places, giving parents confidence, and making sure that we are not sending children far away from home, which, as the hon. Member correctly identifies, we should not be doing. Children should be able to go to a great local school with their friends, and not travel long distances in taxis.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Smith and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

We have heard this afternoon from my hon. Friend and so many Members across the House about the urgent need to make improvements for children with SEND. We are laying the foundations with more investment in the system, through both the high needs budget and capital, so we have the places that are needed. There is, of course, much we are doing right now with councils to improve some of the unacceptable waits that parents currently face.

[Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)]

The superb John Hampden school in Wendover reports that it is running a £109,000 deficit supporting students with significant SEND while they await assessments. However, it is an infant-only school, and the money often does not come through until the pupils have moved up to a junior school. Will the Minister look at how the system is working for infant-only schools, to make the system fairer?