SEND Provision: East of England

Debate between James Wild and Lewis Cocking

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I congratulate the hon. Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) on securing such an important debate for children and parents across the east of England.

As shown by the attendance at this debate, SEND provision is a priority for all of us throughout the House. Since my election in 2019, I have visited over 40 of the schools in my constituency and I have great admiration for all those working to deliver SEND support to children. This is the 10th debate on this topic in Parliament this year, reflecting its interest for constituents—the Minister is smiling; I am sure she will respond to many more, and I look forward to attending them—and the challenges that we face from increasing demand, increasing costs and inconsistent support and outcomes.

The need for change, on which we all agree, is why I welcomed the previous, Conservative Government’s SEND and AP improvement plan. I encourage the current Government to pursue those reforms, which took far too long to come forward but were developed with the sector. Parents, children, local authorities and others are looking forward to some much-needed clarity from the Government on their plans and how they will bring forward reform.

As we have heard, demand for SEND services has increased significantly, with over 1.6 million pupils having educational special needs. As the hon. Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman) said, nearly 5% of pupils in England have an EHCP, and a further 1.2 million are identified as having support that is below that level. The prevalence of SEND varies across the east of England, from the lowest rates in Peterborough at 11.1% to the highest in my county of Norfolk—and the county of other Members present—of 14.3%.

All local authorities have seen increases in the rates of pupils with EHCPs over the last five years, but the size of those increases has varied, with prevalence highest in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. Behind all the figures are individual children and families. We heard a powerful speech from the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft), and my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) referred to his own personal experience. That underlines the need for change.

We know what the challenges are. I want to reflect on three areas in which change is needed so that we can provide the right support, at the right time, in the right place, for every child. First, we need a national framework and standards that will address the inconsistency of support. The previous Government’s plan set out a blueprint for a unified SEND and AP system, driven by new national standards. The first one we were due to bring forward was on speech and language therapy, given the high demand for that support.

We also need to improve the EHCP process because, as we all know from constituents, many parents are battling against the very system that is there to support them. We had proposals to bring forward a standardised and digitised approach, which is much needed when less than half of EHCPs were issued within the statutory deadline of 20 weeks. As the hon. Member for Lowestoft said, the variation is striking, from 90% in Bedford to only 43% in Norfolk, and far worse in Essex, as mentioned. Will the Government confirm whether the plan is to continue with the national standards and to bring forward a standardised approach to EHCP plans and the process?

The second area in which we need reform is building capacity and expertise in mainstream schools and a focus on early help. That means improving training and skills in the SEND workforce, with a particular emphasis on early years and early intervention. I declare an interest as a number of my family members are teachers. It is important that teaching is seen as a valued profession—it is spoken of as a valued profession by everyone in the House—and ongoing training in SEND and other areas is very important to that, as well as to tackling the retention and recruitment problems that we have seen in recent years.

There is much knowledge and expertise in the system and we need to share it more effectively. Just a week ago, I was at Fen Rivers academy in King’s Lynn in my constituency. It is a specialist social, emotional and mental health therapeutic school where the headteacher is passionate about sharing her skills and those of her staff—who have turned the school around—with mainstream settings. That view was echoed in the recent report by the County Councils Network and the Local Government Association, which spoke about sharing expertise better and moving children between settings.

Primary SENCOs can be helped to identify support for children, but to do so they need access to speech therapists and psychologists. What are the Government’s plans to better share expertise and have more provision in the mainstream system? Mainstream will obviously not be appropriate for everyone, so it is important that we continue the expansion of places. The hon. Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald) referred to the new places in her constituency, and there are other projects. The hon. Member for South West Norfolk (Terry Jermy), who has a special school coming in his constituency, is nodding, and I think there is one in Great Yarmouth too. There is a lot more provision coming and we need to continue that.

[Lewis Cocking]

I should have declared earlier that I am a Hertfordshire county councillor; I apologise for not doing so.

My hon. Friend is making valid points. Does he agree that it should not matter where a person is born or lives in the United Kingdom, as councils should receive the same extra funding to provide for children with additional SEND needs? That will make all the difference to residents across the eastern region.

[James Wild]

I agree. I will come to funding shortly, so I will address that point then.

The third issue is partnerships: we must get education and health groups working together. Currently, the system holds some bodies accountable for things they do not have responsibility for and does not hold other bodies accountable for things they do have control over, so collaboration between key partners is required. The previous Government proposed to create local SEND and alternative provision partnerships to lead change and commission provision, and to improve accountability with refocused Ofsted and CQC inspections. Speech and Language UK, the County Councils Network and the LGA endorsed those recommendations, so will the Minister tell us how the Government plan to pursue the partnership approach and embed it in the system?

My hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne and others discussed funding. In the previous debate on this subject, I spoke about the increase in the high-needs budget to £10.5 billion this year—a 60% increase from 2020. Some £2.6 billion was invested in new places and in improving the existing provision.