Oral Answers to Questions

Lincoln Jopp Excerpts

Monday 1st December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Georgia Gould]

I should very much like to celebrate this week, and I agree about the importance of access to specialist colleges and helping children into work. I have visited specialist providers and seen how proud headteachers are to be helping children into supported internships and helping them with their next steps. They are doing incredibly important work. Our schools White Paper examines how we can help children with special educational needs to thrive into adulthood.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

On 16 June I asked the Secretary of State what she understood to be the drivers behind the phenomenon of the exponential rise in the number of children with special educational needs. She replied:

“My Department, and the Department of Health and Social Care, are keen to understand…the drivers”.—[Official Report, 16 June 2025; Vol. 769, c. 11.]

May I ask what work the Secretary of State has done in the intervening six months, and what she understands better today than she did on 16 June?

[Georgia Gould]

Again, we are absolutely committed to supporting children with special educational needs, and to understanding why we are seeing increases. Much of the evidence suggests that we are much better at diagnosing and understanding their needs, which is a positive development, but we are continuing to work with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care to review the evidence and understand how we can best intervene and support children—and, critically, not have to wait for a diagnosis, but be able to support children at the point when needs emerge.