Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years

Lord Ramsbotham Excerpts

Monday 28th July 2014 Grand Committee

[Lord Ramsbotham (CB)]

My Lords, there is a great deal to welcome in this document except its length; 270 pages is a vast amount. Perhaps I may point out one typographical error in paragraph 8.2 of the Explanatory Memorandum. According to that, the first consultation is not yet over because it lasts until 9 December 2014.

I have five short questions that I should like to put to the Minister. I am sure that they can all be answered fairly quickly. First, is the Minister satisfied that schools and education settings will be capable of identifying speech, language and communication needs from 1 September this year? That is only a month away and normally schools are given at least a term in order to prepare for new guidance they receive. I suppose that the answer will be that this draft, which is still a draft, has been around with some people for a long time, but it will not necessarily have been in every school. There is quite a lot of detail in this document, and I would be surprised if every school has mastered it by 1 September and able to put it into practice.

My second two questions relate to the children who are not mentioned as much here—those who are without EHC plans, about whom there was a great deal of questioning during the passage of the Children and Families Bill. First, is the Minister satisfied that appropriate support is in place for those children with speech, language and communication needs but without plans? Secondly, are the staff in schools adequately trained to provide support for those children without plans? We did not get a clear answer when the Bill was being passed and I still do not get it out of this vast document.

The document is still called a draft. I know that the Minister told us that it had been passed by the other place, but this short session here, when we do not have time to scrutinise the document, could not really be called the House of Lords “passing” the draft and approving it because we simply have not had time to go through all the detail in this 270-page document. Do the department intend to conduct a review of the code once it has been in action for a short time? When might that review be held and will it also be brought before the House so that we have an opportunity to see what the practitioners understand about it when it is being practised?

My fourth point refers to the welcome addition in relation to children in custody. During the passage of the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill last week, I asked the Minister what exactly was happening as far as the Ministry of Justice was concerned to amplify the statement made at Third Reading in the other place by the then Prisons Minister, Jeremy Wright, who said that,

“a great deal of … thought will be given to how those needs can be met”.—[Official Report, Commons, 12/5/14; col. 538.]

He was referring to special educational needs. Thought is okay but the Minister in the Lords did not answer my question as to what that meant, particularly given the two months that have passed since the Third Reading in the other place. I would be grateful if the Minister here can ensure that when I ask the question again on Report in October, when the Bill comes back, there will have been a discussion between the Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice so that the Minister is able to answer me and all the other Members of the House who have an interest in the special educational needs of those in custody. We were referring particularly to the proposed development of the secure college in the middle of Leicestershire, which allegedly will have 320 children aged between 12 and 17, boys and girls. Among them there will certainly be a very large number with speech, language and communication needs.

The last question refers to the word “must”, which appears time and time again in bold in the report. Who is the “must”? Who is going to do the “must” and who is going to oversee that the “must” has been done because there must be oversight; otherwise, the “must” will not happen? I would be very grateful if the Minister could enlighten me on that.

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Of course, the code is not perfect and, of course, we will review it over time. I believe that we have come a long way, as my noble friend Lord Storey said, through the passage of this Act and through the code. Our reforms are much needed and have broad support across this House and beyond. Local authorities are ready to take these reforms forward in September, and our other partners who work with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities are working to support that process. We will keep the code under review as the reforms bed down. The code is fundamental in helping us to improve support for children and young people who have special educational needs or are disabled, and their families, and I urge noble Lords to support it.

[Lord Ramsbotham]

Could the Ofsted accountability framework be made available to the House as soon as it is published, so that we can see it?

[Lord Nash]

I will take that back and will ensure quickly that I check precisely where Ofsted is. If Ofsted is not where we think it might be, we might give it a bit of a chaser.