Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Lord Shinkwin Excerpts(1 month ago)
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Lord Shinkwin (Con)
My Lords, I too congratulate my noble friend on securing this debate and pay tribute to the fantastic work that she does as chief executive of Cerebral Palsy Scotland, in addition to her duties in your Lordships’ House. As someone who has spent time in state mainstream and special schools, and also a mainstream independent school, I completely agree with her about the urgent need to address the damaging culture of low aspiration.
My noble friend speaks with great authority; I speak, if not with authority, certainly with the experience of someone who has lived with a disability since birth and, more specifically, as someone who provides proof of the way a mainstream independent education can transform the life chances of a disabled child who does not come from a privileged background. My remarks this evening therefore focus on this crucial question: does the Government’s proposed extension of VAT to private schools support the 99,000 children with SEN and disabilities who do not have an EHCP? Clearly, it does not. Indeed, if the Government proceed as planned, I am afraid that they will begin next year—the 30th anniversary year of the Disability Discrimination Act, or DDA—by in effect discriminating against disabled children.
I had the privilege of working with Labour parliamentary giants such as the late, great, Lord Ashley of Stoke and Lord Morris of Manchester. Labour played a pivotal part in securing the DDA; it was as much to Labour’s credit as to the Major Government’s that the DDA became law. So I am bemused that this Labour Government should be about to mark such a disability rights milestone by failing to take these children’s SEN and disabilities into account and exempt them.
The Minister may say that these are tough choices. I have to say that that would be a wholly inadequate and insensitive response to these children and their families, which serves only to underline the extent to which the Government have lost sight of one simple fact: these are innocent, vulnerable, disabled children, whose education will, because of their disability, quite literally be—as it has been for me—their salvation.
I conclude by pleading with the Minister to urge the Secretary of State and the Chancellor to begin the 30th anniversary year of the DDA not by discriminating against these children but by taking their SEN and disabilities into account and exempting them. They and I look to this Labour Government to show them some understanding and compassion, and to give them hope. Otherwise, some of these innocent, vulnerable children will be facing the worst Christmas of their young lives.
Sex and Gender: Official Data
Lord Shinkwin Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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The Lord Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, is participating remotely.
Lord Shinkwin (Con) [V]
My Lords, one area where the data in the 2021 census is accurate is disability. I cannot help thinking that, if a fraction of the energy and resources devoted to identity politics had been given to disability access in the 30 years since the DDA was passed by your Lordships’ House, the world—[Inaudible.]
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
I think I can probably understand how the noble Lord was going to finish his question. I tend to agree with him, and I will be committed, alongside my other equality responsibilities to this House, to ensuring that we make progress on disability access as well.
Independent Schools: VAT
Lord Shinkwin Excerpts(2 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Lord Shinkwin (Con) [V]
My Lords, when I asked the Government in a Written Question what assessment they had made of the mental health implications of this policy on children with autism and neurodiverse conditions, the noble Lord, Lord Livermore, said that it was a “tough” decision. I agree—tough if you have autism, SEN or a disability. Can the Minister confirm that she will place in the Library a copy of her department’s rigorous assessment of the mental health implications for these children, which her noble friend seems unaware of?
Independent Schools: VAT Exemption
Lord Shinkwin Excerpts(4 months, 1 week ago)
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Lord Shinkwin (Con)
My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the gap. I too thank my noble friend Lord Lexden for securing the debate. I can hardly remember a time when the House has been so united in rejecting policy based on class envy at the expense of the life chances of vulnerable children.
I declare an interest: I am the beneficiary of a public school education. That was not the intention; it happened by accident—literally by accident, because as a child, as a result of brittle bones, I had too many accidents and too many fractures. My orthopaedic surgeon at the time told my parents that I had to carry on walking if my bone density was not to deteriorate further and my brittle bones worsen. The state system said I had to stay in my wheelchair if I was to remain at a state school. The only alternative was a segregated school for what were labelled “handicapped children”, where the headmaster boasted to my mother that one of the pupils had recently achieved one CSE.
My parents, being teachers in the state system at the time, knew that a solid education would determine the difference between my being able to realise my potential or sink in a pool of chronically low aspiration. Thanks to my parents’ huge sacrifices, their decision to join the staff of an independent school, and my gaining a scholarship, I was able to benefit from smaller class sizes, a safer environment that enabled me to walk at school, and educational opportunities I would not otherwise have enjoyed.
None of this is in any way intended to detract from the wonderful work our state sector teachers, SEND specialists and support staff do today. It is fantastic to know that laws passed by your Lordships’ House prohibit the disability discrimination I faced. Yet like other noble Lords I fear that an unintended consequence of this dramatic change will be to deny the more than 110,000 pupils with SEND currently at independent schools the educational opportunities that I had—opportunities that mitigated the potential life chance limitations imposed by my disability. I cannot believe that that is the Government’s intention.
I close by supporting the call of my noble friend Lady Fraser of Craigmaddie in asking the Minister to meet with those noble Lords who have expressed concerns relating to children with SEND, specifically to explore how, together, we can address the unintended consequences of this policy for disabled children and their families.