SEND Provision: Autism and ADHD
Mark Sewards Excerpts(6 days, 13 hours ago)
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Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) (LD)
I am grateful for the opportunity to address this critical issue that affects so many families and carers, not just in my constituency but across the country. I rise to speak up for all those who feel they are not being heard and to speak about the crisis in the provision of special educational needs and disability support, particularly for children and young people with autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This crisis is failing children and young people, their families and carers, the professionals who support them, and society as a whole.
Before I proceed, I thank all the courageous parents and carers who have taken the time to tell me their stories. Some of them have come to Westminster today to be with us in the Gallery. I pay special tribute to the staff from schools in my constituency, including Bassingbourn, Melbourn and Hauxton primary schools, who have taken the time to attend this critically important debate and are with us in the Gallery.
I was privileged to meet staff at Bassingbourn primary school, where I witnessed at first hand the inspiring work undertaken by dedicated and caring professionals, who are creating safe spaces, such as the hub. I saw for myself the calm and trusting relationships built with students, and heard about the difference that the hub makes for students. Rather than spiralling into disruptive behaviour or not even being able to make it through the door to registration some days, students are now seeking out the hub as a space to ready themselves for registration or to take time out before going back to class.
The headteacher, staff and the SEND co-ordinators go above and beyond, often making miracles happen on very limited budgets. However, let me share the words of one dedicated professional from my constituency, so that the House can hear what the current crisis is leading to. She says:
“On a daily basis I am setting up, delivering and helping other Teaching Assistants to deliver bespoke curriculums for children with SEND as they are mostly educated outside the classes of their peers. We do not have a special unit for them, we are just accommodating them as best we can in quieter areas of the school, including corridors, because they are not able to work in the noise and business of a primary classroom. The needs of these children vary though they all need 1:1 TAs to help them and others stay safe, regulated and learning throughout the day. At present we have two non-verbal children with an Autism diagnosis who, years ago, you would not have expected to see in a mainstream school. Up until this week I have believed that I was doing the right thing trying to make sure they are happy and secure and genuinely learning and making progress with us.”
That professional is now questioning the very fundamentals of her profession as a result of the heartbreaking experience of those children when they are facing key transitions: starting school, primary to secondary, getting to 18, 18 to 25 and afterwards. One of the children she had been working with was excluded a few days after starting secondary school because their behaviour was not manageable. In her words:
“It broke my heart to hear from her Mum what she had gone through in such a short time in mainstream Secondary and I knew at once that she must have been so frightened to have behaved as she did. The child was subsequently at home for most of the remaining school year receiving education from a tutor paid for by the Local Authority—after her parents fought hard and demanded it—and then was finally given a place at their local special school in the summer. What I now understand is that the broken system means that a child has to fail in a very distressing way before they are given the provision they need. I could not sit by and see another child I have known for many years go down the same path with all the knowledge of how damaging the experience will be for them without saying something about it!”
Mr Mark Sewards (Leeds South West and Morley) (Lab)
The account the hon. Lady is giving is incredibly powerful and I am really grateful that she has chosen to share it with the House. As somebody who was teaching maths at a secondary school until a few months before the general election, I can state that the situation she describes, while certainly not unusual, is not universal to all schools. I am pleased to report that despite the stresses that were put on schools by the previous Government, we teachers did all we could in secondary education settings to ensure there was an inclusive education for those with SEND. Does she agree that with the change of Government, we have seen a change in direction and intention, and hopefully we will see the wins for SEND students that they so desperately deserve?
Pippa Heylings
Absolutely; I am here to pay tribute, as is everybody, to what teachers are doing, both with regard to the failure of the previous Government and with the current situation. Let us get to what is happening with the current Government.
Every child deserves access to education to get the best start in life and build a strong foundation that can provide valuable skills that allow them to thrive. That is not the case for all children across the country and particularly not for those with autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. Every professional I have spoken to agrees that early diagnosis and support are essential.
Educational Opportunities
Mark Sewards Excerpts(1 month ago)
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Mr Mark Sewards (Leeds South West and Morley) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Pritchard. I start by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) for securing the debate.
My experience as a maths teacher at a secondary school taught me about the barriers to opportunity that students face. As I have highlighted these issues many times and will continue to do so as a member of the Education Committee, I want to focus today on the lack of support for young carers, primarily because that has been raised by my constituents.
A recent report by the Carers Trust highlights the issues. It spoke to almost 25,000 pupils and 65 young carer services for the report, which highlighted three main concerns. First, caring can have a significant negative impact on education, opportunity and attendance. In 2022-23, young carers on average missed more than a month of their education, which was nine days more than their classmates who were not carers. The report also found that, in England, almost a half of young carers were persistently absent from secondary school that year.
The second area of concern was that many young carers are not spotted or recognised while they are in education. Only a quarter of the respondents to the survey agreed that teachers had a good understanding of their challenges. Although many local young carer services are promoting awareness-raising campaigns, only a third of them said that they had the capacity to give education providers the help they need to identify young carers. The third area highlighted in the report was the inconsistency of support offered to young carers in education. Almost one in four young carers stated that there was no support for them in their college, school or university.
What can we do to tackle that? There are two things I would like to ask the Minister to consider. First, to consider adding young carers to the Department for Education’s daily attendance reporting scheme. That will help to inform schools and local authorities about the young carers who are missing from school and their level of attendance. Secondly, I ask the Minister to consider introducing a young carers’ pupil premium. That would ensure that schools had the funding they need to support all the young carers in their educational institutions. In conclusion, I am very keen to support young carers in our community.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Mark Sewards Excerpts(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Catherine McKinnell
We have been clear about our manifesto commitment and our approach in Government. Our priority is to ensure that we have the investment in our schools that we need in order to ensure that every child has the teaching and the school experience that they deserve. We know that councils are facing significant challenges processing applications and delivering for children with special educational needs after 14 years of a system that has let down families and children, and which the former Secretary of State for Education herself described as “lose, lose, lose.” This is the legacy we are dealing with and the mess we are clearing up, but we are determined to do that for families and children who we know deserve better.
Mr Mark Sewards (Leeds South West and Morley) (Lab)
Sadly, today’s report confirms what many parents in my constituency of Leeds South West and Morley have been telling me since long before the election: the SEND system in this country is failing. As a secondary school maths teacher, I know all too well that SEND provision is not up to scratch. I have seen at first hand that, after 14 years of negligence by the Conservative party, parents and children have lost hope of ever seeing an improvement in the system, following the SEND crisis. Does the Minister agree that although there is no silver bullet, we must improve the SEND system and give people hope that it will improve?
Mr Speaker
Order. This urgent question will run until about 11.30 am, so if I am to get everyone in, we will have to speed up the questions and answers. I want to take as many questions as possible, as this is a very important subject to all of us.
Hongkongers in the UK: Visas, Security and Services
Mark Sewards Excerpts(2 months ago)
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Mr Mark Sewards (Leeds South West and Morley) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Mr Rand) for securing a really important debate today. Over the last 18 months and during the election campaign, I had the privilege of meeting Hongkongers in Leeds. Listening to their experiences shed much more light on the ongoing denial of human rights and democratic values in Hong Kong. They told me of the important work they were doing across Yorkshire, including supporting the estimated 4,000 people who have settled in Leeds since 2020. Around one third of those live in my constituency of Leeds South West and Morley. This is an issue that is both very important to me and very close to me.
More than 10,000 people have been arrested in the protest-related cases since the start of the pro-democracy movement in 2019. That includes, as has been referenced today by many Members, the British citizen Jimmy Lai, who has been behind bars for years. He faces life imprisonment under the national security law for, quite simply, telling the truth.
Given that we recognise why Hongkongers are leaving their country, it is essential that we consider security and access to services for those who come to the UK. Because of the time constraints in this debate, I will focus on one specific aspect of security—transnational repression.
Many British national overseas visa holders remain concerned about the threat of transnational repression against both them and their families back in Hong Kong. Some 97% of respondents to a survey conducted by Hongkongers in Leeds supported the strengthening of action against transnational repression. Worryingly, more than half of those that responded to that survey agreed that they themselves would not speak up against the injustices in Hong Kong, due to their fear that their families still in Hong Kong would face consequences. They also questioned whether they would ever be able to return to Hong Kong should they criticise the Chinese Government.
Members of the Hong Kong community in Leeds, including those in Leeds South West and Morley, have reported facing ongoing intimidation and harassment, which is something that I would like to share with hon. Members today. At several events organised by Hongkongers in Leeds, individuals were seen photographing attendees without their consent. Some attendees were even threatened with claims that the photos taken of them would be shared with the authorities in Hong Kong to prevent them from ever being allowed to return home. Threats have also occurred on social media in Leeds, with the Leeds Hong Kong community Facebook page being shared in far-right circles, in an attempt to cause agitation. Worse still, the personal information of prominent activists in the Hong Kong community in Leeds—phone numbers and personal addresses—has been shared publicly, in an attempt to humiliate and endanger them.
The experiences, threats and intimidation that the people of Hong Kong and the Hongkongers based in Leeds face today are concerns that are continuously raised with me as the constituency MP, and were raised prior to that, when I was the candidate for the constituency. We know that this behaviour is being encouraged by the Chinese Government—we know that. In the survey of Leeds Hongkongers, which was carried out prior to the general election, only 18% of respondents agreed that the UK Government provide a safe environment for them from the Chinese Government. I therefore welcome the Government’s commitment to take a proactive approach to countering the most acute forms of state-directed threats to individuals.
I encourage the Minister to consider additional provisions in the state threats aggravating factor to cover criminal actions aimed at individuals who are identified by a foreign power as a dissident. Doing so would be a recognition that the naming of individuals is a form of state threat behaviour, too, even if the state does not issue a directive to harm the individual in question.
We must work continually to support Hongkongers to live freely, both in Hong Kong and the UK—free from threats, free from intimidation, free from repression. It is crucial for our democracy and the values we espouse to keep all our citizens safe.