Oral Answers to Questions

Perran Moon Excerpts

Monday 14th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

12. What steps her Department is taking to ensure that schools have access to specialist expertise in SEND.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

22. What progress her Department has made on ensuring that schools have access to high-quality training to support pupils with SEND.

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

25. What steps her Department is taking to ensure that schools have access to specialist expertise in SEND.

--- Later in debate ---

[Georgia Gould]

We are determined to ensure that every child who needs a specialist place has access to one. That is why we are investing £3.7 billion in specialist places and are proposing the new specialist provision packages system. We recently had a full consultation on the proposals, and we are carefully working through the detailed responses that we got to the consultation questions. We will bring forward the Bill as quickly as possible.

[Perran Moon]

Several schools in my Camborne, Redruth and Hayle constituency are reporting profound concerns about the lack of availability of educational specialists right across Cornwall, including occupational therapists, educational psychologists and speech and language therapists. As a result of our remote coastal location, recruitment and retention is particularly difficult. Will the Minister meet Cornish MPs to discuss this issue?

[Georgia Gould]

I can confirm that, after very strong lobbying from my hon. Friends the Members for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon) and for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham), I will be visiting Cornwall to talk to them directly and see the issues at first hand. I absolutely recognise the issues around recruitment and retention in rural areas, and we are very much working on that.