Speech Therapy Services (Children)
Rehman Chishti Excerpts(13 years, 6 months ago)
Westminster HallRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Streeter. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard) on securing this debate on an important issue. I will apply the principle that brevity is a virtue and not a vice, and keep my remarks short. First, I would like to put things into context from a Medway perspective. Medway local authority has a good and close relationship with speech and language therapy teams. It has been working collaboratively to develop capacity so that teachers and school staff can address most speech and language needs in school. That frees up time for speech and language therapists to give direct therapy to the children with the most complex needs.
In the current financial climate, where budgets are so closely scrutinised, will the Minister tell us how the Green Paper will address the anomaly of local authorities being responsible for funding speech and language therapy that is diagnosed by health bodies and written in a statement? Will the forthcoming Green Paper provide for a focus of speech and language therapy in early years; for example, through a refocused Sure Start that targets children living in poverty?
Academies Bill [Lords]
Rehman Chishti Excerpts(13 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Bill Esterson
No, I am not giving way.
I was concerned to hear that the review of previously agreed projects extends to the previous Government’s academy programme. In the Medway towns, three academies were approved by the former Secretary of State, with the support of the former School Standards Minister and his predecessors. They had to make up for the failings of Tory-run Medway council, where the children’s services department had failed to address the long-term problems of underperforming schools, largely caused by the 11-plus and the selective system there, which contributes in no small measure to the fact that the secondary modern schools have high numbers of children with special educational needs that are not resourced properly.
Three academies are being built: Strood academy opened last September, and the Chatham and Gillingham academies open this September. In all three, the buildings are not fit for purpose. Strood and Chatham academies will open on two sites each, as they each replace two previous schools. All three academies serve deprived areas that need significant financial support. If their funding is withdrawn in favour of outstanding schools, as in the Government’s proposal, it will be one of the best examples—or worst examples, depending on someone’s viewpoint—of how the Bill will sacrifice those who are most in need of help in favour of those who need it least. I am glad that the hon. Member for Gillingham and Rainham (Rehman Chishti) is now in the Chamber to hear about the disgraceful way that the Government are failing his constituents.
Bill Esterson
I will not get any more time if I give way, so I am not going to.
Meanwhile, as Barnet Tory council made savage cuts to schools and the rest of the public sector, its members voted for a £20,000 a year increase in the allowances for Tory cabinet members. They declared that poverty was an emotive word and that all people needed was aspiration. Barnet is the “easyCouncil”—the no-frills council—except when it comes to its Tory cabinet members.
Bill Esterson
No, I am not giving way.
By cutting the Building Schools for the Future and the primary capital programmes and the area-based grants, the Tories are saying, “If you come from a deprived area or from a struggling school, we’re not going to support you. We will only support those schools that need it least.” Jack Stopforth of Liverpool chamber commerce commented:
“It’s all very well to talk about short-term savings for the public purse, but the long-term implications for the education base of our children and the future skills base and the effect on the private sector supply chain is profound.”
When people in that sort of position make such comments, it is time that Government Members considered the damage that the legislation will do. They should reconsider it.