Oral Answers to Questions

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Olivia Bailey]

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his place, but I am afraid he did not listen to the answer I just gave on this exact topic, which is that, in the consultation we announced today, we are consulting on whether a statutory ban is needed. Secondly, it is my firm belief that we have addressed the root cause of the problem, which is that the policies are not sufficiently clear and that they are not being well enough enforced. That is what we are doing by asking Ofsted to inspect these policies, and we are supporting schools through our attendance and behaviour hubs.

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Ind)]

5. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of SEND provision in Kent.

[The Minister for School Standards (Georgia Gould)]

The Department has worked closely with NHS England to monitor, support and challenge Kent in making necessary SEND improvements following its area SEND inspections in 2019 and 2022. This has included regular review meetings, attendance at its SEND partnership board and commissioning the support of an expert SEND adviser.

[Rosie Duffield]

I recently hosted a constituency SEND roundtable with education leaders and officials from the Department, where teachers stressed yet again that years of underfunding and diminished support services had left schools on their knees, often unable to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children. Unfortunately, the Government’s funding announcement in their White Paper is just a drop in the ocean compared with what is needed to radically improve SEND services in east Kent. Can the Minister tell me what other steps she will take to deliver urgently needed improvements in SEND provision in my constituency, as the funding looks likely to equate to only a few thousand pounds extra per school?

[Georgia Gould]

My hon. Friend will know that we have recently announced support to local authorities like Kent in order to address 90% of their deficits. We are building three new special schools in Kent and putting in place £3.7 billion in capital investment, and the allocation for Kent will be coming onboard shortly. We have announced £4 billion of extra investment to wrap around schools, including for speech and language therapists as well as money directly into school budgets.