SEND Provision and Funding
Ruth Cadbury Excerpts(11 months, 1 week ago)
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Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)
Fantastic —thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Sir David Davis) on securing the debate. We have heard many excellent speeches from across the House, although I notice that there are demands for more funding from Members whose party has been responsible for these budgets for the past 13 years.
Every time I visit a school in my constituency and discuss my role and the children’s aspirations with them, I go on to meet the head or senior leadership team, and without exception the first and most pressing issue they raise with me is SEND. They tell me they do not have the resources to adequately support these children or their parents. They feel that these children are being abandoned. That is not for want of adequate legal powers, with the EHCP system brought in in 2014, or due to the support structures of Hounslow council, but because of a chronic lack of resources to deliver what the law expects.
Heads also tell me that there seems to have been a recent rise in the number of children who clearly have additional needs, with children exhibiting extreme stress, which is hardly surprising given the housing and income pressures that many local families face. A growing number of children also appear to be presenting with some form of neurodiversity. Most teachers are not specialists in mental health, neurodiversity or other forms of SEND. However, schools feel that they cannot teach a child, or indeed the other children in the class, if five children in a class cannot sit down, cannot stop talking, or are even screaming, ripping things up, chewing things, or as I heard about one child, spending hours on end switching a particular light switch on and off, on and off. These children are not naughty. The experienced educationalists telling me this know that, with appropriate and adequate specialist support, these children can and would learn. They can thrive and they can achieve, but the schools just do not have the resources to provide the world-class education that all children need.
Treating SEND as a serious policy priority is important not just for children with additional needs, but for their parents and siblings, their teachers and the other children in their schools, but under this Government these people are not getting the support they need. They are being let down, and children’s futures are being failed.
In 2014, the Government extended the SEND duty of local councils to include young people up to the age of 25 and added social and healthcare needs to what was previously a statement just of educational needs, yet there was no additional funding for the additional legal requirements. Despite this Government undermining local authorities’ role in school management and governance, local authorities are still expected to provide appropriate SEND provision. They cannot do that when there are sweeping cuts to their budgets: Hounslow council has faced budget cuts of over £150 million since 2010, and the cuts have had a huge negative impact on local SEND support in the borough.
Countless local parents have told me they are having to wait far too long for their child’s EHCP, and when the plan is issued, there are huge flaws and not enough support. Thresholds for support rise as funding declines. One indicator of the scale of such problems is that, nationally, there were 14,000 appeals to tribunal in 2022-23—an increase of 24% in the last year—and 98% of the cases are resolved in favour of the parents and children. Often, the appeals mark the first time parents feel they have been listened to, but as the right hon. Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock) said, the tribunal system only helps parents who have the ability and the resources to push through the jungle. Many of our constituents would not know where to start. No parent should have to fight for an appropriate education for their child.
What about the specialist resources taken up by the assessments and the tribunals that should be spent on providing appropriate education and support for these children, appropriate training for their teachers, and appropriate support for their parents, which together will enable the child to thrive? The briefing we received from the National Autistic Society highlighted the inefficient spending of what funds there are in the system, although as I said, funding is insufficient. The hurdles in front of parents before, during and after the process of appeal are immense. That was the central message I received when I visited and met the Hounslow Parent Carers Forum and heard about the problems they faced.
The shortage of resources means that there is a lack of training for teaching assistants for one-to-one support, a lack of transport and a lack of specialist therapeutic support, and for many children it even means the lack of a school place. Children with high needs are stuck at home, with parents who cannot go out to work, because there is no special school place for them. More families with one or more children with additional needs are also facing housing stress. I have constituents with a very disturbed child, who is always trying to jump out of a tower block window.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
Ruth Cadbury Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to follow the intriguing speech of the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Nigel Mills). He and several other Conservative Members seem to have doubts about some elements of this Budget. I am sure the Chancellor is pleased that he has managed to be in post long enough to deliver a Budget and is hoping not to torpedo the economy like his predecessor.
This is yet another Conservative Budget that fails to invest in public services, fails to address the cost of living crisis, fails to adequately support businesses and, most of all, fails to plan for the future. Today was the chance to unlock Britain’s potential, but the Budget has been a series of titbits to paper over the cracks of the Conservatives’ failure, after 13 years in government, to deliver consistent and green growth.
In September, the Government delivered a mini-Budget that shook our economy and delivered a huge shock to businesses and residents across my constituency. Meanwhile, we are in the middle of a largely avoidable cost of living crisis. Real household incomes are due to fall by 5.7% over the next two years—the largest fall in living standards since comparable records began.
Turning to business, over the past month I have spoken to so many businesses—locally and nationally—that are struggling, or want to grow but are being let down by the Government because of either the Government’s incompetence, sky-high energy bills, or delays in key decisions. Many are family-owned businesses: last week, I met a family in the pub that they run in Isleworth. Their previous energy contract ended in October, and they had no choice but to be locked into a contract that means they are going to be paying three times their previous energy costs over the next year. They are locked into a rate that could put them under. The energy bill relief scheme, which ends in March, will be of no help to them due to the sheer scale of that locked-in rise, and I am not sure that the draught duty extension announced today will be enough to help that pub.
When I visit businesses on Chiswick High Road, they tell me time and time again just how broken our business rates system is. It is outdated, unfair, and hammering businesses when they most need support. The chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, Martin McTague, has said today that
“today’s Budget will leave many feeling short changed…the Government’s lack of support for small firms in critical areas is glaring”,
and from what I can see, there has not been a lot of extra support from Make UK or the British Chambers of Commerce. That is why we need a Labour Government who will support businesses and workers and invest in public services. Between those things, we will get our economy growing.
Collaboration, not short-termism and delay, is key to how Government should behave towards business. Whenever I meet business leaders, I hear example after example of the Government’s inconsistency. The ban on offshore wind turbines that existed for more than a decade meant that UK firms were exporting wind turbines, rather than building them for our own energy grid. We know that the UK is falling behind in ensuring that electric vehicles and batteries are built in the UK. New plants could provide well-paid and skilled jobs here, but the Conservatives have simply failed to plan or invest. The chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said after today’s statement that
“There is little…that enables the UK to compete with the massive packages of support to power a green transition that are available elsewhere.”
He is another key business leader who does not agree that the Chancellor is removing obstacles that stop businesses investing, as he promised today. Delays in confirming future standards, such as vehicle safety standards, mean delay in future production decisions.
Of course, all of this stems from this Government lacking an industrial strategy and from inconsistency with other policies. Where does pausing HS2 and cutting the budget for walking and cycling sit with reducing congestion on our roads and our rail networks, net zero, and investing in jobs and manufacturing? The chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, Sir John Armitt, said that this lack of planning, especially around HS2, is impacting on the “confidence and certainty” that businesses need when making investment decisions. Whether it is housing, lab space, skills, or capacity in the energy grid, it is clear that the UK lacks the basic infrastructure we need to grow our economy. Businesses want to do the right thing; they want to invest in new and greener technology, like the industrial launderette or the retailer of green mopeds that are in my constituency. They want to grow—they want to shift to greener technology and grow their sales and their business—but they are not being given the tools to do so, and I see little, if anything, in today’s Budget to encourage them.
For many of my constituents, this Budget will simply continue the pain that 13 years of Conservative Governments have brought for them: underfunded public services, low growth and rising costs. Families and businesses across my constituency are struggling, yet this Budget offers them nothing new—oh, sorry, I do apologise, there is one new thing: the pre-announced “free” childcare places for one and two-year-olds. I spoke on this subject in Westminster Hall a couple of weeks ago. Will those places be properly funded so that childcare settings do not go under? Will the policy provide places for the children who will benefit the most: those whose parents are not yet getting 15 hours’ regular work per week, or those with disabled children?
In conclusion, this Budget does little to get this country out of the doom loop of low investment and low growth, yet high taxation.
Oral Answers to Questions
Ruth Cadbury Excerpts(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)
The Prime Minister (Boris Johnson)
I know the whole House will want to join me in sending our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who sadly passed away on Saturday. His leadership had a profound impact on our whole country and across the world. May his memory be a blessing.
This morning, I attended the service at Westminster Abbey to mark the centenary of the tomb of the unknown warrior. Armistice Day allows us to give thanks to all those who have served, and continue to serve, and those who have given their lives in service of this country.
Ruth Cadbury
According to Home Office figures, just 12% of Windrush victims have received compensation and nine people have died waiting. This is two and a half years after the Windrush taskforce was set up. What will the Government do and what will the Prime Minister do both to rectify this injustice and to ensure that no others who have come to the UK to live and work suffer in the same way as the Windrush victims?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Lady is right to raise this issue. What happened to the Windrush generation was a disgrace and a scandal, and we are doing our best collectively to make amends. I can tell her I have met members of that generation, and this Government are taking steps to accelerate the payments and to make sure that those who are in line with payments are given every opportunity and all the information they need to avail themselves of the compensation that they deserve.