Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Monday 24th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We are running late, but I do not want the subject of special educational needs and disabilities to miss out, so we will take the next question. However, I appeal to the questioners to be particularly brief.

[Sarah Jones (Croydon Central) (Lab)]

17. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

21. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Nadhim Zahawi)]

The 2014 special educational needs and disabilities reforms were the biggest in a generation. Care Quality Commission SEND inspectors provide evidence of progress at a local level. High needs funding has increased to £6.3 billion in 2019-20.

[Sarah Jones]

A survey of headteachers in Croydon showed that 85% had been forced to cut special educational needs provision. We know that 50% of excluded kids have a special educational need, that a third of councils have no space left in their pupil referral units, and that not being in school is a particular risk factor for getting involved in criminal gangs. When will the Government wake up to this emergency and act? Actions have consequences.

[Nadhim Zahawi]

The hon. Lady would have been fair if she had also acknowledged that we launched a review of school exclusions, led by Edward Timpson. The Children and Families Act 2014 secures the presumption in law that children and young people with SEND should receive mainstream education—of course, 98.7% of them are educated in the mainstream. We have put £4 million into innovation funding to improve alternative provision as well.