Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Morgan Excerpts

Monday 29th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Alistair Strathern (Mid Bedfordshire) (Lab)]

7. What steps she is taking to improve support for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

[Stephen Morgan (Portsmouth South) (Lab)]

18. What steps she is taking to improve support for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

21. What steps she is taking to improve support for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gillian Keegan]

Of course, we are always looking to improve the system and we do have an improvement plan in place. I will take away the hon. Gentleman’s specific point about people who move around from place to place, but the most important and fundamental thing is that we have increased the budget, which has now gone up to £10.5 billion—a 60% increase in the last few years. We are also investing in building the right provision, the number of educational psychologists and the workforce. We have a thorough plan in place and we are working to deliver it.

[Stephen Morgan]

Parents in Portsmouth are rightly concerned that fewer than half of the primary schoolchildren in the city are achieving the expected standards in reading, writing and maths, while, under the watch of the Lib Dem-run council, waiting lists for SEND support continue to rise. Does the Secretary of State agree that families in Portsmouth deserve better than a council that is failing children and failing families?

[Gillian Keegan]

Yes, and that is the Conservative Government.