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Special Educational Needs

I am delighted to participate in the debate and I congratulate the hon. Member for Mid-Bedfordshire (Mrs. Dorries) on raising this important issue. I agree with everything that she said. Her speech was intelligent, informed, balanced and infused with genuine concern and compassion for the pupils involved. Towards the end, she referred to malcontents on the Government side—I cannot imagine who she means. I have been concerned about special educational needs issues over a long period. Several members of my family have been teachers and have dealt with children with SEN; indeed, my wife was a special needs co-ordinator in her school when she was a teacher. I have also had a number of relevant constituency cases, but I think that it would be inappropriate to refer to them individually now. So I have some background and am informed to an extent on these issues. During my eight and a half years in Parliament, I have become more concerned. The issues are still unresolved and there are still deep differences of view on them. They raise passions because we are predisposed one way or the other. However, I think that the hon. Member for Mid-Bedfordshire, my constituency next-door neighbour, has tried to be objective and not to express a biased view. Special educational needs cover a range of issues, including physical disabilities such as hearing impairment, that are related to slow learning. Most of them are not difficult to deal with. They are less problematic and we can and do make provision for them. Slower learners are perhaps not difficult to deal with in a mainstream school; we have a setting system. We have special hearing units, sight-impaired units and so on. The problem, as the hon. Lady said, has to do with behaviour in school and whether we include or exclude pupils with serious behavioural difficulties. There is a spectrum with total inclusion in mainstream schools at one end and special schools and special residential schools at the other. The question is how we deal with those pupils for their benefit and for the benefit of others. The trouble is that the issue is driven by ideology and money. One of the arguments is based on the passionate belief that we should not discriminate between people and that it would be best for them to be involved in the same communities, the same classes and the same schools.