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Special Educational Needs

: Absolutely. I have cases in my constituency of precisely that problem. Youngsters are reaching their teenage years, which are complicated by puberty, without their problems having been dealt with. Early diagnosis, early identification, and early attention to their special education needs are absolutely vital if we are not going to see such people finishing up in prison, mental hospitals or wherever—detained in one way or another. If we can get to them early and provide everything possible to maximise the possibility of a good life in adulthood, we are doing them, and society, an enormous service. The lifetime costs to the state will be much less if we get it right first. That may mean providing places in special schools that are geared to dealing with particular needs. We must stand back and review the matter, and take other people's advice. Sadly, even in the world of psychiatry, an area about which I know something as well, there is still a big debate about whether mental disorders are to do with experience—nasty things that we see in the wood shed when we are young—or physiological problems. Some think that drug therapies are right; others think that psychotherapy is necessary. Perhaps a combination of the two, appropriately tailored, is the way forward. There are even fierce debates about that, and we must shake ourselves out of our prejudices and consider the problems objectively. We must consider what is happening in the real world, and what really works; we must not presume that pushing children into mainstream schools will be to their benefit. I do not think that it is. We must also take into account the parents' preferences. Many parents initially want their children to be in mainstream schools. They start by saying that they do not want their children to be regarded as abnormal, and they want them in a mainstream school. However, over time, they realise that their child is suffering and they want more special provision for them. They may say, ““It's not working. I want them to go to a special school.”” I have examples of that in my constituency. The parents' preferences must, over time, be taken into account. Finally, we come to the question of money. The fact is that local authorities' budgets are pressured. There is a temptation for them to say that it is cheaper to put children into mainstream schools and put a bit of extra provision into such schools, rather than to provide special places. Public provision is being reduced, so private schools, which are extremely expensive, are opening, taking children from upper-middle class backgrounds whose parents can afford to pay, or from those authorities that are still prepared to pay for special places. However, we need funding for special educational needs to be separated from local education authorities' budgets, so that they are not pressured, and so that decisions can be made objectively, taking account of children's needs. We should redevelop a network of special schools, capable of dealing with various special needs across the country in the state sector, perhaps jointly run by local authorities, with independent referral systems if necessary. It would be a network of state provision where such children could be given the education that they needed to give them the chance of being happy and productive citizens in the longer term.