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Special Educational Needs

: I am glad to be able to contribute to what has been a very good debate. I congratulate the hon. Member for Mid-Bedfordshire (Mrs. Dorries) on securing it and on the way in which she expressed her views. The debate has clearly created a lot of interest among hon. Members on both sides of the House and it has been positive. It behoves us all to try to secure what consensus is available on the way forward on this issue. All those who have contributed to the debate have said that it is not easy. There are never enough resources, no matter how much they increase. Even since the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, there has been an increase in spending from £2.8 billion to £4.1 billion. We are talking not about declining resources—far from it—but of a recognition in society more generally of the rights of those young and older children who have been ignored and at the poorer end of provision in the past. We are trying to put right the historical anomalies of lack of support and help over the years. Such matters are neither easy nor cheap. We should do what we can to promote a consensus across parties, when that is available. In that spirit, I welcome the reference by the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) to the commission. I shall read with interest its interim findings and suggestions. It is not and never has been the Government's policy to force children into mainstream schools. I welcome the fact that parties have recognised—