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Education and Inspections Bill

This has been a good debate, which deserves more than seven minutes for my response. It is occasionally a frustration of ministerial life that we do not have anything near as much time as the Opposition or Back Benchers when we respond. I think that we are agreed on both sides of the House that we need a range of provision to deliver for the range of children’s needs. We all agree that there is more to be done, but the picture is in shades of grey rather than the black and white presented by the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr. Hayes). I shall say a few words about Government policy. Schools and local authorities already have clear duties in relation to children with special educational needs and disabilities. Our policy is to achieve better outcomes for those children by ensuring that provision is tailored to individual needs and that all children have access to a broad and relevant education and maximum engagement with their peers. In that respect, I point out to the hon. Member for Mid-Bedfordshire (Mrs. Dorries), there is inclusion, but I am mindful that, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside (Mr. Blunkett) said, inclusion is a good aspiration but it has to deliver appropriate education for every child, which may be in a special school. Our policy is also that agencies work together to provide children and families with co-ordinated services. We see the fruits of that in high-quality teaching and learning, in children’s centres and extended schools and in better arrangements for accountability for the outcomes achieved by different groups of pupils in the new relationship with schools. We are backing that change with real investment. Funding per pupil with SEN has increased by nearly 40 per cent. in real terms. Budgeted expenditure by local authorities is £4.1 billion, about 13 per cent. of all education spending, and the building schools for the future programme is delivering better schools and facilities for those children. Ofsted reports improved local management of SEN, growing awareness of the benefits of inclusion and some improvements in practice. It also notes that many of the children with the most complex needs are in special schools or other specialist provision. I used statistics about those schools in an intervention during the speech of the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings: all 300 of those schools are new; they are not units added to existing schools. Contrary to what is reported in the media, they demonstrate our commitment to special schools alongside mainstream provision.