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Special Educational Needs

Thank you, Mr. Hancock, for the opportunity to speak in this important debate. It is always a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Paul Holmes), particularly in the light of Chesterfield’s magnificent win in the Carling cup earlier in the week. The Select Committee inquiry, on which I had the pleasure of serving under the chairmanship of my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman), was extremely important and very popular with the people. We received more than 230 individual submissions all told, which I think is the most we have ever received. That shows the interest in the subject. Earlier this year, I had the privilege of hosting a reception in the House to launch the National Autistic Society’s first ever education campaign document, ““Make School Make Sense””. The reception was well attended, and it featured speeches from me and from the society’s president, Jane Asher. I followed up the launch with the tabling of early-day motion 2228, entitled ““National Autistic Society’s Make School Make Sense Campaign””, which has attracted some 242 signatures from Members of all parties. I am also fortunate to have the NAS-run Robert Ogden school in Thurnscoe in my constituency. It is the biggest specialist autistic school in western Europe. When an organisation such as the NAS launches its first ever education campaign document, we must ask why, and why now. The answer is primarily because, in the society’s opinion, the system is failing and causing misery for many of the 90,000 UK children who have autistic spectrum disorder and their families. If we consider the statistics, we can see why. More than 40 per cent. of children with autism have been bullied at school. One in 110 children has autism, but there is no requirement for trainee or practising teachers to undertake any training in autism. More than 70 per cent. of schools are not satisfied with their teachers’ training. More than a quarter of children with autism have been excluded from school, usually owing to a lack of school understanding and awareness. There are more appeals to the special educational needs and disability tribunal on schooling for children with ASD than for children with any other type of special educational need. Importantly, 79 per cent. of parents who have appealed to the tribunal have won, which says much about the inadequacies of the system. The main reason for referring to the NAS document is that I want to frame within it my comments on the overall SEN debate. The document makes the point that SEN is complicated, as we have found out from Members’ contributions. The NAS says:"““Autism is complex. Our demands are simple.""1. The right school for every child. Every child with autism should have local access to a diverse range of mainstream and specialist educational provision.""2. The right training for every teacher. All teachers should expect to teach a child with autism and must receive appropriate training to best support their needs.""3. The right approach in every school. All schools should be autism-friendly schools which promote and provide a positive environment for children with autism now and in the future.””" I shall return to those three demands in more detail. First, on the right school for every child, the Committee believes that the Government should act to ensure that a range of SEN provision is available. The Committee’s report highlighted the huge differences between how individual local education authorities organise SEN provision: from 0 to 42 per cent. in resource provision or units; from 0 to 60 per cent. in maintained special schools; and from 18.9 to 73 per cent. in mainstream schools. That is a broad range, and it shows the diversity of provision throughout all LEAs. Parents also told the NAS in research for the ““Make School Make Sense”” campaign that provision was limited: two-thirds of parents believe that their choice was constrained by a lack of provision; half of all parents believe that their children’s placement was not the best school for them; and 30 per cent. of secondary pupils with autism have to travel out of their local authority area to access a suitable school. Those statistics show the scale of the problem that we have in providing the right school for every child. The second demand is the right training for every teacher. The NAS welcomes the Government’s comments on special educational needs co-ordinators and supports the good-practice guidance on ASD, which is a useful resource. It is good to know that the Government will consider promoting it further. There is much still to be done to improve provision for children with ASD and with all forms of SEN, and it is important that the Government remain committed to implementing their SEN strategy. My hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, South (Mr. Marsden) mentioned the initial teacher training on SEN and disability. I totally agree with him. We must focus not only on teachers who undertake three to four years’ training, but on teachers who take the postgraduate certificate of education, and we must ensure that their SEN teaching is well developed. There must be a clear mechanism to ensure that schools prioritise SEN and disability in their training and development budgets. I would welcome the Minister’s assurances on that important point. The final demand is for the right approach in every school. Our report highlights the high level of exclusions among disabled pupils and pupils with SEN. I had hoped that, on that point, the Government’s response would have been more proactive, because in 2003-04, two thirds of all school exclusions were of pupils with SEN. The Special Education Consortium is pressing for two key changes to the relevant legislation: first, a requirement that school behaviour policies show how reasonable adjustments are made for disabled pupils and that special provision is made for pupils with SEN to reduce the risk of exclusion; and, secondly, a statutory requirement to hold an early review of the adjustments being made for disabled pupils and of the provisions for SEN pupils who are at risk of exclusion. That recommendation is in guidance on statemented pupils, and I would like to hear the Minister’s thoughts on those changes. Teachers with SEN expertise work in a variety of contexts, including special schools, pupil referral units, hospital schools and regular primary and secondary schools. They may also be unattached—based not in one school, but providing specialist expertise throughout a range of education settings. We need greater collaboration between SEN and mainstream schools, more disciplinary work and the sharing of staff expertise as the opportunities recommend themselves. In recommendations 96 and 97 of our report, we refer to collaboration between mainstream and special schools. The Committee Chairman, my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield, has already referred to our exciting and interesting visit to Darlington’s education village, which has a special school, primary school and secondary school all on the same campus. We referred to the need to provide funding to LEAs to increase their ability to facilitate and encourage collaborative arrangements in communities of schools that work together, sharing facilities and professional expertise to improve the outcomes for children with SEN. I would like to hear the Minister’s comments on that. I recently met the Barnsley Asperger’s Parents Group on Priory campus, Lundwood, at an exhibition celebrating world mental health day. The group includes 90 families of children with ASD, and they collaborate to ensure that their children get the best education possible. I would like the Minister to provide some feedback on how he feels about such organisations. They do a first-class job for their children. I wish briefly to mention the important matter of the transition from childhood to adulthood, on which no hon. Member has yet touched. I know that the ““Every Child Matters”” agenda is addressing some problems that children with ASD and other disabilities face when moving from school into adult life. I am pleased to say that the NAS now has an organisation called Prospects, funded by Jobcentre Plus, which provides placements for those suffering from ASD. The NAS estimates that a third of a million adults suffer from autism and have left the education system, but only 6 per cent. of them are in full-time occupations. Prospects places young adults with ASD in appropriate work placements—for instance, in administration, finance, research, IT or library work—to suit the problems that they suffer from. There are certain types of job, usually those to do with communication and interactive skills, in which young adults with ASD would have problems.