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Special Educational Needs

My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. I shall come to the statementing process and how I think we could get better value out of it. A lot has been said about it, so it is important that I return to it and comment on it. On inclusion, hon. Members spoke passionately about special schools and some claimed that the Government have a policy of favouring the closure of special schools. I must make it clear on the record that we do not. Spending on maintained special schools has risen from £891 million in 2000 to £1.3 billion in 2006-07, enabling the quality of provision in those schools to improve. Local authorities spend £506 million on fees for pupils at a number of excellent non-maintained and independent schools. I think the hon. Member for Harwich (Mr. Carswell) asked specifically about non-maintained schools and the support that we give them. A statistic that surprised me a little, not least in the context of our debate, is that rather than declining, the proportion of pupils with statements who attend special schools has risen over the past five years from 36.3 to 36.9 per cent. Our so-called anti-special schools policy is clearly failing. That is not our policy and I am surprised that during three hours of debate that has not come to the fore. Just as we have never had a policy of closing special schools, we have never accepted that we must choose between sustaining special schools and improving provision in mainstream schools. In its recent report, ““Inclusion: does it matter where pupils are taught?””, Ofsted said that there was"““little difference in the quality of provision and outcomes for pupils across primary and secondary mainstream schools and special schools. However, mainstream schools with additionally resourced provision were particularly successful in achieving high outcomes for pupils academically, socially and personally.””" We are therefore right in our policy of promoting a flexible range of provision that includes mainstream and special schools, resourcing provision within or attached to mainstream schools suited to the needs of individual children and offering choice to parents as far as possible. I shall comment on statements, not least because my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley, East and Mexborough mentioned them.