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Special Educational Needs (Information) Bill

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I would like to emphasise this point about the courses. The Government are very conscious of the need to build on their existing work and provide such funding as they can afford to increase training opportunities for people in particular disciplines. That is right, but there are always two sides to the equation. It is one thing for the Government to say, ““Here are the resources; more needs to be done in this field, as there is not sufficient training,”” but it is another to deal with the situation locally. Potentially, a wide range of courses is available, but we have to think about other things, as the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole did in her contribution. Is the local authority aware of the importance and potential value of the training? Is there a strategic lead in the local authority? Has the issue’s importance been adequately impressed on the local authority? We then go down to the school level; the school might not know about the training or recognise its value. Alternatively, the school might say, ““It would be good for us to be able to access that training for that member of staff, but we are very hard-pressed and cannot release them as there will be a shortage.”” So then there has to be back-up cover, which does, to some extent, cost. I say to the Minister in the most positive and constructive spirit that, in my view—I do not know whether my colleagues agree with me—this is an area of public policy in which a purely permissive regime is not adequate. It is not good enough simply to say, ““This is what is available and we’ll leave it to the individual area to decide whether to pick up on it,”” because that means that the child—it is with the child that we have to be concerned—is dependent on whether there is a far-sighted local bureaucrat, head teacher or class teacher. What I am concerned to establish is that there must be, to some degree, an element of prescription. We sometimes need to say, ““This is sound public policy; this is what is required; and this is what must be delivered.””