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Special Educational Needs (Information) Bill

In this short contribution, I want to add my congratulations to the hon. Member for Gateshead, East and Washington, West (Mrs. Hodgson) for getting the Bill to the stage that it has reached today. Hers was the second in the ballot of private Members' Bills; last week, we got the first one through. I am not sure how many more Bills will get on the carousel before the end of this Session, but getting the first two on their way to the other place is a great achievement for the two Members who were lucky in the ballot. I should like to ask the Minister a rhetorical question. What will the Government do with all the information to be provided? During these debates, we have referred to the issue of deafness. I have here a letter from a constituent who says how horrific it is that only 32.9 per cent. of deaf children in England achieve five GCSEs at grades A* to C, against a national average of 57.1 per cent.; the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) has also referred to that. Now that we have those figures, how will the Government ensure that something is done to remedy the situation? Information is power; that is why this Bill could be significant. However, it will not be any use unless the information gained gives power that is exercised to bring about some improvements. Earlier, I referred and paid tribute to the work of the Priory Church of England primary school in Christchurch and its work with the Dore programme. All that was drawn to my attention by Judy Jamieson, the hard-working and able deputy chairman of governors. She has almost single-handedly been trying to promote the idea in a wider area of Dorset. Although the Minister did not really address the issue on Report in his response to the amendments, I hope that proper information about the Dore programme will be made available. One of the problems seems to be that the programme relates to a different category in respect of some of the special educational needs that we have been discussing. As was said by one of the professors giving evidence to the Welsh Assembly in November last year, there can be two approaches:"““You can try to tailor the teaching to the child, or you can try to change the child in some way so that they are more able to benefit by traditional teaching.””" The Dore programme uses that latter approach, and it is not clear to me whether the Government are wholeheartedly open-minded about or willing to endorse it. The professor went on to say:"““It seems that this is what the complementary therapies of all types are perhaps trying to do; rather than directly teaching reading, they are trying to alter the child's ability to learn.””" There is tremendous potential there. If there are people following these debates who find it difficult to access information about various symptoms of dyslexia, dyspraxia and other conditions, I am sure that they will become better informed, as I have, by looking at the Dore website, which has an amazing amount of information. Most important of all is the issue of early screening, to which the hon. Member for Gateshead, East and Washington, West referred in her Third Reading speech. If there were proper screening of all pupils of between six and eight years old, I am sure that we would be able to take remedial action much more quickly and direct it to the relevant children's differing needs and circumstances. I hope that that will be one of the things to come out of the Bill. I congratulate the hon. Lady once again. If the Government are genuine about taking the matter forward—I hope that they are—the hon. Lady has done a good job in bringing the Bill before the House. Question put and agreed to. Bill accordingly read the Third time, and passed.