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Special Educational Needs (Information) Bill

My Lords, I, too, join all noble Lords in the House today in thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, for presenting this Private Member’s Bill. As we have already heard, it was introduced in another place by Sharon Hodgson MP. She and I are both officers of the All-Party Group on Breast Cancer, so it gives me particular pleasure to speak on the Bill. We assure her and the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, of our support for the Bill, which makes a welcome contribution to the provision of special needs education. The noble Baroness spoke with conviction, sincerity and great experience when describing why the Bill is needed. She described the difficulties and the reality of the problems faced by the parents of children with special educational needs, and highlighted the importance of all those children reaching their potential. If ever there was an example of someone overcoming their difficulties and realising their full potential, my noble friend Lord James of Blackheath demonstrated that in his moving speech. I join the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, in asking the Minister to heed my noble friend’s sensible words. The support that the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, has received from across the House, as in another place, reflects the importance that we attach to this vital subject and the experience that so many of us have of special educational needs, either through our links with organisations involved in this area or through our families. My own son, who like Sharon Hodgson’s son was as bright as a button, never enjoyed reading. Yet it was years after he was diagnosed as being dyslexic before we discovered that when he looked at a book or a page, the words danced before his eyes; so I know at first hand the difficulties that parents face when their children have special needs. As the House knows, I, too, suffer from a mild form of dyslexia. It is not that bad, but it is enough to cause me grief when I am closing for the Opposition and have to scribble notes as the debate goes on, separated from my computer. I shudder to think what Hansard makes of my spelling. The noble Lord, Lord Addington, speaks with great authority, particularly on dyslexia, and I echo his call for clarity and an understanding of what works. It is so important that we in Parliament devote time to making things easier for people out there in the real world. Parents and support groups work selflessly to better the plight of some of our more vulnerable children, but so, too, do our special needs teachers, and we should place on the record our appreciation of the excellent and often challenging work that they do. The important point has been made that the Bill should not be an additional burden on schools, and we agree. We should rationalise the data that are collected and focus on what will create a real difference to help these children achieve the best possible outcome. Given that we are talking about a problem that is experienced by one in five of the total school population and is growing, the positive effects of the Bill will be welcomed across the country. As we have heard, the Bill is very straightforward. It aims to collect and publish information about outcomes for pupils with special needs and to highlight information about the quality and efficiency of special educational needs support that is delivered in schools and by local authorities. This should allow parents to access data that will inform their choices and allow them to take the best course of action for their children. Greater parental choice is central to driving up standards in the provision for children with special educational needs, and greater availability of information, as outlined in the Bill, will, I hope, go some way to achieving this. The Conservative Party has long held the view that the state should provide information to parents and equip them to take their own decisions. After all, it is parents who have the best idea of what to do for their own children. The noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, whose report so many years ago gave rise to important legislation on SEN, is so right when she says that parents are simply seeking to do the best for their children. I echo her plea for not lumping together all children with SEN. The type of data that are collected and published is key. There is all manner of statistics, figures, numbers and information out there. Much of it is no doubt very useful, but we must remember that we are not legislating to make the statisticians and number crunchers happy. The information that is published needs to be relevant and easy to access by parents and to be understood by them. The plea for it to be in simple English should be heeded. As my honourable friend Maria Miller said in another place: "““The collection of data is not an end in itself; it has to be made available in a form that parents will be able to use””.—[Official Report, Commons, 16/5/08; col. 1666.]" That means that the information should be clear and relate to those things that parents care about. We have a slight concern that the Bill places the discretion wholly in the hands of the Secretary of State. Perhaps it would be helpful for the Bill to be more explicit about what sort of information is gathered and released, including information on the quality and quantity of training in special needs skills that teachers and classroom assistants receive, and the nature of that training. During our Second Reading debate on the Education and Skills Bill, my noble friend Lord Elton spoke passionately of the need to pick up special needs as early as possible. He is quite right; early diagnosis will lead to more confident children who can achieve those important Every Child Matters outcomes of enjoying and achieving and making a positive contribution, which will, we hope, lead to economic well-being. As my noble friend also pointed out, early diagnosis ultimately saves money, but teachers need to be trained to spot problems and to have some understanding of the steps to take. That is why we agree with the Government, who stated in 2004: "““Every teacher should expect to teach children with SEN, and must be equipped with the skills to do so””." The General Teaching Council has just published a parliamentary briefing on special education needs. It notes that, "““children and young people are bringing more pronounced emotional, social and behavioural difficulties into mainstream schools””." It also notes that there is an increase in mental health issues, more autism and more speech and language difficulties. It sees these challenges as drivers for more professional practices, with initial teacher training and continuing professional development in special educational needs. Why this is necessary becomes only too apparent when you look at the detailed research carried out by the NUT last year, which revealed that in the previous 12 months the vast majority of teachers contacted had not received any training and development in severe or moderate learning difficulties; nor in behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. Moreover, as my honourable friend John Bercow pointed out in another place, a YouGov survey, which was commissioned by the Communication Trust, showed that 73 per cent of teachers did not feel that they had received adequate training to help children with speech, language and communication needs. Experts in the field from voluntary organisations, such as the excellent Xtraordinary People, are at a loss to understand why proven teaching methods for dyslexia are not part of teacher training. I am sure the Minister would be most upset if I did not mention this; if only more schools taught synthetic phonics, we could avoid many of the problems that children with reading difficulties encounter. It would free up precious resources for children with more complex needs; yet we have no idea of the number of teachers trained to teach synthetic phonics. I heed the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, on whether this Bill is the right vehicle for the issue of training, but we remain convinced that this is a vital component and that it must be addressed somewhere. It would be helpful for the information collected to be broken down to as local a level as possible. In its briefing, the RNID quoted a 2004 Ofsted report, which found that only 25 per cent of LEAs had strong strategic management of SEN and that the majority had weak evaluation systems. Lucy Wilkins, in her excellent pamphlet, Learning the Hard Way: A Strategy for Special Educational Needs—the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, went to the seminar on this, but I, unfortunately, was unable to attend—observes that only 47 per cent of local authorities currently detail the help they are giving to SEN children on their websites, although this is a legal requirement. The more localised we can make this information available, the better; not least for those children with the complex, multiple needs of which the noble Lord, Lord Low, spoke. What is going on in one’s own area is of much more immediate concern than what is happening nationwide. This would allow valuable comparisons to be made. I know that statementing is a cause of concern to parents who sometimes feel, rightly or wrongly, that statements are tailored to fit the budgets of local authorities. That dual role has been described as the local authority acting as both poacher and gamekeeper. This Bill presents us with an opportunity to gather information on statementing, which would assist in monitoring the process, be more transparent and would help to dispel parents’ worries. Although we support this Bill because the information which is to be published will be invaluable to parents of children with special educational needs, I am sure it goes without saying that the information to be published must not be personal details or compromise privacy in any way. The Conservative Party has a proud tradition of special needs legislation and we welcome this much needed Bill, which we will not seek to amend. It provides us with yet another opportunity to shine the spotlight on special educational needs, an area which is sadly too often a battlefield where parents feel bemused and exhausted. The publication of information will allow us to keep an eye on the progress that the Government are making. Of course, the passing of this Bill is not an end in itself; rather, it provides the means with which we can gauge progress in schools all around the country to ensure that all children get the education that suits them and which they deserve.