Bridget Phillipson responds to SEND Review Statement

• 272,000 pupils with special educational needs and disabilities will have left school before government responds to SEND review consultation

Labour is today [Tuesday] warning that an estimated 272,000 young people with SEND will have left secondary school between the SEND review being announced in 2019 and the government responding to the consultation launched today.

Responding to a statement on the Review in Parliament today, Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary asked the Education Secretary when families can expect to see changes on the frontline, having already waited nearly a 1,000 days for this review to be published. 

Drawing comparisons with the schools white paper, Phillipson warned the ambitions of the SEND review are “hollow”, with the government is setting out no plan to make them a reality for families. 

Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said:

“…these ambitions sadly remain hollow.

Hollow because again there is no plan to deliver. 

Hollow because other government policies are working against these aims. 

And hollow because children and families are still waiting on a pandemic recovery plan. 

Too many parents told us, that during the pandemic, support for their children was removed, was not available, and to this day has not been restored. 

…

Mr Speaker, families have had to wait almost a thousand days since the SEND review was announced for the government to launch this consultation. 

Families will wait another 13 weeks for the consultation to close, 

They’ll wait longer for a government response
And then again before changes are seen on the frontline.

Years have passed since reform was needed and children’s time in the education system is slipping away.”

Ends

Notes to editors

• The SEND review was announced on 6 September 2019, two cohorts of Y11 students will have left school and another will be on study leave, days from doing so when the SEND Review consultation closes. 

• Using the number of pupils with SEND in Year 11 in 2019/20 and 2020/21 and number of Y10 pupils with SEND in 2020/21 who’ll be in Y11 this year, we estimate 272,056 pupils with SEND will have left secondary school since the review was announced. 

Data from: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england (Download: 04- Year group, by type of SEN provision and type of need - 2016 to 2021 (csv, 55 Mb)

Bridget Phillipson MP, full statement response

***Check against delivery***

Thank you, Mr Speaker

May I start by thanking the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement.

Children with special education needs and disabilities, and how we support them, are subjects close to my heart, as I know they are to so many in this House.

And I had hoped so much to speak with warmth, with optimism, and with enthusiasm about the review he is setting out today.

We know that one in 6 children in England has a special educational need or disability.

That’s 5 children in every class. 

Supporting children and learners with special educational needs or disabilities is at the heart of our education system, and the work that teachers and school staff are doing every day. 

And it should be central to the work of government too. 

But right now, children are being let down.

Needs are going unmet.

Children are stuck on waiting lists from occupational therapy to speech and language support.

Thousands of families are waiting months for education, health and care plans.

Children and families are facing a postcode lottery in availability and quality of specialist provision.

And parents are increasingly turning to the courts to get the support that is their children’s right. 

(Mr Speaker) the system is broken. 

Parents know it, teachers know it, children know it. 

And the government knows it too. 

***

But we haven’t got here by accident.

The Secretary of State professes to be ambitious for young people, but where has that ambition been for the last 12 years?

Where was that ambition when he was Minister for Children and Families?

The Secretary of State cannot disown the legacy of 12 years of Conservative governments that have left us with a broken, adversarial, aggressive system which is letting down young people and leaving families in despair.

***

Against that backdrop it is hard not to be optimistic about any changes to the system.

Early intervention, 

Support in mainstream settings, 

Changing cultures,

Supporting families

And making the system financially sustainable. 

Who could object to these ambitions?

But just as we saw yesterday, these ambitions sadly remain hollow.

Hollow because again there is no plan to deliver. 

Hollow because other government policies are working against these aims. 

And hollow because children and families are still waiting on a pandemic recovery plan. 

Too many parents told us, that during the pandemic, support for their children was removed, was not available, and to this day has not been restored.

(Mr Speaker) when Labour says we’re ambitious for children we mean every child. 

Labour’s Children’s Recovery Plan sets out the support we would be put in place for children and young people now:

Mental health support in every school

Wraparound activities that support every child’s development

And targeted learning support for the children who need it most.

The pandemic was hard on us all, but for children with SEND and their families it was harder still. 

The long shadow of those months in lockdown is holding children back. 

So I ask him again, when will the Secretary of State finally give children and families the recovery plan they need and deserve?

***

Mr Speaker, at every school I visit, teachers raise their concerns around the broken system facing children with SEND.

That’s why we all want to see reforms succeed.

Intervention earlier

Children’s needs identified sooner

And support provided more quickly.

Under the last Labour government, children’s centres were crucial.

With millions of young families accessing these services, children’s needs were identified quickly, and support put in place.

But today, over 1,000 children’s centres have closed. 

The family hubs he’s announced are a pale imitation of this network of services. 

Yet the evidence is even clearer now than it was then, that early intervention and coordinated support for families transforms children’s lives.

As he is so keen to consider the evidence, will he not look again at the much wider support and services that families across our country as desperate to see?

***

Many parents, who have had to fight for their children’s support, will today want assurances from the Secretary of State that there will be no compromising on care to cut costs.

And can he say when he expects promised additional educational psychologists to be in place supporting children and schools?

Mr Speaker, families have had to wait almost a thousand days since the SEND review was announced for the government to launch this consultation. 

Families will wait another 13 weeks for the consultation to close, 

They’ll wait longer for a government response
And then again before changes are seen on the frontline.

Years have passed since reform was needed and children’s time in the education system is slipping away. 

***

Nothing we do in this place, can be more important than giving our children support to thrive and opportunities for the future. 

But over the last two years of the pandemic 

And the last 12 years of Conservative governments 

All too often our children have been an afterthought.

When staff across our schools have been asked to do more with less, they’ve stepped in and stepped up. 

They’ve plugged gaps, taken on more, delivered time and again for children who they’re desperate to see succeed. 

They’ve put children first and done everything they could. 

It’s long past time the government did the same.