Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure
that all schools have the capacity to identify and implement a
plan of support for the most commonly occurring special
educational needs, including Dyslexia, ADHD, Dyspraxia,
Dyscalculia, and Autism.
(LD)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on
the Order Paper and remind the House of my declared
interests.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, ensuring everyone, regardless of need, gets the best
education possible is vital. Our SEND and AP improvement plan
will ensure all children get the support they need. So far, we
have opened 15 special free schools since September; announced
the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools
programme; trained 100,000 professionals in autism awareness;
confirmed funding for 400 more education psychologists; and
updated the initial teacher training and early career framework,
including additional content on SEND.
(LD)
I thank the Minister for her Answer. I have just managed to read
through the updates and changes for training teachers. If we are
now going to use online testing as a major identification tool—as
suggested—and use it in the classroom, how will we disseminate
that knowledge without having more specialists directly available
to the school, so that can have accurate diagnosis when those
assistive technology methods are used?
(Con)
The noble Lord will be aware that our whole approach is about
meeting the needs of the child and not requiring a diagnosis to
get support. That is incredibly important for our focus on
intervention and support at the earliest possible stage. All that
comes before the online testing, and it is critical that we get
it right.
(CB)
My Lords, around 6% of UK children are affected by dyscalculia: a
learning disability impacting numerical processing and the
ability to learn, understand and perform maths. It has a similar
prevalence and impact on education and employment as dyslexia,
yet there is no official government recognition of dyscalculia.
Does the Minister share my concern that specialist maths teachers
are under no obligation to learn about dyscalculia unless they
opt for additional modules? Given that the Government intend for
maths to be taught to everyone until age 18, surely learning
about dyscalculia should be standard for maths teachers?
(Con)
I understand well the point the noble Baroness makes, but I refer
again to the very recently published changes that we are making
to the initial teacher training and early career framework, which
is bringing much more on identification of special educational
needs and specific learning difficulties such as dyscalculia into
the early career framework. We are also making sure that teachers
get the support from their mentor to develop those skills
throughout their career.
(Con)
My Lords, I declare my interest as a member of the Public
Services Committee, which has been looking into these matters
recently, and I have a great-nephew who has just had his
assessment for autism. If I have understood it correctly, there
is a massive recruitment issue in respect of assessment staff.
What are we doing in national government and local government to
improve the situation? I would be very happy for my noble friend
the Minister to write to me on that.
(Con)
As my noble friend knows, for some of the issues with waiting
lists for assessment—which I recognise are incredibly worrying
for parents and their children in particular—those reasons are
complicated. As I have already said, we want to be sure that our
mainstream education is inclusive and supports children before
they get a formal diagnosis. That is some of the focus of our new
national professional qualification for SEND leaders. We are
increasing the number of educational psychologists by 400 from
2024. As I mentioned, we are developing the partnership for
neurodiversity in schools between local authorities, integrated
care boards and schools, supported by £13 million of funding, to
make sure that schools respond to neurodiverse children as well
as possible.
(Lab)
My Lords, notwithstanding the Minister’s Answer to the Question
from the noble Lord, , if she had a chance to read
an article in the Observeryesterday, she will know that many
schools up and down the country are facing deficit budgets and
are required to make redundancies of both teaching and
non-teaching staff, which means that the capacity to deal with
all these issues—as well as others—is significantly reduced. When
might the Government consider urgently putting in additional
resources?
(Con)
The Government have enormously increased support for children
with special educational needs. The high needs capital investment
is £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025, which will create many
more specialist places, which the Government absolutely
acknowledge are needed. I remind the House that per-pupil funding
next year will be the highest ever in real terms.
Lord
My Lords, I welcome everything that the Minister has said, but we
all know that, even with the initial screening online, a full
diagnosis for many children with any of these needs can take
years to confirm. I am interested in what the noble Baroness has
to say about how families—and the children themselves—are
accompanied through several years of negotiation with the NHS and
with local authorities, especially when, as has already been
said, certainly in Lincolnshire, staffing costs outstrip the need
that is expressed within our schools.
(Con)
Again, I stress that not every special educational need requires
a diagnosis. Children should get support regardless. If we look
at the age at which children get an education, health and care
plan as a proxy for diagnosis, we see that around a quarter
receive an EHCP under the age of five, with almost half getting
one between the ages of five and 10. That has been very stable
over the last 10 years. The remaining quarter are above 11. I
understand that these can be stressful, difficult times, but
there has been relative stability over many years at the age of
diagnosis, although there is greater identification of specific
issues—in particular, autism.
(LD)
My Lords, I note what the Minister said in reply to my noble
friend about new provision being made; that is to be welcomed.
Ofsted inspections have found a shortage of school places and
special school provision locally—that is the key word:
locally—for children and young people with complex needs. As a
consequence, they are placed out of their locality, away from
their families, friends and peer groups. What are the Government
planning to do to ensure that there is sufficient specialist
provision in local areas?
(Con)
I can only refer again to what I just mentioned: the £2.6 billion
between 2022 and 2025 to deliver additional new specialist
places, which will of course be closer to where children are. I
absolutely share the noble Lord’s concerns about children having
to travel out of area.
(Lab)
My Lords, school absences are one of the key issues for our
school system, but absence rates are, by one measure, 10% higher
for autistic children and even higher for children with a SEND
statement? What assessment have the Government made of the
interaction between the lack of provision for SEND support and
absence rates? How do the Government plan to target the
persistent absence of SEND pupils in particular?
(Con)
The noble Baroness knows that absence rates for children with
special educational needs have always, rightly or wrongly, been
higher than those for children without special educational needs.
In part, there is an assumption that such children may also
experience greater incidence of ill health. The Government are
focusing on a very detailed analysis, looking at patterns across
different schools and identifying which practice is working to
make sure that those children are back in school, and then
sharing it through our attendance hubs. That is important,
because we know that children with special educational needs,
more than any other children, thrive when they are in school all
the time.
