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Strong Local Voice, Strong Local ChampionAnnette Brooke, Lib Dem MP for Mid Dorset & North Poole |
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Annette Brooke MP Presses Minister on the Provision of Special Needs Education
September 7, 2011 5:26 PM
Yesterday, Annette Brooke, MP for Mid Dorset & North Poole, spoke on the provision of special needs education by the independent sector in a debate she called in Westminster Hall. Annette highlighted to Education Minister Sarah Teather MP the valuable role that the independent sector, including local schools such as Langside and Montacute, play in providing high quality education for children with special needs.
Annette welcomed the Government's recent Green Paper on special educational needs, and its vision to improve outcomes for children and young people who are disabled or who have special educational needs, but raised concerns about the provision of special needs education by non-maintained and independent special schools, which cater for around 13,000 of the most vulnerable children in the country who have wide-ranging but complex needs.
Annette highlighted how the concerns of schools that are being asked to apply to become special academies and special free schools without adequate information about the funding implications. Annette pressed the Government to make this information available so the schools can consider these options and make informed decisions. She went on to express concern that the Green Paper proposes that parents will have the right to express a preference for any state funded school, including academies and free schools, but does not seem to extend this right to non-maintained and independent special schools. Annette asked for clarification, as both non-maintained and independent special schools are usually funded by local authorities rather than parental placements, which means that in legal terms they are similar to academies and free schools and have less in common with the mainstream independent sector.
Annette conferred a number of the concerns of the sector, including the worry that assumptions are being made that non-maintained and independent special school placements are always more expensive than similar placements in the maintained sector. She asked the Minister to commission research on the cost of placements in the non-maintained and maintained special school sectors, to ensure value for money and a level playing field between the non-maintained and maintained special school sectors.
Annette asked for "assurances that the excellent specialist provision that the sector provides for some of the most complex children is recognised and is not hindered, and that there will be a level playing field in which such schools can operate."
The Minister informed Annette that the Department "is out to consultation until about mid-October and we encourage those in the sector to submit what evidence they have about costs and to say whether full costs are being taken into account. Such evidence would be very useful when we are considering what we do with pupils."
She also acknowledged that independent and non-maintained schools are an established part of the landscape of special educational needs provision in this country and that they form an integral part of the diverse range of schools the Government want to establish, in order to improve choice for parents and support for children and young people.
To read the full debate visit http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110906/halltext/110906h0002.htm#11090647000495