Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Andrew Cooper Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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Catherine McKinnell
The hon. Gentleman is right that the solution to many of these challenges is to create inclusive mainstream education in every community, so that every child can benefit from it and thrive.
Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)
Parents want the best for their children, schools want to deliver the best for their children and local authorities want to provide the best for their children, but the system sets everybody up to fail. It is adversarial instead of being person-centred, and it actively incentivises bad outcomes. I am pleased to hear the Minister say that we need to rebuild the system from the ground up, but does she agree that that needs to go hand in hand with rebuilding child and adolescent mental health services and improving the speed of diagnosis for autism and ADHD? Will she commit to working with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to help deliver that?
Catherine McKinnell
My hon. Friend makes the case very well. I agree that we need to work at pace to improve the mental health support available for young people, to improve the availability of educational psychologists and to work across government, including with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care, to ensure that we are unlocking opportunity for all.
Government’s Childcare Expansion
Andrew Cooper Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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Stephen Morgan
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. We are reviewing the early years SEND funding arrangements to ensure that they are suitable for supporting the needs of children with SEND. For children with more complex needs and an education, health and care plan, funding is available via the high needs block of the dedicated schools grant. Local authorities should have SEND inclusion funding for children with low and emerging needs. Disability access funding is also designed to support disabled children’s access to entitlements.
Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)
We can probably all agree that every child should have the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of their background and circumstances, who they know and where they come from. None of that should shape people’s lives more than their talent, creativity or determination. I welcome the emphasis on the importance of early years provision. Particularly in these years after the pandemic, measures such as early speech and language interventions can make all the difference. Does the Minister agree that now is the time to take early years provision seriously?
Stephen Morgan
I thank my hon. Friend for his question; he is absolutely right. The pandemic had a huge impact on children’s lives, and our investment in early interventions around speech and language is absolutely key. I look forward to working with him to deliver that successfully in his constituency.