Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Douglas Carswell and Sarah Teather

Monday 11th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con)]

T6. The policy of enforced inclusion pursued under Governments of both parties has played havoc with children with special educational needs in my part of Essex. It has meant the closure of special schools, increased pressure on mainstream schools, and pressure on remaining places in the special schools system. Can the Minister promise that under the review inclusion will be made a matter of parental choice, not an outcome arrived at through bureaucratic stalling and bullying?

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)]

Parental choice is absolutely at the heart of the themes of the Green Paper. It is essential that we try to come to decisions about a child’s future based not only on their disability but on understanding the particular needs of the child. Two children with the same disability may have very different circumstances and need different educational provision.