Children with SEND: Assessments and Support

Jamie Stone Excerpts

Monday 15th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Helen Hayes]

My speech will turn to some of the points that the hon. Member raised. I will not give way to further interventions, because many Members want to speak and it would eat into their time.

The Committee spent eight months examining evidence and hearing in person from a wide range of witnesses, including children and young people with SEND. I put on record my thanks to every person who took the time to submit evidence or who gave evidence to us in person. We also travelled to Ontario in Canada and within the UK to look at examples of good practice. We will publish our report later this week, so I cannot speak about its content today, but I am very much looking forward to sharing it with everybody.

I began the inquiry with only a sense of the overwhelming difficulty of the challenge, but at the end of it I am convinced that meaningful reform of the SEND system is possible and deliverable.

[Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)]

Will the hon. Member give way?

[Helen Hayes]

I will not give way again because of the time constraints.

I will point to a few of the big themes that came through in our evidence, to which our report will speak. There are major problems with accountability in the SEND system. Accountability is overwhelmingly loaded on to the statutory part of the system, which means that if ordinarily available provision is not there or goes wrong, there is no recourse for parents. That problem needs to be fixed.

There is a problem with how we equip teachers. There are children with SEND in every single school, in every classroom, up and down the country, but we do not routinely equip teachers to teach the children who are in front of them. The funding system is broken. There are problems about place planning, both in the inclusivity of mainstream schools and for specialist schools within the state sector.

Most importantly, the trust and confidence of parents in the system is utterly broken. In seeking to solve the crisis, the Government must turn their attention to the ways in which that trust and confidence can be rebuilt, so that children across the country who deserve far better than they get at the moment can access the education to which they are entitled.

--- Later in debate ---

[Paul Davies]

You put it very eloquently. I absolutely agree with you, and that is crucial within the teaching profession. I am sure it would have 100% support from the professional bodies.

It is good to see the Government engaging directly with families, educators and experts ahead of the schools White Paper this autumn. That will help to ensure that we shape reforms that deliver better and more relevant outcomes for families and children.

In Kirklees, we are making real strides in supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. The mainstream school clusters are fostering collaboration and early intervention, and as many people have mentioned, early intervention is crucial. Those developments not only reflect the council’s commitment to inclusive education, but will also reduce reliance on costly independent placements, ensuring that every child in Kirklees has the opportunity to thrive. So let us keep pushing this forward. Let us ensure that every child in Kirklees and across the country has the chance to succeed—

[Jamie Stone]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Paul Davies]

I am just about to finish, but go on.

[Jamie Stone]

I intervene on a Welshman as a Scotsman. We have the same problems in Scotland. You only have to look at the map of the constituencies in Scotland. Would the hon. Member agree that whatever way forward the Government establish, it would be best for it to be shared with the Scottish Government?

[Paul Davies]

I absolutely agree. This cannot be one part of the UK, one region or one city; it has to be across the UK. We have to see every child have that opportunity. I completely agree with you.

This is about us working together. It is about collaboration. It is very much about how, together, we can build a system that works for everyone.