Daisy Cooper

Let me start with huge congratulations to Save Our Children’s Rights on securing more than 120,000 signatures. I was pleased to see that Special Needs Jungle is one of the organisations supporting the campaign; its co-director is one of my constituents. Children in Hertfordshire suffered a double whammy under the Conservatives. The Conservatives had a broken funding formula that they refused to fix, which meant that children in Hertfordshire were short-changed, and the former Conservative administration at Hertfordshire county council was rated by Ofsted as one of the worst in the country. I am pleased to say that the Liberal Democrats have taken control of Hertfordshire county council, and our new leader’s very first announcement was on the creation of a SEND summit. That summit took place this morning. Ahead of it, there was a SEND listening survey, and 130 people attended community engagement events, because we Liberal Democrats know that the voices of children, parents, carers and teachers must be at the heart of any reforms. Political will at the local level goes some way, but of course we require the Government to act as well. Hertfordshire faces a number of challenges, which are not inconsiderable. Due to the various reforms under way by the Labour Government, we are facing a move to one or a number of unitary authorities; there is a reorganisation of our health body, the integrated care board; and the so-called fairer funding review could see the loss of up to £54 million by 2028-29. Our SEND budgets have necessarily been overspent for the last number of years, with an accounting tool used to keep the deficit off the balance sheet, but that tool is set to expire in May 2026. Hertfordshire is still under an improvement notice. It was due a monitoring visit, but that has been delayed, awaiting the Government’s national announcement. These top-down reforms are taking up valuable political oxygen among the political leadership and the senior leadership team at the council, taking them away from helping families. The drip-feeding of information on the changes the Government are considering is causing enormous anxiety, too. Children, parents, carers and teachers cannot wait any more. As many other hon. Members have said, they are at breaking point. Please, we need action.