Warinder Juss

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the 123 constituents in my constituency of Wolverhampton West who have signed this petition for support for children with SEND. In Wolverhampton, nearly one in five is currently receiving SEND support or has an education, health and care plan, and that number is continuously increasing. We need the infrastructure and investment in place so that every child has the opportunity that they deserve to thrive in our country. Too many of our children are being let down. They are often waiting months or years to get the support that they need and they are stuck in an over-bureaucratic system. I welcome the Government’s extra £1 billion of funding. In my city of Wolverhampton, we are receiving £2.7 million of that funding. But the funding needs to go further and the money needs to be used in an efficient way. We need to reform an outdated system for SEND, so that parents and children are the ones kept at the heart of the debate. I often hear teachers say that they would rather have the money given to the school than to private providers, so that they could provide the provision that the children need. One of the major complaints that I receive is about a total lack of transparency and accountability in the provision of SEND support. It has already been mentioned that we need there to be early intervention. We need to provide support before students reach a crisis point. There should be a legal requirement for each school to have a dedicated SENCO, and SEND education needs to be mandatory as part of teacher training.