Lola McEvoy

The system facing children with additional needs and their parents is badly broken. I have heard truly horrific stories of deep failures of duty to vulnerable children. Many hon. Members have covered the same points, so I will use my limited time to outline the reforms that parents at my Darlington SEND surgeries want, and which I support. First, we should educate all school staff to improve the understanding of children’s needs by everyone who supports them. Secondly, we should improve physical environments in all schools—it is cheap, hurts no one, and dramatically improves some children’s ability to attend mainstream. Thirdly, we should stagger play times and break times, increase exercise, and stagger start and finish times. Fourthly, we should introduce a statutory SENCO-to-child ratio. SENCOs need to be full time. It is for the birds that somebody can go back into the classroom, cover supply, and also do the role of a SENCO in the current conditions. Some schools need more than one; it needs to be a SENCO-to-child ratio based on need. Fifthly, mainstream with some easy estate improvements works really well at primary level. Mount Pleasant school in Darlington is a great example where all pupils are excelling because of an inclusive mainstream provision and culture. Sixthly, the transition between primary and secondary is in desperate, acute need of attention. It is where children who survived or thrived in primary are hitting crisis and dropping out of school altogether. Seventhly, this is not just about children; many parents are having to drop out of the workforce as a consequence of having to meet their children’s needs. They are exhausted and burnt out as a result of an adversarial, burden-laden system that is failing them. I cannot finish the rest of my list because of time.